Inspiration

What posesses a person to buy a DeLorean and start modding it? I wrote down my story if you're curious.

DeLorean Electrical System

The DeLorean was designed in the late 70's and shipped in '81. unfortunately this means it doesn't have CANBus or any of those nifty data services available. Most of the car is electro-mechanical rather than solid state. My write-up on the DeLorean Electrical System describes some of the things I've learned.

LCD Screen Instrument Cluster

Getting a screen the size I wanted into the space of the DeLorean's instrument cluster was quite a challenge. I ended up building a new custom 'binnacle' (the roundish housing that sits on the dash) out of fiberglass, sized to fit a standard 18" widescreen LCD panel.

Linux Embedded PC

Embedded software is one of the things I do for a living, so this was the easy part for me. It was a chance to try out a few new ideas I'd not been able to use for work projects yet. I have a FitPC mounted under the dash, running Linux from a read-only filesystem. My dash rendering is done in OpenGL, using a mix of Perl and C. The computer connects to all the cameras and sensors with USB.

Steering wheel

I haven't put any of the steering wheel together yet, but I have all the pieces ready. I found a wheel with a large open center, and an adapter to fit it to the DeLorean's steering column. I'm have a sacrificial USB game pad that I've disassembled and will place the buttons and joysticks at convenient places on the wheel. There will also be some multi-color LEDs to use for feedback.