DMC DeLorean
The DMC DeLorean is a rear-engine, two-seat sports car manufactured and marketed by John DeLorean's DeLorean Motor Company for the American market from 1981 until 1983—ultimately the only car brought to market by the fledgling company. The DeLorean is sometimes referred to by its internal DMC pre-production designation, DMC-12, although this was not used in sales or marketing materials for the production model.
Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the DeLorean is noted for its gull-wing doors and brushed stainless-steel outer body panels, as well as its lack of power and performance. It uses the V6 PRV engine "designed by committee" in the 1970s used in Peugeot, Renault and Volvo Cars.
With the first production car announced on January 21, 1981, the design incorporated numerous minor revisions to the hood, wheels and interior before production ended in late December 1982, shortly after DMC filed for bankruptcy. Total production reached an estimated 9,000 units. Though its production was short-lived, the DeLorean became widely known after it was featured as the time machine in the Back to the Future films.
Despite the car having a reputation for poor build quality and an unsatisfactory driving experience, the DeLorean continues to have a strong following. 6,500 DeLoreans were estimated to still be on the road as of 2015.
History
In 1973, John DeLorean left General Motors and formed his own car company, the DeLorean Motor Company. Its first vehicle was to be a 2-seat coupe-body sports car.When details surrounding the DeLorean were first announced in the mid-1970s, there were numerous plans and rumors that the DeLorean would have many advanced features, such as elastic reservoir moulding, a unit-construction plastic chassis, a mid-engine layout, a driver-side airbag, 10-mph bumpers and ultrawide Pirelli P7 tires; none of these would materialize in the production vehicle.
Originally, the car was intended to have a centrally mounted Wankel rotary engine, similar to the 1969 gull-wing Mercedes-Benz C111 experimental cars. The engine selection was reconsidered when Comotor production ended and the favored engine became the Ford Cologne V6 engine. The chassis was initially planned to use elastic reservoir moulding, which would lighten the car and lower its production costs. DeLorean had purchased patent rights to the essentially untested ERM technology, but it was eventually found to be unsuitable.
Appearing in October 1976, the first prototype was completed by American automotive chief engineer William T. Collins, formerly chief engineer at Pontiac. The prototype was initially known as the DSV-1, or DeLorean Safety Vehicle. As development continued, the model was referred to as the DSV-12, before changing to DMC-12, the "12" deriving from the target list price of $12,000 upon release. Prototype 1's interior was significantly different from the production vehicle's. Prototype 1 had a prominent full-width knee bar, as it was intended to be a safety car. A medium brown leather covered the seats, but they were much flatter and did not have the comfort and support of the production seats. A black steering wheel with a fat center was intended to hold an airbag and the driver had a full set of Stewart-Warner gauges which included a central warning system that would check various fluid levels and even warn of low brake pad thickness though, even at this time, it was suspected that production cars would not have this feature.
The Ford V6 engine would soon be abandoned in favor of the complete drivetrain from the Citroën CX 2000—deemed a more reliable choice. The inline-four engine from Citroën was ultimately deemed underpowered for the DeLorean. When Citroën learned of DMC plans to turbocharge the engine, Citroën suggested that DMC find another engine.
Eventually the fuel-injected V6 PRV engine was selected. As a result, the engine location had to be moved from the mid-engined location in Prototype 1 to a rear-engined location in Prototype 2, a configuration which would be retained in the production vehicle.
These and other changes to the original concept led to considerable schedule pressures. The design was deemed to require almost complete re-engineering, which was turned over to English engineer Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus Cars. Chapman replaced most of the unproven material and manufacturing techniques with those then employed by Lotus, including a steel backbone chassis.
A small number of pre-production DeLoreans were produced with fiberglass bodies and are referred to as "black cars" or mules and were used by Lotus during development and engineering. After several delays and cost overruns, production at the Dunmurry factory, located a few miles from Belfast City Centre, finally began in late 1980. DMC changed the name DMC-12 on its now $25,000 car in favor of the model name DeLorean. The DeLorean sports car, as it was described in advertisements, began production in December 1980 with the first production car announced on January 21, 1981.
The DeLorean Motor Company was placed into receivership in February 1982 and filed bankruptcy on October 26 of that year, just a few days after the arrest of its founder, John DeLorean, on drug-trafficking charges. Consolidated International purchased the unsold DeLoreans and partially completed DeLoreans still on the assembly line and assembled approximately 100 cars to finish the remaining production on December 24, 1982.
Sales and production
Sales
Prior to the release of the DeLorean, there was a waiting list of eager buyers, many of whom paid over manufacturers suggested retail price. However, that exuberance subsided very quickly and production output soon far exceeded sales volume. October 1981 was the highest month of sales for DMC with 720 vehicles sold but by December, the US was falling into recession and interest rates were rising which further negatively impacted sales. Despite this, instead of reducing production, John DeLorean doubled production output, further adding to the inventory of unsold cars. By the end of 1981, DMC had produced 7,500 cars but had sold only 3,000. By this point, DMC was in a financial hardship having sold only 350 units in January 1982 and in February of that year, DMC was placed into receivership.In February 1982, unsold 1981 model year cars were "priced for immediate clearance" in hopes to make room for the more expensive 1982 model year cars. In March, telegrams were sent to all 343 dealerships requesting each buy six cars to help save the company; none of the dealers responded with a sales order. By this point, dealerships and the quality assurance centers were sitting on unsold inventory. Hundreds more were sitting on the docks in Long Beach, California as well. By the end of May 1982, production at the factory was shut down. Another attempt in July 1982 was made to revive sales by offering discounts to dealerships and offering a 5-year/ warranty with the first year or portion secured by a major insurance carrier, but this was not successful.
After resigning his position, Bruce McWilliams, VP of Marketing for DMC and later acting President for DMC America, said, "The car could never be sold in the numbers John DeLorean predicted".
Production quantity
Production information was lost or scattered upon the shutdown of DMC and production figures for the DeLorean were never verified based on official factory records. Owners have been able to piece together the approximate quantity of DeLoreans produced from vehicle identification number information, despite some unexplained VIN gaps. Beginning in February 1982, the factory operated at a reduced production rate until the end of May that year. When Consolidated International acquired the unsold and partially assembled cars in November 1982, it brought back workers to complete the cars remaining on the assembly line. It was decided to make the remaining completed 1982 model year cars into 1983 models. The remaining cars' VINs were re-VINed into 1983 cars by taking the original VIN and adding 5000 to it and changing the "CD" in the middle of the VIN to "DD" thus making a 1983 model. For the 1981 model year, there were 6,700 DeLoreans produced. For the 1982 model year, there were an estimated 1,999 DeLoreans produced. For the 1983 model year, there were an estimated 276 DeLoreans produced, bringing total production to an estimated 8,975 cars.Construction
The DeLorean features a number of unusual construction details, including gull-wing doors, unpainted stainless-steel body panels, and a rear-mounted engine.Body
The body design of the DeLorean was a product of Giorgetto Giugiaro of Italdesign. To create the car, Giugiaro drew on one of his previous works, the Porsche Tapiro, a concept car from 1970. The body is paneled in brushed austenitic SAE 304 stainless steel, and except for three cars plated in 24-karat gold, all DeLoreans left the factory uncovered by paint or clearcoat. Painted DeLoreans do exist, although these were all painted after the cars were purchased from the factory.The stainless-steel panels are fixed to a fiberglass underbody. The underbody is affixed to an epoxy-coated steel backbone chassis with Y-frames at either end, derived from the Lotus Esprit platform.
Another distinctive feature of the DeLorean is its gull-wing doors. The DeLorean features heavy doors supported by cryogenically-preset torsion bars and nitrogen-charged struts that were developed by Grumman Aerospace. The doors featured red and amber lights to mark their edges at night and small cutout windows, because full-sized windows would not be fully retractable within the short door panels. Although early-production cars had fitment problems due to faulty striker plates and issues with weather seals, these were mostly tolerated because the attention-getting doors allowed occupants to enter and exit the car in tight parking places.