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Back to the present

Its futuristic design took the 1980s by storm, fitting in with the decade’s taste for excess. And now, by popular demand, the DeLorean sports car is back Words | James Bartlett HE SILVER SCREEN HAS turned many cars into stars, from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Herbie “The Love Bug” to The Italian Job’s Mini [...]

Its futuristic design took the 1980s by
storm, fitting in with the decade’s taste for
excess. And now, by popular demand, the
DeLorean sports car is back

Words | James Bartlett

width="200" height="127" alt="The iconic DeLorean DMC-12, first built in 1981">

HE SILVER SCREEN HAS turned many cars into stars, from Chitty Chitty Bang
Bang and Herbie “The Love Bug” to The Italian Job’s Mini Coopers and 007’s Aston
Martin. But one car really deserves its own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
– the DeLorean DMC-12, the body of which was used to create Marty McFly’s
time machine in the cult 1980s’ Back To The Future film trilogy.

With its sleek gull-wing doors, stainless steel body panels and rear engine, there is

no
mistaking this motoring icon. And yet, by 1985, when the first Back to the Future film
was made, the DeLorean dream was already in tatters – the DeLorean Motor Company
(DMC) factory, based in Northern Ireland, had gone into
receivership and its decadent founder, John DeLorean was
arrested on charges of conspiring to sell cocaine to raise
money to invest in the struggling company (he was later
acquitted on grounds of entrapment). Despite these setbacks,
the DeLorean remains a cult classic – a car so popular that
now, 25 years on, it’s going back into production.

Cult status aside, it’s an unlikely target for resurrection.
During the two years that it was in operation, the DMC
factory made only 9,000 cars. At $25,000 (£12,000), it
was placed at the very upper reaches of the car market,
and this was despite the fact that it was believed to be
underpowered (with a 0-60mph time of 10.5 seconds),
and design-wise was regarded as deeply flawed – the
windows leaked, the electrics and gearbox were erratic, and
gull-wing doors simply weren’t practical for many garages.
Nonetheless, of the original 9,000 DeLoreans, 6,500 of
them are still on the road today, and thanks to the present
incarnation of the DeLorean Motor Company in Texas – now
in the hands of entrepreneur Stephen Wynne – you will
soon be able to buy an entirely new one.

British-born Wynne formed the company in 1995 when
he noticed the majority of the work at his garage was
repairing and refurbishing DeLoreans. Although, since the
company had gone bust, there were no legal restrictions on
the name, Wynne called John DeLorean to see if he might
use the name – and was given his blessing. Since then
Wynne has built up a steady business with service centres in
Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, South Florida and Amsterdam.

width="180" height="106" alt="The 9,200 original DeLorean DMC-12s were left-hand drive

cars intended for the American market">

“We’re putting the DeLorean back into limited production
for the simple reason that the demand is there,” explains
James Espey, Vice President of DMC. “We’ve been doing
‘remanufactured’ cars – where we start with an old car and
completely rebuild them from a bare frame up – for several
years and have found that as values increase, the availability
of suitable donor cars has diminished to the point where it is
more cost- and time-effective to build from the ground up.”

New DeLoreans are now being hand-built at the rate
of one or two a month, with the first ones expected off
the production line in the first quarter of 2008. All engines
for the new cars are the original Peugeot, Renault or Volvo
sourced 2.8-litre aluminium V6. And, while there are no
plans to use other engines, performance upgrades include
a supercharger, currently being road-tested with a view to
becoming available in the second quarter of 2008.

Naturally it’s not going to be cheap: you should expect
to pay $57,500 (£27,500) for a new DeLorean, as opposed
to about $25,000 (£12,000) for a used one, and $42,000
(£20,000) or more for an old one, stripped and completely
rebuilt. Not that the price seems to be putting anybody off:
“The waiting list is about six months now,” says Espey, “and
we’re expecting to improve upon that considerably in the
first quarter of 2008.”

width="180" height="101" alt="The DeLorean appeared in Back to the Future as a time

machine invented by ‘Doc’ and driven by Marty McFly">

What makes people pay up to almost $60,000 (£30,000)
for what is now, an outmoded car? The association with
the Back to the Future brand is certainly part of it. There is
also the fact that its rarity means that the cars are seen as
something distinctive and unique: “We’ve seen a DeLorean
monster truck, several time machine replicas, a twin-engine
DeLorean Honda four cylinder in front and a 500ci Cadillac
in the rear, and other ‘mild to wild’ modifications over the
years,” admits Espey. For many though, the appeal is the
man himself.

“It’s the entire DeLorean story that draws them to it,” says
Espey. “John DeLorean was the son of a Ford factory worker
who put himself through school while supporting his mother,
then rose through the ranks of Packard, Pontiac, Chevrolet
and General Motors (GM). A step away from the presidency
of GM, he left to start his own car company, and married a
supermodel. Then he lost it all. It’s truly an amazing story.”

It is – and there is no doubt that DeLorean, who died
aged 80 in 2005, was a glamorous and charismatic man,
but he was also a man with a social conscience. He first
quit General Motors to become president of the National
Alliance of Businessmen – a charity which focused on
employing Americans in need. It seems likely that while his
decision to base his production plant in Dunmurry, Northern
Ireland – then in the throes of numerous bombings and civil
unrest – meant the company was awarded £50 million in
government funds, the fact that it created around 2,000 jobs
in the troubled region would also have appealed.

Little wonder then that John DeLorean is rumoured to
be the subject of a film scheduled to be released in 2011
– the 30th anniversary of the DeLorean itself.

Reversal of fortune – the DeLorean timeline

width="70" height="155">
1925
John DeLorean
born in Detroit,
Michigan, USA

1952
Graduates from
the Chrysler
Institute with
a masters in
automotive
engineering;
then signed on
to Chrysler’s
engineering
team before
moving to
Packard

width="120" height="89">