The Maserati That Inspired The Back To the Future DeLorean Is Selling for $4.6 Million

The badass Boomerang concept car that evolved into the DeLorean is up for auction.

The Maserati Boomerang, grandaddy of the iconic gull-wing DeLorean made famous in Back to the Future , was first mentioned in the June 1972 Popular Mechanics in a column titled, “What’s New.” PM called it a “Two-seat bullet” and touted its burly 310-horsepower V8 and top speed of 185 mph. It looked like the kind of ride destined to be driven off a European mountainside by martini-addled secret agent, but Maserati ended up making just one Boomerang—and if you’ve got $4.6 million you’re dying to spend on a 44-year-old sports car, you can check it out here.

There’s a good reason the Boomerang looks just like the DeLorean. As the Daily Mail reported, the car was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. After Maserati didn’t mass-produce his bullet-on-wheels, Giugiaro took his daring design to automaker John DeLorean, who evolved the Boomerang design into his company’s signature DeLorean DMC-12.

The Mail reports the Boomerang may fetch as much as $4.6 million or more in a high-stakes auction to be held in Chantilly, France. While the Boomerang does not have the DeLorean’s famed gull-wing doors, it does have a pretty cool-looking steering column.

The Boomerang won’t take you back to the future (or even to the 1970s) but it will absolutely turn heads. Pop in your own sound system, crank up “The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and the News, and hit the road.

Photos by HerrAnderssvensson/Wikimedia, Marco 56/Flickr, Eddy Clio/Flicker