Today, we’re going Back in Time (thanks Huey!) with this 1981 DeLorean DMC-12, owned by Andy Strano, formerly of Las Vegas, NV, but now of Minneapolis Minnesota. It’d be fun to say that Andy found the car in pieces near some railroad tracks and pieced it back together, but the reality is that he purchased it in near mint condition about five years ago from a fellow DMC enthusiast in Las Vegas. The odometer is sitting at just a hair over 53k, and other than some original parts that needed to be replaced, the car is near 100% stock… If you don’t pay attention to the flux capacitor and all the time machine stuff strategically strapped to it.
Andy’s love for the DeLorean began when he was ten years old and saw Back to the Future for the first time. After moving to Las Vegas many moons ago, he looked up the local DeLorean club and asked if he could hang out with them to learn more about the cars. The club, consisting of about four people at the time, welcomed him with open arms and invited him in.
With the fires stoked, Andy jumped in feet first and purchased his very first DMC. Single, renting and trying to finish his Masters Degree, Andy found himself sinking deeper and deeper into the money pit that a poorly maintained older car can become. No matter how much he loved the car, he had to make the tough decision to part with it, selling it to someone who had the ability to restore the car without the immense financial burden.
A few years passed, Andy got married, bought a house, started a family and with his Masters now secured started working as an elementary art teacher. With the life responsibilities out of the way, he found himself with some extra spending cash and a newly revived itch for another DeLorean. As if by magic, one of the original DMC club members reached out to Andy to ask if he’d be interested in acquiring another DMC. Andy, knowing the owner had meticulously cared for and maintained the car, jumped at the opportunity.
With one of the requirements met to build a time machine, Andy started working towards the second major requirement… Gathering the supplies needed to make it happen. He started out with two major goals in mind. The first, that the car not be permanently modified in a manner in which it could not be easily returned back to stock, and the second, that it be as close to movie accurate as the first would allow, financially minded of course. That’s right, for you purists out there, the car can be returned to 100% original with about a day’s worth of work, and no one would be the wiser that it was a time machine. We can hear the sighs of relief from here.
Andy gathered parts, started building pieces by hand, and eventually made a friend (whom looks very much like Doc himself) at a machine shop who was inspired by his goal of building a time machine. As time passed, the car slowly morphed into what you see here in the pictures. However, just like any work of art, it is never done in Andy’s eyes.
With the car just about complete, Andy had an idea to recoup some of his costs on building and maintaining the car. Starting with the idea to rent the car out for business events, birthday parties and more, he founded the Rent Delorean website (rdprod.wpengine.com). Reaching out to DeLorean owners and clubs all over the US, Andy built contacts with fellow DMC owners and worked with them to help provide DMCs for events.
Aggregating all of the interested and willing owners together to allow full coverage of the US means that whenever you need a time machine, you can get a time machine.
With lots of life changes behind him, Andy has recently set forth on a new adventure… a big move to the Twin Cities area of Minnesota with his wife and three sons. His oldest, three, refers to the DeLorean as “Dada Car”. The twins aren’t yet a year old, but we can only imagine the trouble the three of them will get into once they steal the keys to a time machine. Andy is hoping they become his future mechanics.
Andy’s newest endevor is to show Minnesota how fun it can be to own a Delorean as well as breath new life into the Delorean club here in Minnesota.
If you are looking for a Delorean at your event, check out some of the photos below and trust RentDelorean.com with turning a few heads at your event.
