A MAN who collects DeLorean cars has transformed the classic Back To The Future vehicles into a monster truck, a limousine, a hovercraft, a convertible and a Time Machine Replica. Rich Weissensel, a software engineer, is fanatic about the two-door sports car and owns five custom creations – including a stretched DeLorean Limousine - and three stock DeLoreans. Rich has re-modeled the stainless-steel shape of the iconic cars into bizarre and brilliant automotive creations in an ongoing, 14-year series of projects. The projects started after Rich met the car's founder John DeLorean at the Cleveland DeLorean Car Show in 2000 and showed him some of his ideas and sketches. Rich from Chicago, Illinois, built a custom hovercraft using the stainless steel panels of the DeLorean and a hovercraft cushion which allows the DeLorean to float over any surface.
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 Hi, my name is Rich Wiesenthal and these are my DeLoreans.
00:17 From a limousine to a hovercraft and even a monster truck, Rich Wiesenthal has taken
00:22 his DeLorean obsession to a new level.
00:25 Crazy?
00:27 Absolutely.
00:28 I would say without a doubt, DeLorean crazy.
00:31 Rich from Chicago began creating his radical custom cars after meeting founder John DeLorean
00:38 14 years ago.
00:40 I met John DeLorean at one of the DeLorean car shows.
00:44 I showed him some of my sketches and I told him I'd like to build something like this
00:48 and probably thought I was a little bit crazy but he said if you think you can do it, go
00:52 for it.
00:53 Inspired, the 50 year old set about turning his creations into a reality.
00:58 Let's dance him with the biggest of them all.
01:00 This is my DeLorean monster truck and this is what it sounds like when I fire it up.
01:11 Even though it's pretty big, it actually only took me a month to build it.
01:15 Built it back in 2002 using a wrecked DeLorean and a wrecked K5 Blazer.
01:22 We married the two bodies together, body and chassis and we did some upgrades including
01:30 a 12 inch lift kit.
01:32 And the building didn't stop there as his new creations came in all shapes and sizes.
01:37 The DeLorean limousine is 26 feet long.
01:40 It's got three sets of gull wing doors so you have six fully operational gull wing doors
01:45 on there and that's never been attempted as far as I know on any kind of limousine.
01:51 Probably for good reason.
01:52 They're very difficult to try to get everything lined up exactly right.
01:57 He may be aggressive with his designs but Rich employs a code of conduct.
02:02 The DeLorean enthusiast will only use damaged cars for his creations.
02:06 I use them primarily because there were so few DeLoreans actually built that I do not
02:12 want to remove the good ones from the population.
02:16 So I wait until I get damaged cars and I use them for the projects as I come up with them.
02:24 As Rich drives his DeLorean into the distance, he's already planning his next amazing car
02:29 conversion.
02:30 My DeLorean projects are kind of like kids so it's difficult to pick a favorite.
02:37 I have so many different ideas for custom DeLoreans.
02:41 I'm not sure if time, money, or my eventual age will stop me from building them.
02:50 But as long as I'm able, I will continue to build them.
02:53 [Music]