Many DeLorean owners share a sense of automotive rebellion against the big three: GM, Ford, and Chrysler.

Similarly, Apple Macintosh users are rebelling against the iron hand of Microsoft with hip, stainless steel computers and Mac OS X. I have always wanted to put a Macintosh-based computer into my DeLorean. Today, you can read about how I made that a reality. This project involved more than just a carputer. This is the merging of an automotive environment and a computing environment. This creates a portable office in your DeLorean. Not just a drive-in movie theater, but a drivable drive-in movie theater. Sound like fun? It is, but challenges along the way have made this ambitious project push the limits on my electronic and fabrication talents.

As soon as the Mac Mini came out, there was a surge in custom car computing. Sites such as Mac Vroom and 123MacMini popped up, describing how the compact design and brilliant feature set of the Mac Mini would be ideal for installation in a car.   To facilitate this trend, a company called Carnetix designed an intelligent DC-DC regulator to safely power a Mac Mini from a 12-Volt supply. Many companies were making carputer integrations almost as simple as plug-and-play.

There was just one aspect of the installs I saw online that was not up to my standards. Most Car computing enthusiasts have installed 7" touchscreens from Lilliput or Zenarc. These are great devices, but I simply refuse to compute on any screen that does less than 1024x768. I tried it on my big screen TV for a while, and it's just not healthy. If I design a computer into a car, the screen needs to be at least 20 inches wide, or it's not worth the effort.

At this point I was reminded of the fact that it is dangerous for anyone to use a computer while on the road. If I were to install a computer in my car, I told myself I would only use it while parked, ito brainstorm or check email in a parking lot, or for display purposes at a car show.

At one such car show with my DeLorean, I had left the DeLorean bonnet open to pack away those folding chairs, and I hopped into the driver's seat to turn off the stereo. I looked through my windshield at the underside of the bonnet door: a flat, black carpeted surface that spanned most of the viewable area beyond the windshield. This, I told myself, is where I want my screen.

The bonnet door is huge, allowing for a projected image almost 4 feet wide and 3 feet tall. I could use a simple PowerPoint projector, carefully focused, to project the image.

The next challenge came when I tried to choose a place to mount the projector. Most projectors need a focal distance of 6 feet or more, and the only place to get a distance like that would be to install the projector between the gull-wing doors or inside the car on the T-panel. Both of these proved impossible, as the windshield distorts any projected image that passes through it, the rear view mirror gets in the way of the projector, and the projector gets in the way of the rear view mirror in a car that has enough visibility problems in the first place. Running VGA and power cables to any location other than tha bonnet would be impossible.

Using a complex set of mirrors and lenses, I was able to get the projector to focus the computer image at the proper focal distance, and the Mac Mini DeLorean was born. OS X was four feet wide and I could manipulate it from the driver's seat.

Next, I had to decide where to mount the Mac Mini. My first thought was to make it easy to plug the mac mini into the center console, and a company in Japan makes similar kits for a Mac-Mini based Single-Din head unit. Unfortunately, their kit costs more than a Mac Mini itself, and it does not really serve display purposes. It also does not deal with heat-transfer concerns behind a crowded DeLorean dashboard. I even toyed around with the idea of mounting the Mac Mini on the rear shelf, but decided against it for many reasons.

I reached the conclusion that the Mac Mini had to be inside the bonnet. This would allow a short distance of VGA cable to connect the computer and projector, and it would be a great place to display the Mac Mini and secure it at the same time.

By conceding that the Mac Mini had to be out of Arm's reach, I next had to tackle the problem of ports. Many other carputer integrations have put USB hubs or other peripheral connectors close to the driver as part of the integrations. Mine had to do the same. At a minimum, I wanted the driver to have access to a USB hub, a Firewire port, an Ethernet jack, and a Minijack for audio. But how was I going to get all those cables from the bonnet to center console?

As anyone who has ever taken apart a DeLorean dashboard and center console can attest, there is not a lot of room between the fiberglass frame and the black vinyl console. This would make running any computer cables through the car (such as Ethernet, Firewire, USB, audio) a virtual impossibility. I reluctantly decided to cut a hole in the fiberglass shell behind the driver's seat and run wires to the bonnet under the car. Now the Mac Mini can communicate with a slew of ports discreetly installed in the passenger compartment.

Before I could tackle the computer video problems, I decided to tackle sound. The stock DeLorean stereo system was in desperate need of an upgrade. Installing speakers in the front kickpanel area proved excessively difficult without a molded fiberglass speaker enclosure, so I opted to just replace the 3.5" speakers under the dash with Audiobahn 2-way speakers with a passive crossover. The Fusion Jonah Lomu Series 6.5" component system featured polished stainless steel tweeters: a real treat for the D. I built a new wooden back plate for the cargo shelf and covered it with black carpet.

The storage unit behind the driver is very handy, and about 1 cubic foot worth of volume: the perfect size for a subwoofer enclosure. The stock design of the enclosure, however was not sealed, and many other components occupy that space. To make a sealed enclosure, serious customization of the compartment was necessary, including changing how the car computer was mounted.

Because the lockbox compartment door is at an angle, I needed a very low-profile sub that wouldn't hit the bottom edge of the box. I opted for a Blaupunkt ODW10 subwoofer. 10 inches in diameter, the sub was installed in a new compartment door that I fabricated out of MDF. Now the sub compartment can be unlocked and valuables can be stored behind the sub, yet the enclosure is still airtight.

The amplifier that powers this sub is a little bulky: 14 inches by 24. It is a Class AB 800-watt amplifier from MB Quart. The black, semi-gloss look looks like it belongs on the rear shelf of the D, and it serves another purpose. I was able to fabricate a custom amplifier housing using molded plastic and black vinyl. The amplifier power wires and signal RCA's are all neatly tucked away inside the amp shroud, and I was able to use one wall of the shroud to mount the ports for Ethernet, FireWire, and Minijack Audio. Finally the illuminated USB hub fits snugly and conspiculously in the rear accessory tray.

  (picture of amp rack with ports)

(picture of illuminated USB hub in tray)

I wanted a DVD playing headunit, but as I said before, I think 7" screens are pretty worthless. So, for a Headunit, I selected one that could read DVD's and provide an RCA video output. My hope was that the car could be a portable movie theater without needing the Mac Mini to read the DVD and generate the video signal.

(picture of audiobahn headunit)

Next I wanted to install linear actuators to raise and lower the bonnet mechanically: a great, dramatic way to begin a demonstration of the DeLorean computer integration. I decided on sturdy and yet inexpensive linear actuators from AutoLoc. I didn't like the idea of my linear actuators seizing up or losing their connection and sealing my bonnet shut for all eternity. So I had to redesign the actuator system to push the bonnet open without also holding it closed.

Currently, I am working on a fiberglass tray that mounts all the equipment in the DeLorean bonnet. Pictures finalizing the completion of this project are coming soon!