"Yes...that car from Back to the Future."

"Back to the Future" celebrates its 25th Anniversary this year and the generation that embraced it now straddles in age between the mid-20s and mid-30s. With that coming age also comes a strange pop-culture redemption for the infinitely famous but ever elusive DeLorean DMC-12 sports car.

The revolutionary product of an automotive visionary became little more than a derided, broken dream by 1983 and John Z. DeLorean, victim of government entrapment and hard luck, never regained his reputation. The years immediately after were just as hard on the car itself. In 1984, the unique stainless steel vehicle was already an automotive orphan and dealerships were painting them any color they could to get them off their lots.

The only footnote was 1985, when Marty McFly found himself racing through time on the silver screen in a brushed silver DeLorean, converted into the iconic Time Machine by Dr. Emmett L. Brown. To adults, it was a nostalgic, rollicking comedy. To the youth of the 1980s, it was for many of us an introduction to the car that would capture our imagination for the rest of our lives.

Now, 25 years later, DeLoreans remain as elusive as ever and the generation that was captivated by them now has the buying power to claim them from generations past.

This blog isn't the story of a restoration (and to those who face such a journey with their DeLorean, I salute you), but rather a chronicle of what it's like (both mechanically and socially) to be a DeLorean owner and a member of the "Back to the Future Generation" at the height of Back to the Future nostalgia and DeLorean mania.  This is the story of DeLorean 6239 falling into the hands of a 30-year-old "Back to the Future" kid.

Hold on and have fun. We're about to hit 88 miles per hour...not that we'll ever know it because the DeLorean speedometer maxes out at 85 mph.

6239 and its pilot arrive at the Plaza Theatre in Atlanta for the screening of Back to the Future -- April 2010