{"id":11542379,"date":"2025-07-03T17:56:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T21:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/?p=11542379&preview=true&preview_id=11542379"},"modified":"2025-07-03T18:02:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T22:02:58","slug":"allstate-delorean-back-to-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2025\/07\/03\/allstate-delorean-back-to-future\/","title":{"rendered":"On 40th anniversary of \u2018Back to the Future,\u2019 Allstate celebrates its role in creation of DeLorean time machine"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 On the 40th anniversary of the \u201cBack to the Future\u201d movie premiere, Illinois-based insurance giant Allstate is traveling back to the past to reveal its little-known role in developing the DeLorean, the futuristic but short-lived, gull-winged, stainless steel car that served as Doc Brown\u2019s time machine.<\/p>\n

Without Allstate, Marty McFly might never have left 1985 or perhaps he would have traveled back in time in a Buick, forever disrupting the space-time continuum of the seminal movie trilogy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cars exist because of the partnership Allstate had with DeLorean,\u201d said Sandee Lindorfer, vice president of auto claims for Allstate.<\/p>\n

In the words of Doc Brown, \u201cGreat Scott!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBack to the Future\u201d hit movie theaters on July 3, 1985. A customized 1981 DeLorean DMC-12, which took audiences on joyrides to 1955, 1885 and 2015 over the course of three films, was already relegated to the junkyard of automotive history by the time the movie premiered.<\/p>\n

In the mid-1970s, Allstate worked with John DeLorean, an automobile executive and engineer, who left GM to launch his own namesake vehicle. The insurance company invested a reported $500,000 in a safety car project, developing prototypes with advanced seatbelt restraints, airbags and improved bumpers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sponsored three prototypes with the DeLorean-Allstate safety car agreement, and we brought one of the prototypes to Congress to show them what could be done around smaller vehicles being more safe and having better fuel economy,\u201d Lindorfer said.<\/p>\n