Easter post:- DeLorean DMC-12 - original post date 3/31/2013
Since Easter is about renewal and resurrection, the Car Du Jour is the DeLorean DMC-12.
You probably recognize these cars from the Back to the Future movies. This one was at the Ellingson Car museum/classic car sales in Rogers, but it's gone now (probably sold to somebody in Australia, as things seem to go there).
The DeLorean is an interesting car for a few reasons. It was the only model offered by its manufacturer. It was only produced for 2 years (though I think they were all offered as 1981 models -but I could be wrong about that). There were only about 9,000 original DeLoreans made -and over the years, I'd say about 3/4 or fewer of the originals remain.
The DeLorean shares a similar chassis with the Lotus Esprit of its day, shaped like a double Y. On top of the double Y, was a fiberglass underbody, and attached to that are the stainless steel body panels that made this car stand out so much for its time -the rust resistant nature of the fiberglass and the stainless steel also mean that a car like this would stand a good chance of still looking good after all these years if it had to endure all the nasty winter road salt and driving sludge of Minnesota roads.
Another noticeable thing about these cars is the gull-wing doors, which are cool, albeit likely to have problems after a while with the eventual failing/weakening of the torsion bars and gas struts that support these heavy wings. Well, so what?! I say they still look slick, whether they work right or not.
The car was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro of Ital Design (one of my favorite car designers), who you should definitely Google if you get the chance (is Google still capitalized if you're using it as a verb? ...oh well, no matter!). Giugiaro and his firm have done some amazing work for all kinds of car companies. The car that made me fall in love with Ital Design was the 2006 Mustang concept (Google Giugiaro Mustang), though his career spans much further back in time than that, and features some very iconic cars -like the DeLorean!
You may see a DeLorean and fantasize about how fast it must be, but you'd be rather disappointed in the reality of it. These were not particularly quick cars. Originally, John DeLorean wanted to put a rotary engine into his cars (we'll talk about those if I ever happen to spot a good Mazda RX7 for Car Du Jour). Instead, the car is powered by a 174 cubic inch (2.85 or so Liter) V6 that only put out 150 HP if you were lucky enough to have one of the European cars. The ones that were offered in the states had around 15HP less due to emission regulations that choked up the car and hampered its performance. This means that your typical compact car of today, like a basic Ford Focus with 2.0 L non- turbo charged engine that features 160 HP, or a base Honda Civic with a 1.8 L 140 HP engine could easily keep up with, if not actually put to shame the DeLorean (but I bet they can't time travel, so, you know, there's that).
Brand new back in 1981, buying a DeLorean would have set you back around $25,000 (which would translate to somewhere around $60,000 today, I'd guess). This seems appropriate, because, as it turns out, you can buy a new DeLorean for right around that figure now. The DeLorean Motor Company still exists, although in a new incarnation that's sourcing the cars out of Texas instead of Northern Ireland. This company bought the name, designs, and original parts inventory several years ago. Between the original inventory, reproduction parts, and some new and improved stuff, they can build you a brand new DeLorean to order. They have a web site www.delorean.com, where you can shop around and even take a peek at the Electric DeLorean. It comes with a price, but mechanical resurrection sure looks nice when it's applied to a car like this. Happy Easter.
You probably recognize these cars from the Back to the Future movies. This one was at the Ellingson Car museum/classic car sales in Rogers, but it's gone now (probably sold to somebody in Australia, as things seem to go there).
The DeLorean is an interesting car for a few reasons. It was the only model offered by its manufacturer. It was only produced for 2 years (though I think they were all offered as 1981 models -but I could be wrong about that). There were only about 9,000 original DeLoreans made -and over the years, I'd say about 3/4 or fewer of the originals remain.
The DeLorean shares a similar chassis with the Lotus Esprit of its day, shaped like a double Y. On top of the double Y, was a fiberglass underbody, and attached to that are the stainless steel body panels that made this car stand out so much for its time -the rust resistant nature of the fiberglass and the stainless steel also mean that a car like this would stand a good chance of still looking good after all these years if it had to endure all the nasty winter road salt and driving sludge of Minnesota roads.
Another noticeable thing about these cars is the gull-wing doors, which are cool, albeit likely to have problems after a while with the eventual failing/weakening of the torsion bars and gas struts that support these heavy wings. Well, so what?! I say they still look slick, whether they work right or not.
The car was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro of Ital Design (one of my favorite car designers), who you should definitely Google if you get the chance (is Google still capitalized if you're using it as a verb? ...oh well, no matter!). Giugiaro and his firm have done some amazing work for all kinds of car companies. The car that made me fall in love with Ital Design was the 2006 Mustang concept (Google Giugiaro Mustang), though his career spans much further back in time than that, and features some very iconic cars -like the DeLorean!
You may see a DeLorean and fantasize about how fast it must be, but you'd be rather disappointed in the reality of it. These were not particularly quick cars. Originally, John DeLorean wanted to put a rotary engine into his cars (we'll talk about those if I ever happen to spot a good Mazda RX7 for Car Du Jour). Instead, the car is powered by a 174 cubic inch (2.85 or so Liter) V6 that only put out 150 HP if you were lucky enough to have one of the European cars. The ones that were offered in the states had around 15HP less due to emission regulations that choked up the car and hampered its performance. This means that your typical compact car of today, like a basic Ford Focus with 2.0 L non- turbo charged engine that features 160 HP, or a base Honda Civic with a 1.8 L 140 HP engine could easily keep up with, if not actually put to shame the DeLorean (but I bet they can't time travel, so, you know, there's that).
Brand new back in 1981, buying a DeLorean would have set you back around $25,000 (which would translate to somewhere around $60,000 today, I'd guess). This seems appropriate, because, as it turns out, you can buy a new DeLorean for right around that figure now. The DeLorean Motor Company still exists, although in a new incarnation that's sourcing the cars out of Texas instead of Northern Ireland. This company bought the name, designs, and original parts inventory several years ago. Between the original inventory, reproduction parts, and some new and improved stuff, they can build you a brand new DeLorean to order. They have a web site www.delorean.com, where you can shop around and even take a peek at the Electric DeLorean. It comes with a price, but mechanical resurrection sure looks nice when it's applied to a car like this. Happy Easter.
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