Danny Botkin's love affair with the DeLorean got off to an unpromising start. It was the early '80s and a teen-age Botkin was tagging along while his father shopped for a new car. A Ford dealer had a rear-engined, gull-winged DeLorean on display, and the flash of stainless steel automotive skin caught Danny's eye. "I was smitten," Botkin, now 40, recalls. "I said, 'Hey Dad, let's get this.' "He got a Bronco instead." Botkin had to grow up and buy his dream car himself. He drives a restored DeLorean modeled after the one that served as a time machine in...