DeLorean Time Machine

Step back in time and into the world of movie magic with an incredible collection of screen-used and replica movie cars—including a remarkably accurate DeLorean Time Machine from Back to the Future. We visit British Columbia DeLorean Time Machine and Other Movie Cars where Brandon Mindel and his father, Kevin, have assembled an extraordinary collection of more than 70 movie and television cars, with the DeLorean Time Machine being the first. Built by Bruce Coulombe of Coulombe Enterprises in Florida, this stunning replica captures the look and details of Doc Brown’s legendary time machine.

Transcript:

OPENING

And then, yeah, so I’ve already put in October 21st, 2015. Our present time is here, August 24th. And then we’ll do another Back to the Future destination. So we’ll go to October 26th, 1985, at 1:24 a.m. That is when Marty travels back to save Doc at the end of the first movie.

Hi folks, and welcome to Center Lane. I’m Bruce Hitchen. Today we’re at the home of Brandon and Kevin Mindel. Brandon and Kevin have assembled an incredible collection of movie cars, including both screen-used and replica vehicles, and there are a tremendous number of them here. We’ll take a quick look at some of those cars, but today we’re going to focus on this gorgeous DeLorean Time Machine. The Time Machine was the first movie car in Brandon and Kevin’s collection. Brandon is a huge movie buff and has also put together an impressive collection of movie memorabilia. We’ll take a look at that, tour this incredible shop, and see some of the other Back to the Future cars in the collection. Now, let’s talk to Brandon.

HOW THE COLLECTION STARTED

Well, the truth is, my dad, Kevin, is a child of the ‘80s. Growing up, he always wanted to have a car collection. It actually started with a family car—a 1965 Pontiac Parisienne that my great aunt bought brand new off the lot in 1965. It has been in our family ever since, and it’s in the garage next door. So, we were always a family that had a car collection. My dad slowly grew his collection over the years, and then one day he thought, “How cool would it be to have a Time Machine from Back to the Future in the collection?”

Around the same time, I was thinking about getting married. I had met my now-wife, Renee, and Back to the Future is my favorite movie of all time. I was actually looking into renting a Time Machine because they’re available for big events. So, while I was looking for one and my dad was thinking about expanding his collection, he decided, “You know what? I’m finally going to get a Time Machine built for the collection.” One day he came to me and said, “Hey, I found a DeLorean, and I found a guy down in Florida, Bruce Coulombe, who builds DeLoreans into Time Machines. We’re getting it made, and it’s going to be ready in time for the wedding.” I was floored. My favorite movie of all time, and our family was going to own a Time Machine—and we were going to have it at the wedding. After the ceremony, my wife and I got to sit in the car and drive away from the ceremony in it.

But all of that led to the guy who built our car. He also had a Jurassic Park Jeep that he was looking to sell. We thought, “We have one movie car. Why don’t we get a second movie car? It’s just a Jurassic Park Jeep. It’s basically a stock Jeep with a decal and some paint.” Then we had two movie cars. We thought, “There’s only one other movie car in Jurassic Park—the Ford Explorer.” So, we had to find a Ford Explorer. Then we had three movie cars. From that point, it completely snowballed out of control. We built garages, found movie cars, and built movie cars with our partners at Stones Speed Shop. Six years later, we’re actually over 70 movie cars in the collection now. And it’s just growing and growing.

I always say my dad’s the car guy. I’m the movie guy, and that’s why we started doing this. My dad loves cars and appreciates cars, but he also likes movies—maybe not to the obsessive level that I do. It was also something we found to do during the pandemic. When everything was shut down, there wasn’t really anything else to do. We were here on this property building buildings and getting excited about finding specific cars, doing the research, and building these vehicles.

BUILDING THE DELOREAN TIME MACHINE

Nothing can be 100 percent screen accurate because even in the first Back to the Future movie, there were two and a half cars made, and there were differences between the two complete cars that were built for the movie. So, even if you’re trying to match a specific car from Back to the Future 100 percent, there are differences between the cars seen in the movie. I’d confidently say ours is about 99 percent accurate, but there are differences. For the most part, everything you see visually is accurate to the movie—the time bands, the wiring, the flux capacitor, and the Mr. Fusion on the back. Some of the components are made from the exact same pieces that were used in the movie.

For example, the plutonium chamber is actually a hubcap from, I believe, a 1967 truck. This is all the time-travel and science-fiction equipment on the back of the car—the vents and everything else. And this is the hubcap I was referring to. This is a real truck hubcap, and it’s the same type of hubcap they used for the original prop. If I take this off and lift this flap down, you can see it’s just a real hubcap that’s been painted black. But it’s the same type of piece they would have used for the original prop. Just behind it are these two little black tanks, which are actually helicopter oil tanks. Those are extremely rare and hard to find, so ours are replicas of the original tanks.

The entire car was famously built out of found parts and pieces by the movie’s props department. Our car is built using a combination of the same parts and pieces, along with replicas of those original components. So, it looks like a Time Machine. It’s undeniably a Time Machine.

It started out as a private collector piece. This is all part of our private collection. We try to make as many public appearances as possible. We do car shows, conventions and corporate events. We just try to show it as much as possible. We also have a new showroom here in Chilliwack at Stones Speed Shop, which is our partner. They do all the work on our cars, including maintenance and building the vehicles. They have a showroom and display space where we’re now rotating our collection every three months. Eventually, the Time Machine will be on display there. We’re just trying to get it out there as much as possible. But ultimately, it’s a hobby. It’s something my dad and I do for fun, so we want it to stay fun.

BACK TO THE FUTURE — 40TH ANNIVERSARY

Last year, we had the opportunity to take our car all the way down to Los Angeles and visit some of the filming locations from Back to the Future because it was the 40th anniversary of the movie. There was a huge, week-long fan event that allowed us to take the car to some of those filming locations. One of the big ones was Puente Hills Mall. That’s the mall where Doc Brown rolls the Time Machine out of his work van.

“When this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you’re going to see some serious [expletive].”

“Watch this. Watch this.”

“What did I tell you? 88 miles per hour.”

THE BACK TO THE FUTURE VEHICLES

So, this is the ‘85 Toyota pickup truck. We call it the Dream Truck. This is obviously the one Marty sees. “Check out that 4x4. That is hot.” It’s a very clean ‘85. This is the little yellow Biff’s Automotive Detailing truck. Ours is built from a Ford Courier. There’s a debate online about whether the truck in the movie was a Ford Courier or a Mazda because they were essentially the same vehicle. In the movie, the front of the truck isn’t visible, so you can’t identify the badge or the headlights. The tailgate is also flipped down, so you can’t see the lettering that would tell you whether it was a Mazda or a Ford. Everything visible in the movie points to one of those two trucks. Ours is built from a Ford Courier.

This is Biff’s ‘46 Ford. This is the car Biff and his gang are driving when they chase Marty on his skateboard through Hill Valley. It’s the car that famously crashes into the manure truck, covering Biff and the gang in manure.

This is the latest addition to our Back to the Future vehicle collection. This is a Packard. We found it and had it repainted at Stones Speed Shop. They also did the interior to match the movie. This is the car that Marty drives Lorraine to the dance in, and it’s also the car that George punches Biff in front of.

Our focus is Back to the Future, but that doesn’t mean all of these cars go to every event. Again, it’s our private collection. We just enjoy building it, and it’s a fun project. But if a big Back to the Future event comes up, we’ll bring all five of them down. It would be awesome to have them all together on display for people to see.

JOHNNY CARSON’S DELOREAN

We had the Time Machine first, and then we always thought it would be cool to own a second DeLorean so we could park them next to each other. So many people don’t even realize that the DeLorean is a real car. Their only frame of reference might be the Time Machine from Back to the Future. They don’t know the history of the DeLorean Motor Company, John DeLorean, his departure from General Motors, the stainless-steel construction, or the fact that the cars were built in Ireland. There’s an incredible story surrounding the DeLorean Motor Company and John DeLorean, but some people simply think it’s a science-fiction car that was built specifically for Back to the Future.

We always thought it would be cool to have a Time Machine and a stock DeLorean parked next to each other so people could see what the movie added to—and even took away from—the original car. It was always in the back of our minds that if a DeLorean came up for sale at a reasonable price and in good condition, we’d consider adding it to the collection.

Then a very famous DeLorean came up for sale. It was Johnny Carson’s DeLorean. Not only is it famous because it belonged to Johnny Carson, the host of The Tonight Show, but Carson was also the first celebrity investor in the DeLorean Motor Company. He invested $500,000 in 1977, which was a tremendous amount of money at the time. As part of that investment, he received a company car.

The first company car he received was delivered on the night of the gala, and he was able to drive it home. It broke down on the way. They gave him a replacement car, but the second car eventually had a problem with the gullwing doors. Apparently, he had to be cut out of the car. So, he received a third replacement car, and that car needed to be perfect. That’s the car we ended up buying.

This is Johnny Carson’s DeLorean. It was his company car after he invested $500,000 in the DeLorean Motor Company. This was his third company car. It’s the car he drove to and from Burbank Studios—now Warner Bros. Studios—for The Tonight Show. It’s also the car he famously received a DUI while driving. He was pulled over for having expired tags and had been drinking.

This is original DeLorean Motor Company paperwork, specifically the VIN list for all of the company cars. On the front page, you can see the two DeLoreans that John DeLorean had himself. If we turn to these other pages, we can see the list of outside directors and VIPs. There’s number 4523 for J. Carson. And that is this car right here—VIN number 4523.

THE HILL VALLEY MODEL AND MEMORABILIA

This is my model of Hill Valley. Please excuse the crudity of the model. I didn’t have time to build it to scale or paint it. But this is the model that Doc Brown builds to show Marty how they’re going to harness the lightning strike and feed it directly into the flux capacitor to send Marty back to 1985.

The vast majority of the props, toys and collectibles are things I’ve collected since before we even got into the movie-car world. Like I said, Back to the Future is my favorite movie of all time, so I’ve always collected Back to the Future memorabilia. Then we started building this garage and putting the DeLorean Time Machine together. That gave us a space to display the collection and a reason to focus on collecting more items.

We don’t own a lot of screen-used props. Those are really hard to come by, and they can be very expensive. They are out there. There are lots of prop-house auctions selling that kind of stuff, and it’s cool to look at. I love looking at it. But what I really like to find are the exact same items that were used in the movie. Instead of paying $100,000 for something that was actually used on screen, I’ll find the exact same item for $10 because it’s the same red car they used on the town model.

I recently tracked down the little 1950s tin Cadillac toy car—the same model they used—but it’s not the actual one from the movie. Those are the kinds of things I really like to find: identifying the same pieces you see in the movie and then finding a less expensive version that looks exactly like the one on screen.

MOVIES, PHYSICAL MEDIA AND THE BLOCKBUSTER

I love movies, as I’ve said. A big part of the nostalgia surrounding movie cars is the era of video rental. It was a time when everybody was at home, and home video allowed us to watch these movies over and over again. That led to our obsession, our fandom and our love for movies like Back to the Future, Ghostbusters and Jurassic Park.

I’ve always had video-related memorabilia in the garage. I’m also a huge physical-media collector. I always say that’s my primary collection. As much as I collect all these toys and other things from movies, my main collection is movies—VHS tapes, Blu-rays, 4Ks, DVDs, records, and all that physical media. I’ve always had a big collection of it.

When we expanded this garage, there was a little hallway in the back that wasn’t quite big enough to park cars in. We knew we could put some of the movie bikes we’d been building back there, but there was still a section at the back that we didn’t need for the bikes. I thought, “It would be cool to custom-build some old-school Blockbuster-style white shelves and put the movies on them.” I could even go through the effort of taking the tapes, putting them in cases and printing custom Blockbuster labels.

Then my dad had the idea to open up one of the walls and install a glass storefront with a door. That gave us another entrance to that section of the garage, but it also created the storefront for our Blockbuster.

This is the Blockbuster Video we just built. Let’s go inside.

All of this was inspired because I’m a movie collector first and foremost, before the props and movie cars. We had this hallway space, and I thought it would be cool to have some video shelves so we could display the movies. Then it was my dad’s idea to put in the glass storefront.

Another shop we’re partnered with, Pinnacle Custom Cabinets, custom-built all of these shelves for us. They also built this inspired Blockbuster counter. Blockbuster counters had a very specific shape, and it turned out really well.

It’s a little bit small because we’re just in a hallway. It’s not a real Blockbuster, but I think the effect is there. We picked Blockbuster because it has some of the most universally recognizable colors. Everybody knows the yellow and blue of Blockbuster.

Again, going back to my collecting, I’ve been collecting movies, video-store stands and video-store posters simply because I love that stuff. Now I have a space to display all of it.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I can’t deny it. I’m incredibly grateful. I’m so thankful to my dad, who was able to provide all of this for our family, and I get to live out my dream of doing movie research.

I love getting into the smallest details. I’m happiest when I’m creating things, doing the research, and identifying specific pieces. When I have that moment where I realize, “Oh, I found it,” and everything matches up, it’s just the coolest feeling in the world.

Truthfully, I’m very fortunate that I’m able to spend all of this time doing it. So, I just have to thank my dad, obviously, for allowing that to happen.