1. The DeLorean, Back to the Future

Who would have guessed that the coolest vehicle in the history of sci-fi had its roots in the short-lived financial bomb of an automobile manufactured in 1980s Belfast? You’d be forgiven for not describing the epic Back to the Future trilogy as the best sci-fi movies ever made, but there’s really very little doubt that the Doc’s utterly legendary lightning and nuclear powered time machine — built around the chassis of the DeLorean DMC-12 — is the ultimate sci-fi vehicle. In reality, the DeLorean car was a failure, with the company that made it going bankrupt in 1982, but thanks to the success of the movies, this gull-winged beast has achieved something of a cult status, with an estimated 6,500 DMC-12s still in existence today. We bet most of them are sitting in garages having home-made flux capacitors stuck to them. Awesome.