DeLorean Takes To The Skies With Electric Flying Car Racing Team

DeLorean Motor Company is putting its name on a racing grid, just not the kind anyone expected. The automaker announced at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 that it is entering the Airspeeder International Series as a constructor, fielding the United States team under the DeLorean banner.

The DeLorean Airspeeder Team debuts when the 2026-27 season opens in November 2026, becoming the first American constructor in a championship built around electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, commonly called eVTOLs.

DeLorean Joins The Airspeeder Grid As A Constructor

DeLorean will serve as constructor of the US entry in the series, racing against national teams from around the world in its first international season.

Airspeeder pilots fly electric aircraft through three-dimensional courses marked by virtual gates rather than a painted track. They rely on onboard sensors and collision-avoidance systems to keep the racing safe at speed. The sport, created by Australian entrepreneur Matt Pearson, is pitched as a proving ground for electric flight technology.

"People have pictured a DeLorean in the sky for 40 years," said Cameron Wynne, DeLorean's chief brand officer. "We decided it was time to stop picturing it." Pearson said the signing shows where the sport is headed, calling DeLorean "the original flying car brand" even before anyone had built one.

The arrangement fits what DeLorean has chased since its long and uneven road to reinvention, turning a single famous design into a broader brand looking to appeal to younger buyers who never saw the original car new.

The Mk3C Carries The Team Through Its First Season

For 2026-27, the DeLorean Airspeeder Team races the standardized Airspeeder Mk3C, using the same base aircraft package seen with other national entries. DeLorean is responsible for its visual identity rather than its core engineering.

The constructor role expands from there. Starting with the 2027-28 season, DeLorean plans to develop its own race aircraft in collaboration with engineering students from UC Berkeley and Georgia Tech. The universities bring additional design and analysis resources before any DeLorean-specific airframe reaches the grid.

Wynne described the partnership as a way to influence more than just hardware. Competing publicly, he said, lets DeLorean help shape "the regulatory, safety and compliance frameworks required" for advanced air mobility, alongside the flight technology itself.

Nothing announced points to a DeLorean flying car reaching consumers. The aircraft design, pilot lineup, and full sporting program for the debut season are still to be revealed ahead of the November opener. DeLorean has said only that it will share more about the partnership's direction in the coming months.