When thinking of timeless pop culture icons, it is virtually impossible to exclude the legendary DeLorean DMC-12 from the list. It was an automobile borne from the desire to reach years ahead of everyone else, especially in the film trilogy “Back to the Future.” Countless TV shows and movies have even spun off from the man’s unique personality and perspectives. Well, the wild spirit has made a comeback with the DeLorean Alpha5. Created by DeLorean Motors Reimagined, it is a fusion of the forward-thinking concepts of the past along with car design trends within the past few decades.
Before we get started with the car, let’s introduce DeLorean Motors Reimagined first. This Texas-based company no longer has any connection to the esteemed late John DeLorean, although these people do own a restoration service company for old DMC-12s. It was bought out years ago and remade as a new company, only keeping the name for brand recall. It is led by its CEO Joost de Vries whose background we’ll explore later.
Photo: IGN
The DeLorean Alpha5 is a stunner, to say the least. The rumors regarding the vehicle have been spreading like wildfire as expected. These have only been affirmed by the prototype’s appearance in preparation for its reveal at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance car show this August 22. The event is considered to be one of the most exclusive automotive events in the world, only home to the rarest and most valuable machines.
As we can see in the photos, the DeLorean Alpha5 maintains the iconic gullwing doors of the original. Opening these up shows off the 4-seat design, somewhat akin to the failed concept car DMC-24 in the early 80s. That version went on to become the 1982 concept Lamborghini Marco Polo due to the financial issues the company was facing at the time when they couldn’t pay their designers.
Surprisingly, ItalDesign has accepted the job to craft this new version’s aesthetic given their brand’s rich-turned-rocky partnership history.
According to news sources, this vehicle will be able to achieve a 0-60mph time of 2.99 seconds due to its torquey electric motor and AWD configuration. It will keep going until its top speed of 155mph, with a stated range of 300 miles on a 100 kWh battery. There are also some whispers in the crowd that only 88 units will be available – although we’ll have to see how true all these statements are.
This hope of modern, high performance comes from the fact that the original in the 80s couldn’t go very quickly, thus leading to jokes about it never reaching the speeds it did in the movie (which was only 88mph).
The DeLorean Alpha5 isn’t the first concept to come out of the brand though – other Alphas have been teased in the past, but this is the closest we’ve gotten to a real production car.
Source: Kens5
Understandably, there have been a bit of issues and roadblocks regarding this one. CEO Joost de Vries, along with three other top management in the brand, actually used to be from Karma Automotive which is another EV brand. They have been accused of secretly stealing intellectual property in order to apply these principles to DeLorean Motor Reimagined, however, the accused have defended themselves with a recent statement. We’ll have to see how this all pans out.
Nonetheless, the DeLorean Alpha5 is a step in the right direction and production may begin as early as 2024. Stay tuned for more on our site.
