When it comes to cars, we’re used to reinterpretations of iconic originals—think New Beetles and the reborn Mini Cooper, both recently joined by a new Fiat 500 that’s been garnering rave reviews. More than one million Chrysler PT Cruisers, inspired by a generic 1930s four-door sedan, have sold since 2001.

But those are modern vehicles, inside and out. What happens when someone decides to build cars that are fully or nearly identical—not just “reinterpreted”—to vehicles that have been out of production for years?

A few entrepreneurs are planning to bring beloved cars, including the short-lived DeLorean and the plastic Trabant, back from the dead. They’re banking on nostalgia to help them succeed—albeit with a much smaller target audience—where the originals failed. And a key to that success is making sure the cars are built well enough to satisfy modern buyers.

A Texas company that is the largest source of DeLorean parts is about to build models from those original parts, acquired when the factory shut down, and a handful of new components. Only two a month will be produced, starting early in 2008.

In 1975, when auto-marketing superstar John DeLorean left General Motors and unveiled the DMC-12 “ethical” sports car—inexpensive, creative, safe—some analysts thought he might succeed. DeLorean had experience, charisma, a sexy stainless-steel car with gull-wing doors, and a grant from the British government to build his car in Northern Ireland. DeLorean Motor Company didn’t start manufacturing cars until 1981, selling 9,000 vehicles before it collapsed under a welter of debt in 1983. (DeLorean was even arrested and tried for cocaine trafficking, and reportedly planned to use the proceeds to save his dream. He was later acquitted.)

The new DeLorean has a few things going for it that the original didn’t. For starters, there’s the iconic movie role. “Most of the people who buy our cars were teenagers when Back to the Future came out in 1985,” says James Espey, vice president of DeLorean Motor Co. The Humble, Texas, firm, started in 1995, not only owns the original DMC stock but its name and logo as well. “They’ve wanted [a DeLorean] since they were kids. Now they’re surprised to find out they can get parts and service, and that brand-new cars are affordable.”

Today’s DeLoreans will come with a price tag of $57,500, not that far from the 1981 price of $25,000 (roughly $63,000 in today’s dollars). Modern options—heated and cooled seats, satellite navigation, an iPod interface, L.E.D. bulbs—will add $9,000 to the total. As for quality, “we like to say that we’ve had 9,000 prototypes on the road for 20 years, so we know everything that can go wrong,” Espey says. DMC can provide 96 percent of the car from its spare-parts warehouse, and has designed a new stainless-steel frame to eliminate the rust problem that plagued the original. The engine is a 2.8-liter V-6, still fresh in its crate from the factory in Belfast, Ireland.