It's sure a lot more fun than mutual funds.

And with the markets dropping like oil pressure in a blown-out 350 engine, Frank Helt is sure he's made a good investment.

The good part of it is he can see his investment every day just by stepping out his back door and looking in his garage, Helt's 1982 DeLorean DMC-12 may sport a stainless steel finish, but it's golden for this Merrill Lynch financial consultant.

He picked it up last year from Daryl Frimer, the car's original owner, who stored it in the living room of his Toronto loft.

Helt says Frimer had to sell the DeLorean to make room in his home for other exotic cars.

Frimer's loss was Helt's gain.

The '82 DeLorean, made the last year the car was manufactured, has just under 33,000 kilometres on the speedometer, a mint-condition body and grey leather interior.

"I like to look at it as a functional investment," says Helt, who bought the car last year for $27,000.

"It's a cool car and the price was right," he says, adding: "It wasn't really that expensive, I couldn't see any down side to making the investment."

And when he took it out for a drive, he knew he got his money's worth.

"It drives like a Ferrari. It's a real tight feel."

Helt put about 2,000 km on the car this year, the first year he owned it.

"If I buy a car then I like to drive it. I'm not the type of collector who stores it away and never drives it."

And he likes to give it a good test after a hard day at work in downtown Hamilton - say, down Governor's Road outside of Dundas.

"This is a car that is meant to be driven fast," he says, adding that the car cruises beautifully between 130 and 140 km/h.

Its 2.85 litre, rear-mounted V6, 130-horsepower Peugeot-Renault-Volvo fuel-injected engine with five-speed manual stick shift can go a lot faster.

But Helt, who is 43, married and has six kids, says he's got more important things in his life to look forward to than going fast.

Like taking one of the kids to school in the stainless steel legend featured in the Back to the Future movies, which further enhanced its fame.

When it was first introduced in 1981, the gull-wing doors and the shiny steel exterior certainly put the car ahead of its time. Even today, its sleek styling makes it a standout -- not as an older-style sports car but as a modern-day sporting machine in the same league as Ferrari and Lamborghini.

"A lot of people see the car and ask me if it's a Ferrari," Helt says.

It's definitely not a Ferrari, but Helt can tell you the differences between the two sports cars. He once owned a Ferrari 328 GT, but admits it was one of the investments he would rather forget. From the minute he bought the car, he watched it drop in value.

With the DeLorean, he's the proud owner of a very rare automobile.

Only 8,583 of the cars were made between 1981 and 1983, when the company went out of business in the midst of controversy surrounding its flamboyant owner, John Z. DeLorean.

Today, it is estimated that about 6,000 of the cars remain on the road. Many have been hidden away in garages by car lovers and collectors banking on the future value of the car - their scarcity makes DeLoreans especiaally appealing to those who invest in exotic cars.

"There's a real fraternity around these cars," says Helt, who explains that the DeLorean Association wants to know exactly where all the cars are located in the world.

What draws most people to the DeLorean has little to do with the car's power train, suspension or stainless steel body.

The attraction is really the design by Giorgetto Giugiaro of Italy Design Studios in Turin, Italy. If that name means little to you, think Maserati Bora, Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT, Volkswagen Scirocco, and Lotus Esprit.

The design looks as modern today as it did in 1981. Even standing still, the DMC-12 appears to be going fast.