This one is easy- my DMC-12. I've told the story of how I first encountered one and was smitten by it in the 'cars that made an impression' thread, but not much detail on how I actually ended up with it.
I went to school with eastsidemav, and we talked cars a modest bit (him more than me as at that time I wasn't really as into them as I am now- which is something of an understatement). The DeLorean has since that encounter as a child always been one of if not the #1 car on my list of dream cars to own, and came up in discussions about such. We both graduated and went our separate ways to the jobs we got, but stayed in touch- and eventually work moved me to just an hour or so away from he and his wife, at which point we were in touch more often as I got more into working on cars thanks to my former RX-7 convertible and other projects that I ended up with.
One day he jokingly emails me a link to an eBay auction for a DeLorean for sale by a seller in Dayton. We'd both occasionally trolled eBay and gawked at the DeLoreans for sale all over the country, but had rarely seen any remotely nearby- and this one was initially VERY cheap as it was in non-running condition and needed a lot of interior work and had an issue with the title which made it nigh on impossible for someone near the seller in Ohio to buy it. I laughed it off initially- but after a bit of thinking since the bidding was REALLY low, worked out what I could safely pay for it and not put myself into any hurt, and put in a bid on it that was high enough to be the high bidder with 5 days or so left in the auction. It got bid up several times over the rest of the week, but didn't get over my bid until about a day before the auction was to close.
I shrugged it off, having bid the most I figured I could safely and within my means. But....... I kept thinking about it, and the more I did, the more convinced I was that I REALLY wanted this car. I made a call to my grandparents, who had several times over the last few decades loaned me money for different things including to buy my Saturn with cash instead of financing through the dealership, and worked out to borrow enough from them to double the total funds I had available if I won the auction. Everything fell into place earlier in the day before the auction closed, and I put in my higher bid- and it stayed the high bid until moments before the auction closed, at which point two other bidders bid it up several thousand dollars over my increased bit and the auction closed with me as the third-highest (second loser 
) bidder.
That was the end of it, I assumed- I'd done my best, and had gone even further than I'd expected to- but two other people had more money and/or wanted it more. So, I went about my normal life- which at the time involved repairing the Toyota Corolla that I'd just driven cross-country from my Grandparents' in California only to hit a deer less than an hour from my house.
And then out of the blue, I get an email from eBay from the seller with a Second-Chance Offer- something I'd never heard of and took a lot of time to research to see if it was actually real. Once I confirmed that it probably WAS real (it had come from eBay, had my and the seller's usernames, etc.), I responded and asked what the deal was. Apparently the top two bidders had backed out- and the seller didn't want to deal with having to list it again, so I could buy the car for what my max bid had been on it. I told him that I was still interested, but needed to check on things since I'd already told my Grandparents I wasn't going to need the loan after all.
While I was working this out, I heard back from the guy that one of the other bidders had changed their mind and was actually going to follow through and buy it and was supposed to come out later that day to pay for it. But he wasn't completely convinced that the buyer would actually make good on it. And he ended up being right- the guy completely flaked. So I worked out with eastsidemav to go up to Dayton the following evening to look at the car in person and work things out, as I was having second thoughts and worried that the car might be a complete disaster (having started reading a LOT about bringing them back to life on the DeLorean forums...).
We drove up to look at it- and any doubts that I was going to go through with it were pretty much erased when I saw the car in person. It definitely had its issues- but I'd known about them going into the auction as the seller had been pretty upfront about the condition. I knew it was going to need a lot of work, but also knew that I didn't care and had to have the car. We worked out for the seller to trailer it down to Lexington for me since they had the gear to be able to do it, and I put down a downpayment on it- and two days later it rolled into Lexington on a flatbed and was tucked away in a friend's garage (as mine was occupied by the Toyota).
It took over a year and nearly as much money in parts as I'd paid for the car itself- but the following late spring, a very dirty and barely street-legal (as in 'barely functioning lights & safety gear') DMC VIN-16655 rolled into the Bi-Annual DeLorean Car Show that was being held here in my hometown of Lexington on its first drive in probably close to a decade as near I could tell.
I've now had it for a bit over 4 years, and would not let it go for anywhere near what it is probably worth- It's the car that I have every intention of never getting rid of and eventually passing on to my children. It's given me more than my fair share of headaches, but also is by far the most fun vehicle I've ever driven- as much for the reactions it gets as for how much fun it is to simply drive.
When he's gone, I'll have a physical reminder of the time we spent together. Lots of people have cars they restored with a parent....few have ones they fabricated that way.
