Racing driver teases a front-engined DeLorean DMC-12

French professional racer Alexandre Claudin has teamed up with three tuners on a three-year-long project to squeeze an American V8 into the front end of a DeLorean DMC-12.

The technical specifications aren’t ready yet, but the car can already smoke its tires quite nicely thanks to a powerful Chevrolet LS V8 under the hood.

The original car is mid-engined and has six cylinders pumping out no more than 150 PS (148 hp / 110 kW). The crew that worked on this project had to redesign the entire chassis, create a new engine bay and reinforce the body in certain points. A body kit was devised specifically for the project, the cabin received its own roll cage, and the fancy gull-wing doors were allowed to stay as is.

The overall styling direction of the project leans towards Back to the Future, the movie trilogy that made the model famous in the first place. Found on the car are a flux capacitor and a hoverboard, and the beginning of the video shows the car being controlled remotely. Whether it was real or just a stunt remains unexplained.

California-based tuning house Otsuka Maxwell Design revealed another interesting DMC-12 conversion last month. The coupe received a 3.3-liter V6 from a Kia Stinger GT, boosted to deliver 630 PS (621 hp / 463 kW).