Feb 5: DeLorean: Back to the future?

Where is this car headed in such a rush? Well, if you are any sort of car person or a movie buff or even someone, who has not done a Rip Van Winkle for the past thirty years, you'll recognize this car as a DeLorean in a scene reminiscent of the movie, which made it famous, Back to the Future. Remember the old doc's time machine? Of course you do. Everyone remembers the doc and Marty McFly doing the near impossible, in a rather curiously modified DeLorean DMC 12 sportscar. Probably, if not for the movie, this car would have been consigned to the back pages of car history books.

Here are a couple of shots from the Back to..... movies.........

 

Yeah, what a wild ride.

A brief DeLorean history.......... this car was conceived by John DeLorean, the former wonder child of General Motors, the father of the GTO among other things. Well folks, John was way too cool for GM, so not surprisingly he was turfed. He had fashionably long hair for gawd's sake! He had to go.

Anyway, he developed his own sportscar, its claim to fame being the stainless steel body. Have a stainless steel appliance? So, you know how easily they mark. Also, the front and rear caps are a different shade, because they couldn't get the plastic to match the stainless body. Great start.

Thank goodness for the car's movie fame, since they weren't much of a sportscar. The old story ended badly.......the money ran out, DeLorean grasped at any way to get additional funds and his car company dreams folded. Leaving the Northern Ireland factory to collect dust, like the Bricklin one did in Saint John, New Brunswick a few short years before. Don't they ever learn?

So, why do I bring this up today, you ask? Because the fellow who bought all the leftover car parts has enough to produce 300 new DeLoreans. Do I hear cheering? Probably not. New rules in the US, means that he can build them without having to go thru the expensive crash worthiness testing or something like that.

The one difference is that the anemic Renault power plant has to be replaced with a modern unit. Nothing wrong with that, as the original didn't get accolades back in the day. The good news, is that one of the new ones will only set you back slightly less than $100K. Great except for one minor detail, a refurbished original can be had for roughly half of that. See any cracks in this plan?

So now the Delorean will not go back to the future, but it will rush back to the past........

Good luck, but I think that this idea is a non starter. Anyone else agree?

Until next time......