Travel Back in Time: Recreating the Delorean

In May 2022, our famous Delorean roared into London’s Adelphi theatre ready to wow legions of Back to the Future fans old and new. This brilliant musical adaptation of the hit film was written by Bob Gale featuring music and lyrics by Alan Silvestri.

The incredible stage version of the Delorean was designed by a team of extremely talented artists and technicians who produced an incredible FX sensation that has captivated audiences ever since. The project was a novel and exciting undertaking for Ammonite and taught us new skills and processes that we continue to build on.

In April 2026, the London stage show will be coming to an end and we bid farewell to the Delorean in the West End but await its time travelling arrival in Autumn this year on a spectacular UK tour.

In honour of this incredible set piece, we wanted to provide an in depth look at the car and the wonderful array of lighting and effects specifications that made it such a challenging build!

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The Delorean lighting design features:

• Numerous LED circuits are available for use on the car. Majority running at 24V
• A mixture of MBM custom and HELL XT cards drive the LED with data supplied via a City Theatrical Show Baby Multiverse

The following elements have been wired for lighting and effects:

• Film accurate Status Indicator Display
• Film accurate Time circuits - all fully controllable via the lighting console
  
• Dimmable tungsten headlights
• LED headlight glow
• Individual indicator control
• Exhaust Smoke via a Look Solutions Power Tiny
• Wheel arch downlights RGBW
• Wheel backlight RGBW
• Back lit driver dials
• The iconic neon flux bands wrapping the car, RGBW
• Rear Exhaust fin internal glow RGBW
• Rear lighting cluster, left and right. Complete custom boards by MbM
• License Plate Downlight
• Wormhole Emitter
• Plutonium chamber glow, RGBW
• All internal buttons are backlit
• Hidden LED flex to light both driver and passenger
• Full dry ice system
• ...and of course an accurate Flux Capacitor

We were thrilled to see the show recognised for its technical advances by the Olivier Awards 2022:

Winner - Best New Musical

Nominee - Best Actor in a Musical - Olly Dobson, Best Supporting Actor in a Musical - Hugh Coles, Best Original Score, Best Set Design, Best Sound Design

If you are interested in hiring Ammonite for a Technical project that requires a highly skilled team,  industry knowledge and connections, then get in touch today: 

info@ammonite.ltd

Written by Grace McCaffrey

Edited by Matt Veitch and Matt Roper

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