Great Engine Swap! The 5 Fastest Ways To Hit 88MPH In Your DeLorean

I’m not sure what made the DeLorean a vehicle of such historical significance. Sure, we could attribute some of the blame to the Back To The Future movie franchise, but the hedonist in me would like to believe that the car remains so infamous thanks to the stories surrounding the company’s spectacular dissolution - a story far greater than any Hollywood blockbuster, involving the company’s namesake John Z DeLorean seeking a tax haven in Ireland, and allegedly trying to float the failing company by importing obscene amounts of Columbian marching powder. 

Rumors swirl that DeLorean’s original vision for the car was to have a mid-mounted Wankel rotary engine, but the car would eventually go to market with a V6 engine (this sounds like a Zoom Magazine ‘Top Ten Worst Engine Conversions shortlist) - a driveline that the car’s stratospheric fame quickly left behind.

It should come as no surprise then, that enthusiasts around the world have shoehorned any number of different engines into the DeLorean chassis, constantly seeking a powerplant that does the iconic stainless steel movie star some justice.

Here are a few of our favourites:

LSx ENGINES

The ‘LS the world’ crowd truly will stop at nothing until the General’s favourite V8 has found its way into every make and model on the planet, so it should come as no surprise that LS-swapping Deloreans is a popular option. 

LS1s, LS3s and even a twin turbo LSX like @salvagetosavage’s Instagram-famous wild wide body Delorean. The LS engines fit nicely in the Delorean’s rear engine bay, and the swap is so popular that aftermarket companies supply kits to help with the conversion.

K-SERIES HONDA

Another engine the internet fawns over, of course we were going to see Honda’s ear-bashing four-pot shoved into a Delorean. Midwest Delorean actually make a kit to assist with the conversion, and while an N/A K series would probably be about as fun as the Delorean’s original (and unanimously despised) V6 engine, @time_run_delorean’s K series with a giant war whistle wins our approval, and the internet, for today.

KIA STINGER V6

The Kia Stinger twin turbo V6 engine might be one of the most slept-on engine conversions on the market today - a fact we’re assured of when we look at just how well it fits into the engine bay of a DMC-12. 3.3L, dual overhead cam and two spooly boys make the Korean six-piston screamer music to our ears. The tweaked version in this Delorean boasts a billet intake manifold and custom intercoolers makes 630hp at the treads, and claims to be the world’s most powerful Delorean.

BUICK V6

Aspiring young burnout competitors around the country have entered the chat! You read right, someone thought the Buick V6 - granted, the turbocharged Buick Grand National version and not the limiter bashing aspo’ version - would be a good fit for John Delorean’s love letter to the 80s. The car appeared on the Monster Garage TV show in the early 2000s and, until the South Korean-powered savage came along, held the title for the world’s most powerful Delorean, spitting out a time-stopping 570hp thanks to a fully-built engine and twin turbos. 

ELECTRIC MOTORS

I suppose it’s only fitting, given the technology that Doc managed to cram in to the famous BTTF Delorean that in 2023 you can ditch the ICE engine and go full electric - maybe not a whole Gigawatt, but if it’s anything less, then someone from the marketing department missed some low-hanging fruit. 

The new Delorean (yep, Google it) is rumoured to be all-electric, but of the handful of EV-converted DMC-12s we could find on the internet, Ampere EV’s version seems to be the most likely to ever be scaled into production.