Back to the Future: DeLorean golf cart transcends time in Red Deer

Fans of 1980s film franchise Back to the Future are turning back time today. Oct. 21, 2015 is the official future date Marty McFly and girlfriend Jennifer Parker were transported back (and forward) to, in an effort to save their as-yet unborn children.

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Here's a couple of primers to help you catch up, if needed:

• Back to the Future Day sees fans, cast celebrate time-travel trilogy
• Long-running Back to the Future Day goes from hoax to legit

In honour of the time-travelling day, we're resurrecting an earlier CBC Edmonton story about two auto buffs in Red Deer, Alta., who built the ultimate accessory for a golfer, who also happens to be a big fan of the franchise:

DeLorean cart comes with cup dispenser, light effects and movie audio

Hot rod builder David Heykants and his friend, Luke Evanochko, have taken a standard golf cart and altered it to look like the DeLorean time machine in Back to the Future.

The cart isn't capable of time travel — no way to redo that lousy shot — but it does have a Mr. Fusion cup dispenser and cooler.

Buttons on the console trigger various lighting effects or play audio clips from the 1985 movie.

"It could be either Marty talking or Emmett Brown or even Biff, so they're all very humorous," Heykants said.

The Back to the Future golf cart was a fun challenge for Heykants, who usually turns old cars from the 1930s and 1940s into hot rods through his business Dual Divisions.  

He got involved when Red Deer College asked him for help.

Heykants and Evanochko put their heads together to figure out the concept. The two men spent about 600 hours on the project.

"To take the raw material and develop it into something that looks like this, yeah it was a challenge," he said.

"And there was a lot of hours and a lot of stress involved but we came through the other end, I think successfully."

Red Deer College used the cart during a golf tournament to raise funds for the Athletic Leadership Fund.

The college plans to auction the cart to raise more money for the fund, which benefits student athletes.