In an admittedly limited case of life imitating art, a Back to the Future fan and motoring enthusiast has been caught speeding while driving his DeLorean car in Essex, clocking in at the Internet-baiting speed of 88mph. Though Nigel Mills maintains that he was not actually trying to travel back in time.
The 55-year-old, who was caught going at the exact speed required in the Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd film for the DeLorean, powered by smuggled uranium and the patented flux capacitor, insists that he was night trying to punch a hole in the space-time continuum. “I wasn’t trying to time travel,” he told The Guardian, “It was at 11am on Sunday and the road was completely clear.”
Mills paid £22,000 (€25,900) for his DeLorean, a car model built in Northern Ireland by the eccentric John DeLorean that achieved international recognition when included in the Back to the Future film franchise. Mills says he rarely drives his DeLorean, only taking the two-seater car out of a garage a couple of times a year. He says he was taking it for a bit of a “run around” when he was caught speeding.
Appearing before Chelmsford magistrates, Mills’ case was thrown out because the two traffic officers who caught him speeding failed to show up in court.
Mills says that his decision to purchase the collectable vehicle was because he is “a car fan and me and the rest of my family enjoyed the Back to the Future films. When I’m out in it a few people recognise it, they slow down and take pictures – drivers take pictures out of their windows or try to film you and I get approached at petrol stations.”
Hopefully not by angry Libyans.
