Why Is Will.I.Am Saying He Built A DeLorean?

Pretend mogul Will.i.am used The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night to show off his vision for a new car company, IAMAUTO, based around the vehicle above, which he claims is a custom design based on new Chrysler parts. It almost certainly isn't. In fact, it's a DeLorean. So why lie about it?

Leno opened his interview with a canned question about will.i.am. latest project, the IAMAUTO vehicle. The would-be Henry Ford then launched into an answer about his big investment.

I'm a big technology freak and geek and I invested my money in building my own vehicle because i want to bring jobs to the ghetto that I come from, so why not invest? Like I invested in making a demo to start the Black Eyed Peas, we did that, now I want to invest to have a car company in the neighborhood that I come from.

Will.i.am then goes on to explain exactly what his car is, which is where things get confusing.

I went to Chrysler and got a whole bunch of parts to where it's still certified as a legal vehicle on the streets. So I don't really mess with the airbag configurations or things like that. Kept the chassis and we create the shell, which is the body and the interior and the audio interface… it's sick, it's really fresh.

That's awfully specific and also awfully wrong given the picture of the IAMAUTO he shows looks a lot like one of his other cars.

Why Is Will.I.Am Saying He Built A DeLorean?

Images from an episode of the West Coast Customs reality show captured by the DeLorean faithful over at DMCTalk shows the car is clearly a DeLorean DMC-12 built for the pop star.

We called around and sources familiar with the car say what's shown in those screencaps is clearly a DeLorean. Another reader had other images, which show the car in the process of getting its final bodywork done.

Further, a source tells us the car isn't even Chrysler-powered. Instead, it uses a GM LS3 E-Rod V8. Awesome, yes, but not a Chrysler-based product.

Of course, it is possible that will.i.am had the same design crafted on a Chrysler 300 (or similar) platform and it somehow ended up looking exactly like his custom RWD, mid-engined DeLorean.

More likely, Will.i.am just has zero clue as to what the fuck he's talking about.