DMC-12 Back to the Future

[Ryokeen]

Hello everyone,

As i'm kinda done with the exterior, cable management and stuck with the interior progress i'll just show what i got after around 4 months of work.

I admit i took some inspiration from a moc on rebrickable from Mr.Platinum. I bought his instructions and asked if i could use some smaller parts like the idea how he did the back light so that's fine.

It all started when i was a kid, watching that movie, loving the car and having lego :D and now that i'm older, the parts exists and i have the money i thought, yea let's build a DMC time machine.
After gathering reference material and starting on a digital model my goals where set.

• Make it rc
• 4 speed gearbox
• Some light effects
• realistic interior
• Gullwing doors
• Hiding the electronic components
• Steering wheel should turn
• Possible leave it without motors as a display model

So far i've more or less hit all my goals. Functional satisfied, aesthetically...to many cables. Since i wanted to maybe drive it a bit:

• Gearbox and lighting is remote controlled
• Lighting has 4 modes, off, only head/backlights, BTTF lights and both on.
• Ackermann steering geometry
• Independent suspension front and read

The rc components components are similar to my tropy truck, but here i use a 540 80t brushed motor and 2 geek servos. One for steering, one for the gearbox.

Full bircksafe gallery:

DMC-12

Spoiler

 

Hood can be opened and offers place for a lipo:

 

First i started with building a normal stock DMC-12 so see if everything will fit and to make sure the base body looks good. Also i wasn't sure how to do the planned light effects back then.

I tried to somehow mimic the layout of the original car and managed to place the motor above the rear axle. Sadly because gearboxes with lego parts are kinda clumsy i had to place that somewhere else.
I thought about a few gearboxes but then just went for a linear layout hidden in the area between the seats.

Spoiler

There you can see the gearbox. Motor comes on the upper lane, output back to the rear axle on the lower lane.
Also fir this model i did not use hubs with ball bearings. The front hubs are only lubed and use some low friction teflon tape which also redeuced slack quite a bit.
At the rear axle i use lubed turntables.

That also gave me space behind the seats to hide the esc, cables and the receiver. Also it served well as a reinforcement for the whole chassis as cars with gullwing doors have a problem to use the roof for stability, at least lego build ones.

The real challenge started with the bodywork, especially the hood area, the doors, and the side area around the doors. I first tried to use panels but i didn't like how they were curved and the angles they gave me, also the bigger light blueish grey panels are quite expensive. So i made a rather complex structure to mimic the curvature from top to bottom and the front/back steep angles of the doors. From the shape itself i'm satisfied even though it's not as watertight as some other areas and resulted in quite heavy doors. That's also the reason why they lack a inner covering.
But the gullwing doors are stable and with the help of some old lego dampeners(the transparent ones) they stay close and open smooth. The dampeners are placed left and right behind the back wheel arches.

Making a time machine out of a Delorean

 

Apart from all the sifi stuff in the back portion of the car a truly important feature, at least for me, was a lit flux capacitor and the blue light around the car during a time jump. The interior is still not fully finished, since i can't decide whether to go more in a modelling direction or just vaguely hint stuff.

Flux Capacitor

As i could not 3D print anything it was quite a challenge to make one that looks good enough and is actually lit. EL-Wires where one candidate but for that i would have needed a seperate inverter and those are not small nor quiet.
So i went for optical fibres, similar to the old lego ones, some drilled holes and some glue. The fibres used are 1.5mm thick.
Also i tried to make it like i saw it in the movie, a box with the recognisable Y shape stuff in it, shielded by glass.
 

Spoiler

 

It's one 1x1 brick with 3 1.5mm holes in the front and a 5mm in the back to fit a pin with a 3mm Led in. The optical fibres are glued to some cut off 3l bars fiddled through the 3 holes so an led can light them up.

 

For the bluer parts of the lighting, when a timetravel happens, i use 3mm thick fibres which again fit nicly through pins so i could secure them well. The good thing for 3rd party parts here is, i could order them in 2m size so i didn't have to use put 2 24l lego fibres end to end and hope the light will transmitt well.
3rd party optical fibres are also way cheaper. I would like to have some cover to simulate the metal nature of those double lines, but no chance except i would 3D print or use modelling plastic sheets.
But the cables for the led added to the realistic look as i could mount them where the original car had cables aswell.
 

Spoiler

 

The fibres work quite well, but even if they are sideglowing ones straight parts tend to emit less light than courves, which makes sense as you only see light if it bounces off something. But for the price(couple of cents for an led and around 8€ per meter of fibre) it looks good enough. EL-wire might emit light more uniform, but requires more electronics and seemed to be darker.

Don't be fooled my camera makes a weird contrast, making the darker blue parts look way to dark.

 

And of course the needed headlights for some night time driving. Simple 5mm leds fitted into pinholes.
 

Spoiler

 

 

So far it was nice to combine all those techs to create something i wanted to build since i was a kid.
And even if i need some of the metal parts or the servos and motors, i think i'll just keep it as a display model with lights

Feel free to ask questions and have a great day.

[2GodBDGlory]

Nice work! First of all, I'm happy to see a 1:8 car like this in light bluish grey!

Mainly, though, I'm impressed with your plan to put a brushless motor setup in a 1:8 car, and especially the 4-speed you've got installed there. How did you manage to get a transmission to survive these levels of power and weight?

[Daniel-99]

This is a serious project! I can not even imagine myself attempting such a complex build featuring both RC functions and a scale model details. The four 1:8 scale supercars made by Lego could not compete with the iconic Delorean with such a great kit of lights! 

[Ryokeen]

16 minutes ago, 2GodBDGlory said:

Nice work! First of all, I'm happy to see a 1:8 car like this in light bluish grey!

Mainly, though, I'm impressed with your plan to put a brushless motor setup in a 1:8 car, and especially the 4-speed you've got installed there. How did you manage to get a transmission to survive these levels of power and weight?

Thx for the kind words.
This one uses a 540 brushed motor, but even that one has plenty of torque (math wise first gear has about 2nm).
Well i use rather short carbon axles and to be honest, i avoid sudden acceleration or deacceleration. But even in first geat and full throttle so far no gear slipped, so it seems i braced them enough.
But as with a real engine, going fast and shifting down or trying to go full throttle from a standstill in 3rd or 4th gear should be avoided.
I did that once in the testing phase and..i still search for the lost gear teeth :D

All in all i only use 2 8t gears which are metal and 3 12t bevel in the diff, also metal. The bigger gears from lego seem to hold well, as said unless you put a lot of sudden torque on them.

I wouldn't add in a gearbox anymore, not with a brushless motor setup. Here i just wanted the feeling of a real car. Driving, changing gears. I even experimented with a proper clutch, but honestly that just made it more complex.

[Maaboo the Witch]

Great Scott!

[2GodBDGlory]

1 hour ago, Ryokeen said:

Thx for the kind words.
This one uses a 540 brushed motor, but even that one has plenty of torque (math wise first gear has about 2nm).
Well i use rather short carbon axles and to be honest, i avoid sudden acceleration or deacceleration. But even in first geat and full throttle so far no gear slipped, so it seems i braced them enough.
But as with a real engine, going fast and shifting down or trying to go full throttle from a standstill in 3rd or 4th gear should be avoided.
I did that once in the testing phase and..i still search for the lost gear teeth :D

All in all i only use 2 8t gears which are metal and 3 12t bevel in the diff, also metal. The bigger gears from lego seem to hold well, as said unless you put a lot of sudden torque on them.

I wouldn't add in a gearbox anymore, not with a brushless motor setup. Here i just wanted the feeling of a real car. Driving, changing gears. I even experimented with a proper clutch, but honestly that just made it more complex.

Alright, impressive!

Yeah, I understand wanting the feel of driving a real car, even if it's not beneficial to performance! Some of the models I've found the most fun to drive have been ones with simulated manual transmissions, controlled from a joystick on the remote, even though they surely could have been faster without a transmission.

[jodawill]

Wow, this is amazing! I wish I could see it in person. I would buy this if it was available from Lego. You did a great job.

[Ryokeen]

5 hours ago, Daniel-99 said:

This is a serious project! I can not even imagine myself attempting such a complex build featuring both RC functions and a scale model details. The four 1:8 scale supercars made by Lego could not compete with the iconic Delorean with such a great kit of lights! 

With enough time i'm sure you could pull it off. Also now you know how to add RC components, another model is then not much different. Btw Lego could do that, they have/had pf lights. And using colored leds makes 0 price difference. They just don't want to.

11 minutes ago, jodawill said:

Wow, this is amazing! I wish I could see it in person. I would buy this if it was available from Lego. You did a great job.

Thank you.
And i think a manual version would be possible with pure lego. Well mosty, some color changes might be needed. I have a digital stud.io model so apart from the drilled parts in the flux capacitor i think i didn't use any parts that can't be substituded with lego ones. The biggest problem would be the mudguards as Lego doesn't produce them in lgb, so i had to get some gobricks parts. Same for some 2l and 3l parts in lbg.

[Zerobricks]

What can I say... Well done! It's very detailed and functional, love the fober optics and wish TLG would brought them back, especially now that they are much better and cheaper solutions available. Only critique would be the area around the doors, I think it's a bit too messy and hopefully you can update it when the micro panels release in LGB color.

 

P.S. I think it deserves a feature ;)

Edited December 1, 2023 by Zerobricks

[Ryokeen]

@Zerobricks if you mean mean part 2387  and 2389 i have some of them in black and tried. But as they curve inwards it creates a weird gap between the door and the side part.
But you are right, that is one of the areas i would like to improve, just don't know how as Lego nor any alternative parts have triangle shaped flat panels. I also thought about using more system parts there, but then you get studs sticking out and it gets to heavy. But maybe i'll find a sollution and then i'll update it for sure

[Milan]

2 hours ago, Zerobricks said:

P.S. I think it deserves a feature ;)

Yep.
Next frontpage slot is reserved for the Delorean!

[trekman]

A seriously cool recreation of a cult classic.  I am well impressed.

[Ryokeen]

On 12/1/2023 at 6:11 PM, Milan said:

Yep.
Next frontpage slot is reserved for the Delorean!

Thx a lot, did not expect it :)

[arieben]

This is incredible. The detailing, the fiber optics, the functionality, everything. I really just lurk here but i had to log in to comment on this.

I really like that the bodywork isn't all panels/liftarms. It gives it a look somewhere between the technic sets of the 90's and 00's and modern stuff, which I'm a huge fan of.

Thanks for sharing!

[RedWolfwere]

Great model so to show the full power ot Technic) (leds also!!!)

[R0Sch]

Good work! It only has the same beauty defect as the LEGO version had: it's not all metallic silver. :)

[drakmin]

Looks great!

[clb5150]

Nice!

[Maetick]

Well now I need to clean up a puddle of drool. Seriously, this is so freaking awesome.

[Ryokeen]

Thx man, it's still sitting on my shelf waiting for some livery upgrades.

[Celeri]

Nom de Zeus !

There is so much to be loved in this MOC! I remember thinking several times that a DeLorean could hardly render well in Technic, and I am happy you proved me wrong.

Impressive work, bravo!

[gerkenz]

Wow - this is great!