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How many copies of the DeLorean time machine co-existed in the Back to the Future series?

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At some point in 1955, there were 4 of them. I put them in the timeline of the DeLorean.

  1. The one Marty used in the first Back to the Future.
  2. The one the old Biff used to give the young Biff the almanac.
  3. The one Marty used in the Second Back to the Future to fix the alternate timeline.
  4. The one hidden by Doc in 1885 and fixed by them later.

So, the travel is

  • from 1985 Marty goes to 1955 and goes back to 1985
  • from 1985 Marty goes to 2015
  • from 2015 Biff goes to 1955 then back to 2015
  • from 2015 Marty goes to Alternate-1985 then to 1955
  • from 1955 Doc goes to 1885 and leaves it there until it was retrieved by Marty in 1955
  • from 1955 Marty goes to 1885 and finally to 1985

As indicated by NominSim's comment the timeline, from Mystic Alpha on deviantArt, illustrates where people and the DeLorean are throughout the trilogy.

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    But they were all the same DeLorean. – Xantec Jun 05 '12 at 20:13
  • haven't watched 2 in a while...Did Marty return to 1955 before Old Biff's return? If he returned after old Biff left, there would only have been 3 concurrent DeLoreans (twice). – Jeff Jun 05 '12 at 20:14
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    @Jeff: No, Second Marty actually hears Old Biff talking (maybe he even sees him, don't remember that). – bitmask Jun 05 '12 at 20:15
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    @Jeff I haven't watched it in a while either, but I believe that Marty listens to Old Biff giving Young Biff the almanac. (I thought the same as you originally) – NominSim Jun 05 '12 at 20:16
  • @Xantec They were the same car on four different timelines. – Gabe Willard Jun 05 '12 at 20:21
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    This is a really cool timeline of Back to the Future. – NominSim Jun 05 '12 at 20:24
  • @GabeWillard That depends on your point of view. From the DeLorean's position it was all one straight timeline. – Xantec Jun 05 '12 at 20:25
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    I believe there were even more in the video game (which extends the storyline, written by the same writer). – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Jun 06 '12 at 04:35
  • In the version of 1955 we saw in part II, there wouldn't have been a DeLorean hidden in the Delgado mine (at least not until Doc jumped back to 1885, at which point it probably appeared there via the ripple effect)--in BTTF each trip through time changes the timeline. There would have been a "later" version of the timeline in which Marty and Doc arrive in 1955 to recover the almanac and there is a Delorean in 1885 along with the 3 others you mention, but that wasn't the version of the timeline we saw onscreen. – Hypnosifl Jul 16 '15 at 13:39