DeLorean Is Entering Flying-Car Racing, With A Giant Asterisk

Remember back in 2022 when DeLorean gave everyone a reason to get excited? The Alpha5 promised a return to production for the brand with massive gullwing doors and a body designed by Italdesign. Four years later, we're still waiting for that production-car comeback. In the meantime, DeLorean has found another way to get its name into headlines... It's going flying-car racing. This isn't April 1st, so no, we're not joking.

Before we dive into the whole airborne DeLorean promise, let's rehash the initial promise we're all still waiting on. The Alpha5 was slated to be an all-wheel-drive four-seater with an estimated 300-mile (483 km) range and a claimed 0-60 of just 2.99 seconds. The brand said we could expect the car in 2024. Obviously, that timing came and went and well now, evidently, it's time to look upwards for a functional DeLorean. Doc Brown would probably understand better than we do.

According to Airspeeder's announcement, the DeLorean Team will represent the United States when the 2026–27 International Series opens in November. The company is being introduced as the first American constructor in the championship. That objectively sounds pretty good, but then we get to the part about what DeLorean will actually race.

Rather than show up with its own in-house aircraft, it'll use the existing Airspeeder Mk3C. Next year will apparently be different, but let's circle back to that shortly. For the upcoming season, DeLorean will lead its own "design identity." In other words, its initial contribution will mostly be about how the aircraft looks and how the team presents itself. So, for now, this is more like a badge-engineered "car" than it is a DeLorean-engineered machine.

In fact, badge-engineered might be giving DeLorean a little too much credit — it's more like Photoshop. Compare the DeLorean pit-stop image with an earlier Airspeeder Team Australia photo (shown below), and you'll find the same crew in the same poses with the exact same background. For a brand whose promised car remains long overdue, recycling a photograph is a pretty bold way to sell us on something new. Hey, at least this "DeLorean" made it through post-production.

Airspeeder

The more substantial design work is scheduled for the following season. For 2027–28, DeLorean plans an aircraft designed with American university engineering students, including collaborators at UC Berkeley and Georgia Tech. The pilot lineup, aircraft design, and sporting program are still due for a reveal ahead of the opener next month.

The team plans to debut at the season opener in Adelaide this November, although a specific race date and venue remain unconfirmed publicly. That means we don't know when or where it will take place. For what it's worth, we hope it goes off without a hitch and sparks a wave of good PR for flying cars and DeLorean alike.