DeLorean Driver's Time Travel Defense Vs 89 MPH Speeding Ticket

Nigel Mills of Brentwood, Essex, UK, has owned a 1982 DeLorean since he bought it at auction for £22,000 in 2004. With only 13,000 miles on the odometer, the car is rarely driven, with Mills taking it for a spin three or four times a year and displaying it at a couple of car shows.

Any DeLorean will attract attention from the public and police alike, but Mills’ DMC-12 really stands out because its tinted blue stainless steel exterior.

Mills was out for a “run around” on the A12 highway when, “I saw the guy with the speed gun and thought I better check my speed and low and behold, the letter turns up,” Mills told the Telegraph. The summons said the he was clocked at 89 miles per hour. That speed is significant both to fans of DeLorean, and a certain movie.

The DeLorean car, as you probably know, was made more famous posthumously by the Back to the Future movie franchise than John Z. could ever hope for while the Lotus engineered, Peugeot-Renault-Volvo V6-powered, two seat sports coupe was still in production.

If you’re familiar with those films, you’ll know that Doc Brown’s time-traveling DMC-12 needs to reach 88 mph before it can break its tethers to the present. Mills decided to fight the ticket, and he won. In real life, the actual top speed of a stock DeLorean is about 109 mph.

It appears that Mills was prepared to use a “time-travel” defense. “I was being prosecuted for going 89mph in a DeLorean, wasn’t something special meant to happen at 88mph?,” Mills related to the newspaper. “I can honestly say I wasn’t trying to time travel. It was at 11am on Sunday and the road was completely clear.”

As the case transpired, though, the DeLorean Owners Club member didn’t have to bring up the Robert Zemeckis’ film or time travel. The police officer, who allegedly timed Mills at a supposedly supertemporal speed, failed to appear in court as he was assigned to other duties that day. The case was dismissed and Mills’ attorney says that they plan on asking the court to have the government pay his legal costs.

There’s no word if either a Toyota SR5 pickup driven by a teenage boy, or a VW Microbus filled with terrorists were seen in the vicinity in Chelmsford, Essex where the ticket was issued.

[Image: Ronnie Schreiber/TTAC]