We love the DeLorean. Who doesn’t love this car? People who want a back seat, that’s who. Now, even those Debbie Downers can love this gullwing wonder thanks to the monumental efforts of John Dore, who spent 10 years building the only known DeLorean 2+2 in existence. Yes, friends, you’re looking at a DeLorean with an actual, functional back seat; Stef Schrader over at Jalopnik has the neat scoop behind it and trust us – it is a very cool story.
Enjoy more DeLorean action:
At first glance, it looks like someone simply dropped some leather-covered cushions in the area where you’d usually find the flux capacitor, but that wouldn’t take much more than 10 minutes. This was 10 years in the making, because the whole back half of the car required modification to create a back seat that was actually a seat, and not just a raised shelf with some padding. That meant cutting a tub into the car’s fibreglass innards so a person could sit without folding their spine in two, which also meant relocating the DeLorean’s suspension bits to make room for it all. The solution came from a rear-engined Renault Alpine GTA, which donated its V6 along with the transmission, subframe, and suspension for the cause. We weren’t exaggerating when we said monumental.
That’s only the half of it. To avoid cutting up a perfectly good car on just a hunch it would work, Dore used a crashed body to experiment on. Once it was deemed possible, a custom chassis was made to bridge the Renault parts with the DeLorean’s underpinnings. The engine sits a little farther back, and all the electronics were moved rearward as well. Amazingly, this was all accomplished without stretching the wheelbase or messing with the car’s exterior at all.
Oh, and Dore also moved from Ireland – where the project started – to the United States during the build. Monumental effort? Herculean sounds a bit better to us. Yeah, there are a few trim pieces and polish work still remaining, but the car is fully functional and ready for adventure.
At this point, you might be asking yourself why anyone would undertake such an effort. Sure, DeLoreans are cool to look at and neat to drive, and they are forever branded into 1980’s pop culture thanks to a certain time-traveling Hollywood trilogy. But why go through so much trouble just to create two more seats?
Simple – so his kids could be part of the adventure, too. Jump over to Jalopnik for the details on this epic automotive dad and his noble project. It’s definitely worth the read.
Source: Jalopnik
Gallery: Four-Seat DeLorean