Delorean goes Baja-crazy with Omega 2040 concept

Delorean is working hard to re-establish and reinvent itself as something more than a sci-fi one-hit wonder, and along with its production Alpha5 electric performance coupe, it brought an ultra-futuristic Omega concept out to Pebble Beach.

The Alpha5 is a nice-looking machine with enough electric grunt to nail 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) in a hair under three seconds. With a battery capacity over 100 kWh and an estimated drag coefficient around 0.23, Delorean says it's good for more than 300 miles (483 km) on a charge.

Frankly, it looks nice enough but fairly ordinary – at least when those trademark gullwing doors aren't open. Realistically, that's probably an apt description of the 1980s-era DMC-12 as well, before it was jazzed up into an unforgettable 88-mph time machine in Back to the Future.

Now, Delorean has extended itself with a couple of new concepts for this year's Pebble Beach Concours D'elegance, the first in the form of a Plasmatail version of the Alpha5 that extends the coupe into a tidy-looking shooting brake sort of thing with some extra room on board for storage.

The Plasmatail is indeed slated for production, beginning in 2024. The Omega, on the other hand, is pure fun.

Rooted in Baja mysticism, the Omega is Delorean's idea of what its machines might look like in a mere 18 years. In the world of 2040, it seems drivers and passengers will be blinkered and prevented from looking sideways, as side windows are dispensed with. Perhaps it's a safety measure – an ingenious way of preventing drivers from being goaded into potentially-fatal drag races at the traffic lights with allegations that they're "chicken."

The iconic slatted rear window is reinterpreted as a series of rising hexagons, while the front of the car receives an odd loop of bodywork that would appear to combine with a set of glass-slash headlights to slice, dice and julienne hapless pedestrians. The chunky tires come from a universe where textured rubber is desirable up the sides of the exposed wheels, all the way to the hub.

The suspension lies flat and exposed, with no visible connection to the wheels. And the back end echoes the front, with wild finned glass taillights and a razor-thin loop of rear bodywork extending backward and potentially acting as somewhat of a spoiler. Mudguards and wheel arches are disregarded; perhaps mud will be a highly limited commodity by 2040, and fancy ladies will need to find other things to smear around their cucumber slices when the pampering hour is upon them.

Delorean has deemed the Omega 2040 concept worthy of advancing past the 3D render stage, going so far as to actually build a roller and wheel it out at Pebble Beach. Bless their cotton socks.

Source: Delorean