CAR MAKERS CELEBRATE BACK TO THE FUTURE DAY

The scheduled day for Back to the Future is today, 21st October 2015. For car nerds, this is a almost like witnessing a rare solar lunar eclipse not happening in another gazillion light years. If you however are oddly unfamiliar with the significance of the date, it's the day to which Marty McFly and Doc Brown travelled from 1985 in their DeLorean time machine in the second film of the Back to the Future trilogy. 

This is big news not only for the car geek due to the cool futuristic vehicles portrayed in the trilogy, but also for film buffs and sci-fi fans. Car manufacturers are helping to celebrate the day by offering their own glimpses into the future.

One of the first cars to roll off the production line

Mercedes-Benz has released a series of films featuring its F015 Luxury in Motion concept car. The four-door autonomous prototype is powered by two electric motors fed by a hydrogen fuel cell. The concept's interior is radically built, with screens instead of windows - meaning passengers can choose what they see of the outside world. But the best part is on the message Mercedes put on the campaign "Thanks for inspiring our engineers, Doc. Happy Back to the Future Day".

Toyota, meanwhile, has reunited the stars of the film, Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox, to see how they feel about the film's predictions on how the future would look have come true. While many of BTTF's predictions for the future, which included self-lacing shoes and flying cars haven't materialized, Toyota is pitching its new hydrogen-powered Mirai as being the next step in automotive technology. Clever placement, Toyota!

A hoverboard was featured in the film that was capable of gliding on water- something which Toyota's sister brand, Lexus, recently made a reality. Well, but you wouldn't be expecting this to hit the market for you or your kids to play with. That's because Lexus's sleek looking hover board works through magnetic levitation and can only 'hover' on specially constructed pieces of track with opposing magnetic fields. But that's not the cool part- the board uses liquid nitrogen to cool its superconductor blocks. Liquid nitrogen!!

Of course, the real star of the Back to the Future films was the iconic DeLorean DMC-12, but while the film's DeLorean was converted to run on recycled waste, the real-life car used a 3.0-litre petrol V6. Us motor heads don't mind. There were rumors of a return for the DeLorean brand several times over the past few years with an all- electric version, but the closest reality of a revival was a working prototype the company built around 2012, dubbed the DMCev. And that was it. No more news. 

The first DeLorean built in Belfast since 1983 is an all-electric marvel

However, a hi-tech electrical version of the DeLorean car is to be unveiled in Belfast, Ireland to mark the 30th anniversary of Back to the Future. Queen's University Belfast will unveil its electric DeLorean on Wednesday, the exact date McFly went Back to the Future. Dr David Laverty, who leads the project, said "This project was about modifying a car into an electric vehicle, but we wanted to do it in style. The DeLorean was the obvious choice because of its strong connection to Belfast and its starring role in the Back to the Future movies."

Electric power to fire up the DeLorean