Four years ago, I was outside the Cooper Station post office in New York when a surreal but recognizable shape rolled to a a stop. Pedestrians stopped in their tracks and smiled, people on the opposite side of the street ogled slowly at a distance, and just about everyone on that block, myself included, got out their crappy 2006-era cell phones and started taking postage-stamp sized pictures to send to friends. As I snapped away, a man on a bicycle stopped at the driver’s side of the idling car and asked the owner to open the door. A moment later a stainless steel door shot upward towards the sky.

It was of, course, a DeLorean DMC-12, known by most simply as “the Delorean.” I can’t explain why it the effect it had on people, but I can say that I’ve never seen anything like it before, particularly from notoriously narrow-focused and hurried Manhattanites.

Knowing the reactions that such an intriguing machine is capable of delivering, I was especially excited to tour the factory here in Houston. Here are some scenes I saw during my visit.