Viewfinder: Time Traveling Wonders Grace The Boardwalk

“Great Scott!” shouted Dr. Emmett Brown from the giant inflatable screen at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk on Wednesday night. Brown being the famous scientist played by Christopher Lloyd in the film, Back to the Future.

His fluffy white hair and time traveling DeLorean DMC-12 are featured in the 1984 cult hit, which was the final film to be shown at the Boardwalk’s free movies on the Beach summer event.

But Dr. Brown’s modified time machine wasn’t the only 80’s icon to grace the Boardwalk that evening, for parked next to the Speed Bumps cars were 4 original 1981 DeLoreans—rare space ship looking sports cars owned by the Northern California DeLorean Owners Club.

“It was the movie that introduced me to the fact that the car was real, and the rest was history,” said DeLorean owner Eric Loria, who purchased his car the day after its creator, John DeLorean died.

“Every day since I was 10 years old I said that I was going to buy one of these. It took 25 years, but it finally happened” he laughed.  

The sleek stainless steel wonders sat landed 4-in-a-row from 4-11pm, their rear-engine chassis and gull wing doors drawing Boardwalk visitors by the hundreds to snap photos and to catch a glimpse of a rolling piece of automotive history.

“It’s a really fun idea to have the cars here,” said Joni Newman from Fremont, who was snapping a picture of her son, Andy, standing next to one of the cars.

Newman didn’t know that the movie was playing that night, but was pleasantly surprised to see 4 rare automobiles parked under Hurricane roller coaster.

The DMC-12 sports car was the only automobile that was produced by the DeLorean Motor Company, which manufactured the eye-grabbing marvels in 1981 and 1982. 9,000 of the cars were produced, and there are about 6,800 remaining.

The cars have gull-wing doors, rear engines, an unpainted stainless steel body, and a Peugeot Renault Volvo V6 engine that pushes about 130 horsepower stock.

Owner Loria’s car however, has been modified to run at about 220 horsepower, with a new exhaust system and a powerful cam.

“My favorite part has got to be the gull-wing doors, but the car is so much more than that. Where else are you going to find a rear engine, stainless steel body, gull-winged, fiberglass under bodied car?” said Loria, “There’s nothing else like it.”