Here’s one barn discovery that’ll take you back in time.
A 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 has been rediscovered after spending at least 20 years hidden away in a barn outside of Milwaukee, according to CBS 58. If that wasn’t intriguing enough, the stainless-steel sports car, which is famous for its role in the Back to the Future trilogy, only has 977 miles on the odometer.
The discovery was made by Michael McElhattan, the owner of DeLorean Midwest, a restoration shop located in Crystal Lake, Illinois. He told the station that he recently got a tip about the iconic vehicle from the original owner’s nephew, who told him the family was looking to sell. The possibility of acquiring a low-mileage DMC-12 was enough motivation to get McElhattan and his social media coordinator, Kevin Thompson, to make the drive north to Waukesha County in southern Wisconsin.
The trip proved to be well worth it. Once at the barn, McElhattan was greeted not just by a DeLorean with less than 1,000 miles on it, but one that still had all its original parts. What really seemed to please him was that the car had suffered “virtually no sun damage.” It wasn’t in pristine condition, though. In addition to decades worth of dust and grime. the car also came with a family of mice.
The DMC-12 may not have been driven much, but it sounds like its owner still enjoyed his time with the vehicle. “He said he would go out in the barn and just look at it because he thought it was a really cool car,” McElhattan told CBS 58.
It’s unclear how much McElhattan paid for the car, but regardless it could prove to be a shrewd investment. The DMC-12 was once viewed as one of the most notorious failures in automotive history, but it is now a revered collectible thanks to the Back to the Future movies. A Concours-quality example can fetch up to $100,000 these days, according to Autoblog, which is more than four times the original sticker price.
