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Hey all! So, I embarked on a very personal project to me, which was to make a Back to the Future, DeLorean time machine RC car.
So, a little background...
First off, I'm a huge Back to the Future fan. As a kid, I loved the movies, and they hit a sweet spot for me as a car guy, and also loved sci-fi and technology. When I was 10 (I'm 40 now), my dad worked for Universal Studios Florida, and bought my brother and I these beautiful, very nicely detailed BTTF RC cars. This was in the 90's, and these were toy grade cars, but they were actually quite performant. The biggest mistake my dad made, however, was that he gave these cars to a 10 and 7 yr old, and we subsequently destroyed them. Just rough play, not taking care of them, and they ended up in the trash before long.
As I got older and realized that I should have taken care of that car, that realization came after I could no longer get one. Jada toys now makes one, but it seems pretty poor quality, compared to what I had before. I did come across one on ebay that looks like the one I had, but the seller is asking $350 bucks for it. And that's for a car that runs on AA batteries, and is on pretty old tech at this point. I'm willing to spend some money on nostalgia, but not that much! Here is a link to his listing (as of March 2025). Also side note, even with the completion of my project that I describe below, I'm still willing to buy that original if anyone ever comes across one!
So, I set out to make my own BTTF RC car, using more modern RC tech. My approach was going to be to get an affordable drift car, and use the chassis, in combination with a 3D printed body, to make my rendition of my lost childhood car. So, the drift chassis I decided on was this one from Amazon. It was a reasonable price, and the right size for what I wanted to build.
This turned out to be a great find for the intended purpose, the drift truck drove great, handled well, especially with that gyro, and gave me a very versatile platform to work off of. Parts availability isn't great, but I figure I can adapt to that and deal with any issues as they arise.
The next step, was for the body. For this, I searched around to see if anyone had already created one, and came across this instructables article. This guy did a great job modeling the car, but his project was a bit different from mine. He went the route of harvesting the RC componentry from another car, and essentially 3D printed everything, including the chassis. Given that I was starting from an existing 4wd drift chassis, I pulled down just the stl files for the body and accessories, and got to measuring and modifying the parts in Tinkercad or Bambu Studio for my application. Most of the changes revolved around clearancing parts for my chassis, as well as for the steering to avoid contact with the body. Additionally, a lot of measuring and scaling of the parts was done to get it to fit the drift chassis correctly. I also modified his wheels, by removing his wheel hub and making a complete custom one to match the drift chassis 9mm hex and get the offset correct for the correct wheel and fender alignment.
As for modifications to the original chassis, they were extremely minimal. All I really had to do was swap the front and rear shock towers, which contain the body mounts, because the truck is taller in the front than the back, and the DeLorean is wedge shaped, so taller in the rear than the front. Luckily the mounting positions were nearly identical, so all it took was a quick swap, and very minor trimming on the rear to fit the front shock tower.
And with that, I got to printing! And here is the final result! After a bit of hand painting, and installing el wire to get the glow affect, I'm super happy with the way it came out. I consider this version of the body my prototype, as there are some updates and modifications that I would like to make to improve the design. Once I make those changes, I'll upload my model files for anyone else interested in this project. It's by no means perfect, and I'll likely remake the body at some point in the future and make those tweaks to get the body to line up better, and improve a few other things, but for now, I'm really happy with it, and it hits the nostalgia points that I needed. It also drives great, and handles beautifully for what it is. I only drive it indoors, as it's kind of a functional model for me, and I'm not looking to tear it up outside. I have my bashers for that! Anyway, enjoy!
So, a little background...
First off, I'm a huge Back to the Future fan. As a kid, I loved the movies, and they hit a sweet spot for me as a car guy, and also loved sci-fi and technology. When I was 10 (I'm 40 now), my dad worked for Universal Studios Florida, and bought my brother and I these beautiful, very nicely detailed BTTF RC cars. This was in the 90's, and these were toy grade cars, but they were actually quite performant. The biggest mistake my dad made, however, was that he gave these cars to a 10 and 7 yr old, and we subsequently destroyed them. Just rough play, not taking care of them, and they ended up in the trash before long.
As I got older and realized that I should have taken care of that car, that realization came after I could no longer get one. Jada toys now makes one, but it seems pretty poor quality, compared to what I had before. I did come across one on ebay that looks like the one I had, but the seller is asking $350 bucks for it. And that's for a car that runs on AA batteries, and is on pretty old tech at this point. I'm willing to spend some money on nostalgia, but not that much! Here is a link to his listing (as of March 2025). Also side note, even with the completion of my project that I describe below, I'm still willing to buy that original if anyone ever comes across one!
So, I set out to make my own BTTF RC car, using more modern RC tech. My approach was going to be to get an affordable drift car, and use the chassis, in combination with a 3D printed body, to make my rendition of my lost childhood car. So, the drift chassis I decided on was this one from Amazon. It was a reasonable price, and the right size for what I wanted to build.
This turned out to be a great find for the intended purpose, the drift truck drove great, handled well, especially with that gyro, and gave me a very versatile platform to work off of. Parts availability isn't great, but I figure I can adapt to that and deal with any issues as they arise.
The next step, was for the body. For this, I searched around to see if anyone had already created one, and came across this instructables article. This guy did a great job modeling the car, but his project was a bit different from mine. He went the route of harvesting the RC componentry from another car, and essentially 3D printed everything, including the chassis. Given that I was starting from an existing 4wd drift chassis, I pulled down just the stl files for the body and accessories, and got to measuring and modifying the parts in Tinkercad or Bambu Studio for my application. Most of the changes revolved around clearancing parts for my chassis, as well as for the steering to avoid contact with the body. Additionally, a lot of measuring and scaling of the parts was done to get it to fit the drift chassis correctly. I also modified his wheels, by removing his wheel hub and making a complete custom one to match the drift chassis 9mm hex and get the offset correct for the correct wheel and fender alignment.
As for modifications to the original chassis, they were extremely minimal. All I really had to do was swap the front and rear shock towers, which contain the body mounts, because the truck is taller in the front than the back, and the DeLorean is wedge shaped, so taller in the rear than the front. Luckily the mounting positions were nearly identical, so all it took was a quick swap, and very minor trimming on the rear to fit the front shock tower.
And with that, I got to printing! And here is the final result! After a bit of hand painting, and installing el wire to get the glow affect, I'm super happy with the way it came out. I consider this version of the body my prototype, as there are some updates and modifications that I would like to make to improve the design. Once I make those changes, I'll upload my model files for anyone else interested in this project. It's by no means perfect, and I'll likely remake the body at some point in the future and make those tweaks to get the body to line up better, and improve a few other things, but for now, I'm really happy with it, and it hits the nostalgia points that I needed. It also drives great, and handles beautifully for what it is. I only drive it indoors, as it's kind of a functional model for me, and I'm not looking to tear it up outside. I have my bashers for that! Anyway, enjoy!
. The El wire is very cool. I'm going to get this BTTF kit from AP plastics as well (also thanks to 
. 
Those blue lights are a great feature!!! 
