tainless-steel skin. Gullwing doors that open like rocket hatches. Sharp angles and low-slung styling. It's easy to see why some people believe that the De Lorean Motor Company's DMC-12 was built only as a prop for the "Back to the Future" movies, where it starred as the time machine. Travis Graham, 19, hopes his De Lorean Central site will show the world that the De Lorean is not only real, but really fun to drive.

In 1975, fresh from years of spectacular success at General Motors, renegade automaker John Zachary De Lorean founded the De Lorean Motor Company. Six years later, he introduced the world to the DMC-12 (popularly known as the De Lorean), a vehicle unlike any ever seen before. Its sleek design with stainless-steel body and V-6-powered performance drew plenty of attention, and initial sales were as fast as the car itself. But the car's higher-than-expected price and initial quality problems, combined with bad production decisions and scandal in De Lorean's personal life, soon sent the company into financial jeopardy. The De Lorean Motor Company shut its doors in October 1982 after producing fewer than 9,000 models — the dies used to make the DMC were dropped into the Atlantic Ocean, never to be used again.

Timeless Machine
"Like countless other people, I first learned of the De Lorean from watching 'Back to the Future' as a kid," says Graham, a resident of Franklin, Tenn., who studies engineering at Vanderbilt University. "I was heavily interested in cars at the time, but there was something special in my mind about this car. The De Lorean appealed to me because it was just so different from anything that I had ever seen." Graham bought his 1981 De Lorean two years ago to replace an ailing Jeep Cherokee. Now, the De Lorean is his only car, and even after two years of constant maintenance and care, it's still "just as fun to drive as the day I bought it," he says.

Despite the car's celebrity status, don't look for information on the adventures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown on the De Lorean Central site. Graham says he wanted to downplay the car's Hollywood fame: "There is much more to the car than its role as the 'time machine.'" Instead, he provides a comprehensive overview of the car, with specs and history. When he launched his site in October 1997, there were only a few Web sites dedicated to the unusual car. "I browsed these sites for hours," Graham recalls, "But was disappointed to discover that most of them contained identical or nearly identical information." With De Lorean Central, Graham adds a unique, personal touch with a photo tour of his own car, inside and out, and commentary on everything from the workings of the windows to the feel of the seats.

Turning Heads
The Web isn't the only place where Graham spreads the stainless-steel gospel. "Aside from the Internet, I can't begin to tell you how many heads the De Lorean turns," he says, adding that he spends a lot of time in gas stations and parking lots talking with interested people. "I know of no other car that can consistently provide the degree of enthusiasm that the De Lorean does."

Graham isn't holding his breath, though, for a long-rumored De Lorean revival. Graham says that the checkered past of De Lorean, the man and the company, might scare away investors in a new product. "If it is ever produced, I would love to see it," he says, but "I think that we will never see a new De Lorean car." In the meantime, though, Graham and his fellow De Lorean fans will keep driving the cars they love, drawing attention and proving that the De Lorean is more than just a piece of movie magic.

Reported by Nathan Alderman, cars.com

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HISTORY
Read Graham's history of John De Lorean and the car he created.

DOC'S BACK TO THE FUTURE DE LOREAN
Get up close to the most famous De Lorean.