A POOLE auto repair firm has gone back to the future to regenerate a classic DeLorean sports car – as an all-electric vehicle.

Former record producer and lifelong petrol head Phil Wainman bought the iconic DMC DeLorean PRV V6, the same model as the star of the classic 1985 blockbuster Back to the Future, in the United States.

Then he had is shipped back to the UK and approached Poole's Castleman Auto Repairs with his plans to go electric.

Phil, who as a record producer had some of the biggest hits of the 1970s, is a big fan of the Poole garage.

"Clint Townsend and the guys at Castleman keep my collection of petrol cars on the road, so I know they are the best, " he said.

"They can do anything, but even they took a sharp intake of breath when I told them what I wanted to do so I said ‘Come on, let’s learn how to do it together’ and piece-by-piece we did it.

"In the film the DeLorean travelled through time and should have come back as an electric car – it’s 30 years overdue but now it has."

Phil, who is noted for his work with the Ball City Rollers, Sweet, XTC, Dollar and Mud, had his biggest chart success on the production of The Boomtown Rats' I Don't Like Mondays.

He was an early adopter of electric vehicles, joining the Electric Car Association in the 1980s.

“I’m amazed with the result," said Phil. "The original DeLorean looked great but was heavy, underpowered and not a lot of fun to drive. Now, forty years after it first went into production, the electric DeLorean is the car it always appeared to be.

"If the UK is to be carbon neutral by 2050 the only way we can keep classics like this on the road is for them to be electric.”

Castleman's first job was to restore the car's original stainless steel finish, as it had been painted red in the States.

The electric motor, batteries and control systems are all from Tesla and Castleman made new mounts and brackets in order to fit the gear to the DeLorean with the batteries split and stowed in the back and the front.

New software has been designed for the dash display and there’s even a sampled voice built in that proclaims ‘Great Scott’ – a catchphrase used by Christopher Lloyd’s character Doc in Back to the Future – as the car hits 88 mph, the speed at which the DeLorean travelled through time in the film.

Phil designed and built the decidedly lo-tech gear selector himself using a piece of nylon drainpipe with machined nylon arms and a chrome crossbar.

“It’s perfect, everyone loves it,” says Phil. “They think it comes from a motor boat and are shocked when I tell them I made in my shed.

With the DeLorean now finished and ready for sale there’s a second one ready to follow, but Phil’s next classic motor regeneration is arguably the most classic of all British sports models – the E-Type Jaguar.

“It’ll be the world’s first E-Type E… and I can’t wait to get it going.”