70 DeLoreans at Parliament Buildings Stormont. David Young / PA Wire David Young / PA Wire / PA Wire

THIS IS THE sight that greeted Belfast today – as 70 DeLorean cars cruised through the city, their original birthplace.

The cars came from far and wide for the four-day DeLorean Eurofest.

The silver, gull-winged vehicles were made famous by the Back To The Future movies – the first one which was released in 1985, three years after the DeLorean-manufacturing plant in Belfast had been closed down.

David Young / PA Wire David Young / PA Wire / PA Wire

In what was a short but whirlwind affair, the car’s creator, John DeLorean – opened up a manufacturing plant in the West Belfast suburb of Dunmurry in 1979 to much aplomb.

However, manufacturing issues, budget overruns and inexperienced workers combined so that the plant closed in 1982 – with just 9,000 cars produced.

Now, a number of those cars have returned with their enthusiastic owners for the 35th anniversary of the plant opening – pictured here outside of Stormont.

DeLorean owner Tom Yeoman from Iowa, USA joins 70 DeLoreans at Parliament Buildings Stormont. David Young / PA Wire David Young / PA Wire / PA Wire

More cars are expected to join their brethren throughout the four-day festival – with more than 250 owners and enthusiasts from 18 countries expected in Belfast.

The DeLorean lovers will get to cruise around with like-minded types, chat to some of the former Dunmurry factory workers and generally just bask in all things DeLorean.

David Young / PA Wire David Young / PA Wire / PA Wire

The only way they could get closer to any more DeLoreans was if they travelled back to 1981 when the manufacturing plant was still open

And for that, they’d need to build some sort of a time machine…

Read: One in ten cars imported to Ireland from the UK were once written off

Read: For the second time, Opel is recalling cars in Ireland over a fire risk