The DeLorean DMC-12 is a sports car that was manufactured in Northern Ireland by the DeLorean Motor Company for the American market in 1981-1983. It is most commonly known simply as the DeLorean, as it was the only model ever produced by the company. The DMC-12 featured gull-wing doors with a fiberglass "underbody", to which non-structural brushed stainless steel panels were affixed.

A DeLorean was featured as a home-made time machine in the Back to the Future trilogy. The first prototype appeared in March 1976, and production officially began in 1981 (with the first DMC-12 rolling off the production line on January 21) at the DMC factory in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland. During its production, several features of the car were changed, such as the hood (bonnet) style, wheels and interior.

Approximately 9,000 DMC-12s were made before production stopped in late 1982. Today, about 6,500 DeLorean Motor Cars are believed to still exist. The company and factory stock were acquired privately in 1997 and production of an updated vehicle has begun.

In October 1976, the first prototype DeLorean DMC-12 was completed by William T. Collins chief engineer and designer (formerly chief engineer at Pontiac). Originally, the car's rear-mounted power plant was to be a Citroën Wankel rotary engine, but was replaced with a French-designed and produced PRV (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo) fuel injected V6 because of the poor fuel economy of the rotary engine, an important issue at a time of worldwide fuel shortages.

Collins and DeLorean envisioned a chassis produced from a new and untested manufacturing technology known as Elastic Reservoir Moulding (ERM), which would lighten the car while presumably lowering its production costs. This new technology, for which DeLorean had purchased patent rights, was eventually found to be unsuitable.

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