For more than 40 years, the DeLorean name has been tied to the idea of a car leaving the ground. Now, in one of those rare cases where pop culture and real life collide, DeLorean Motor Company is actually entering flying-car racing.
The company announced October 13 that it will compete in the Airspeeder International Series beginning in November, becoming the first American constructor in what organizers call the world’s first international racing series for electric flying cars. It is not a road-going DMC-12 with wings, but it may be the strangest thing to carry the DeLorean name since the original stainless-steel sports car disappeared in the early 1980s.
DeLorean Is Going Racing in the Sky
The new DeLorean Airspeeder Team will compete when the 2026–27 Airspeeder International Series begins in November. Instead of racing around a conventional circuit, teams will pilot electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft through three-dimensional courses defined electronically in the air.
For its first season, DeLorean will use Airspeeder’s standardized Mk3C aircraft, with the automaker responsible primarily for the machine’s visual identity. That means the first DeLorean flying racer will not technically be an aircraft engineered from scratch by the company. The relationship becomes more interesting in 2027–28, when DeLorean plans to take a greater role in developing its own racecraft.
The company says future aircraft will be developed with engineering students from American universities, including collaborators at UC Berkeley and Georgia Tech. Airspeeder sees the series as a laboratory for electric aviation in much the same way conventional racing has historically accelerated development in automobiles. DeLorean, meanwhile, gets a very public place to explore advanced electric propulsion without having to immediately produce a flying vehicle for ordinary customers.
The DeLorean Name Has Been Waiting for This
The irony is impossible to ignore. The original DeLorean DMC-12 was produced for only a few years, yet its starring role in Back to the Future transformed it into one of the most recognizable cars ever built. By the end of the film trilogy, the stainless-steel time machine was no longer limited to roads at all.
DeLorean is leaning directly into that association. Cameron Wynne, the company’s chief brand officer, said people have imagined a flying DeLorean for four decades and that the company decided it was time to stop merely imagining one. Airspeeder founder Matt Pearson went even further, describing DeLorean as the “original flying car brand.”
There is, of course, a major distinction between the movie fantasy and what will actually race. Airspeeders are essentially electric aircraft, not automobiles capable of driving down the highway before taking flight. Even so, attaching the DeLorean name to the project feels unusually appropriate. Few automotive brands have a stronger cultural connection to futuristic transportation, even if that reputation was created largely by Hollywood rather than the company itself.
Could This Lead to a Real Flying DeLorean?
For now, DeLorean is treating Airspeeder as both motorsport and research. The company says racing can help accelerate development of electric flight systems while providing experience with the safety, regulatory and compliance issues that will have to be solved before electric vertical-takeoff vehicles become a practical form of transportation.
DeLorean is not alone in looking toward the sky. Hyundai, Honda, Toyota and other major automotive manufacturers have invested in electric aircraft and advanced air-mobility projects, although most have concentrated on passenger transportation rather than racing. DeLorean’s approach is considerably more theatrical, but that may suit the company better than building another anonymous prototype.
The aircraft design, pilots and full sporting program are expected to be revealed before racing begins in November. DeLorean has not announced a road-going flying vehicle, and there is no reason yet to believe one is imminent. Still, after four decades of jokes about flux capacitors, 88 mph and cars that do not need roads, DeLorean has finally found a way to put its name on something that actually flies. That may be the most predictable strange thing the company could have done. Full Announcement
