DeLorean Joins Airspeeder: A Flying Racer Before Tesla's Roadster

DeLorean is back in the spotlight, and this time the stainless-steel badge is headed skyward rather than down a highway. The company has signed on to field a DeLorean-branded eVTOL in Airspeeder’s racing series, a move that could put a flying DeLorean in competitive action while Tesla’s long-promised hovering Roadster remains a talking point.

Spec Chassis to Start — DeLorean’s entry will run the same Airspeeder Mk3C platform used by every other competitor in the series. Student-Designed Racer — For the 2027-28 season, the team is reportedly set to collaborate with engineering students from UC Berkeley and Georgia Tech on an all-new eVTOL racecraft. First International Season — Airspeeder is billing its upcoming campaign as its first international season, with DeLorean joining the grid as an American icon. A Name Built for Flying — Airspeeder founder and CEO Matt Pearson noted that the world knew what a flying DeLorean looked like long before anyone actually built one.

DeLorean’s return as an Airspeeder constructor is a curious collision of nostalgia and next-generation aviation. The brand remains inseparable from the gullwing doors and stainless body of the DMC-12 made famous by 1980s cinema, and that heritage gives a fledgling racing series instant recognition it could not buy through conventional marketing.

Yet the announcement also raises the obvious question of substance. Whether the DeLorean effort amounts to a genuine engineering program or a headline-generating stunt remains unclear. The Berkeley and Georgia Tech partnership for 2027-28, if it materializes, would give the project real technical grounding and offer students a rare route into eVTOL competition design.

There is a timing irony worth noting. The news lands as Tesla continues to chase the hovering capabilities promised for its delayed Roadster, an ambition widely linked to the flying DeLorean of film lore. For now, DeLorean can claim the airborne territory first — at least on paper — and Airspeeder gains a marquee name as it expands beyond its early footprint.