DeLorean is heading into a very different kind of motorsport.
The company best known for its stainless-steel sports car and its starring role in Back to the Future announced Tuesday that it will field a team in the new Airspeeder International Series, becoming the first American constructor to participate in what organizers call the world's first racing championship for electric flying cars.
The DeLorean Airspeeder Team will make its racing debut when the 2026-27 season opens in November. During its first season, the team will compete in Airspeeder's standardized Mk3C electric race aircraft, distinguished by DeLorean-designed styling and branding. Beginning with the following 2027-28 season, DeLorean's role will expand beyond livery, with the company collaborating alongside engineering students from universities including UC Berkeley and Georgia Tech on the development of future race aircraft.
DeLorean
The new undertaking, announced at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, sends DeLorean an interesting new direction as the revived brand forges a path beyond stainless steel movie cars, even if it's still drawing inspiration from them. Since its relaunch, the automaker has focused mostly on electric mobility, and executives now see electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft as another space worth exploring.
"People have pictured a DeLorean in the sky for 40 years," Cameron Wynne, the company's chief brand officer, said. "We decided it was time to stop picturing it."
Airspeeder was founded by Australian entrepreneur Matt Pearson, who says he wants to do for electric flight what Formula 1 has done for automotive technology: accelerate development through competition. For this new race series, pilots fly electric aircraft through three-dimensional courses marked by virtual gates, using onboard sensors and collision-avoidance technology to compete at high speeds.
DeLorean
The hope is that some of the technology developed since Airspeeder's founding in 2016 and through racing will eventually contribute to advances in the air mobility industry, where companies from around the world are working to develop electric aircraft for passenger transport, emergency response, and cargo delivery.
DeLorean also joins a growing list of automakers who have dipped a wheel into aviation technologies. Hyundai, Toyota, Honda, and Stellantis have all invested in eVTOL startups or advanced air mobility projects in recent years, though most have focused on commercial aircraft rather than racing.
For DeLorean, however, the decision is as much about the future of the brand as the future of flight. It sees electric air racing as a chance to participate in the early development of what could become the next generation of mobility.
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