So… What Is It?

So… what is it?  What is it that makes people go so crazy when they see a DeLorean?

I took my car out today for a quiet drive on the morning of the Sunday of a long weekend.  I figured I would get some nice quiet roads, some cool country bends and twists and finally maybe end up at some ice cream stand in the middle of nowhere where I could take a pleasant break from the wheel and enjoy a nice ice cream cone in the hot magical August weather.Did I get that quiet time I was looking for?  Hell no!I got at least 87 thumbs up from bikers driving towards me and away in the distance of my rear view mirror.  At least 47 car drivers honking and giving me the thumbs up sign, and countless pedestrians/hikers stopping to take a second look and pointing as I drove past.  Regardless of some of the bikers prompting their passengers to look, and the glazed looks by some pillion passengers, the reaction was as insane as ever.  Some rather nubile-looking and very shapely pillion passengers were somehow unaware but yet in awe, while other more mature riders were just as awe-struck upon seeing a DeLorean meandering through the country roads with no concern for anyone or anything.So I said to myself, I said: “self,” I said, “why are soo many people soo blown away by a simple, solitary car?”  I couldn’t answer myself which is probably a good thing as I was approaching a set of traffic lights on the outskirts of a tiny town at the time and concentration is key when driving a DeLorean where anyone or everyone will almost attack you while asking about flux capacitors or time space continuums as you politely endeavour to drive through a one-horse town in the middle of nowhere.

So many people seem to want to say something to the driver of a DeLorean.  But why?  I don’t get it.  I know all the Back to the Future stuff, I get it.  I really do.  I love the movies too.  Seriously, I do.  But my car is not a Back to the Future car.  It is an almost stock DeLorean from waay before the movie was released.  Anyone who remembers the car from before the movie will probably appreciate my car as a DeLorean and not as a movie star.  And there are so many of those people out there too!!!  But why such a reaction?  Seriously, why?

Does any other early 80-s sports car get this much attention?  I suggest to you that the answer is no.  But why not? What is it that the DeLorean seems to bring out in people? Is it the cool sports car built by a former GM big shot who thumbed his nose at the GM establishment?  Is it the fact that it is an unusual car with stainless body panels and gullwing doors?  Is it the fact that they were produced for such a short time and are now so rare?  Or is it because it was the focus of one of the biggest movies in Hollywood history?

I don’t know the reason.  I wish I did.  It is sometimes a little tiring to have to give the usual smiling response, and the occasional explanation of what the car is, to other drivers at gas stations.  But at the end of it all, every time I take my DeLorean out for a drive, I know that I will get some sort of affirmation and confirmation that my little car is either cool, or awesome or just a beautiful machine.  I got all three this morning, and I drove home with a smile on my face!   And these observations are almost guaranteed whether or not people make comments on the presence or not of a flux capacitor!!!!!

Or as a trucker yelled at me last week from his waay high up open window to my little ticket booth passenger window; Hey man, does it have a flux Kapasit-tayter???

What the hell is a Kapasit-tayter???