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Back in time: The DeLorean Rennaisance
Tomorrow is October 21, 2015, the day Doctor Emmett Brown and Marty McFly arrive in (their) future, by way of a flying DeLorean. That's tomorrow.
For now let's cast our eyes back to October 21, 1984. "Back to the future" was still many months in the future, the DeLorean Motor Company had evaporated in bankruptcy after losing millions of dollars, and the car's namesake and creator, John Z. DeLorean, was only two months past his acquittal on Drug trafficking charges.
The taint of the corporate failure and the allegations related to the drug deal ended John Z. DeLorean's storied career, and the car itself was only slightly less tarnished in the public eye.
The DMC-12's protracted development, underwhelming performance, spectacular initial quality problems, and then the spectacular fall from grace of it's founder and even others related to the company - former Lotus managing director Fred Bushell would later be convicted for fraud in matters relating to the Delorean Motor Co. - meant that the cars faced a very uncertain future.
Although the DeLorean did sell, it was not a huge success and unsold stock soon began to pile up. On February 19, 1982, the British government forced DMC into receivership. The factory stayed open until May, completing cars. Over the summer of 1982 DeLorean tried various ways of saving his company but to no avail. His arrest - it eventually came to light that he had been entrapped - came on October 19, 1982, and the company slid into bankruptcy not long after.
The unsold stock, and basically everything leftover from the company, were purchased by Consolidated International, a retail discounter better known for it's primary story - Big Lots. Consolidated's owner, Sol Shenk, had snatched up the remains of another failed supercar - the Bricklin SV-1 - in the 1970s and had done quite well selling off the cars and parts that remained from that venture.
The DMC-12s Shenk bought did sell - and so did the parts - but they couldn't be sold at a price high enough to ever repay all of DMC's debts, or return the car to volume production - a few DeLoreans were completed in a facility Shenk had in Columbus, Ohio, where most of the DeLorean parts inventory was shipped.
And it seemed like that was that - the adventure over, the lawyers continuing to battle it out (lawsuits over the DeLorean continued well into the 1990s).
But then came Doc Brown's time machine, and the DeLorean got an entirely new lease on life.
The car fit the film perfectly - not only because of it's futuristic apperance (almost a decade after the prototype debuted, it still looked new in 1985) - but also because it was plausible that Doc Brown would choose a DeLorean (cheap, available, exotic, fast) in a way it wouldn't have been plausible to choose a Ferrari or some other exotic.
The blockbuster success of "Back to the Future" got an entire generation interested in the DeLorean, and firmly established it as a cultural icon of the eighties, rather than as an automotive curiosity.
In 1995, long after the end of the DeLorean Motor Company and even some years after the "Back to the Future" phenomenon had subsided, a DeLorean fan purchased the entire remaining parts inventory from Consolidated and founded a new DeLorean Motor Company, in Texas.
Many DeLorean enthusiasts had already been modifying their cars to go faster and handle better, and the new DMC began helping with these efforts as well. In time, the popularity of the DeLorean led DMC to produce entirely rebuilt examples - effectively new cars in the way an MGB re-created with British Motor Heritage parts is a new vehicle - examples you can buy today, with a warranty.
The DMC-12 seen here (yes, it is being driven with the door up), which has some modern updates, is serviced at a branch of the new DMC - DeLorean Northwest.
Today, DeLoreans are arguably more popular than they were when new - good ones sell for considerable sums of money ($25,000 buys you a decent usable original, the price goes up with upgrades, provenance, and condition) and with modern upgrades they're perfectly usable as regular automobiles.
You wouldn't have predicted that in 1985...
©2015 A. Kwanten.
Back in time: The DeLorean Rennaisance
Tomorrow is October 21, 2015, the day Doctor Emmett Brown and Marty McFly arrive in (their) future, by way of a flying DeLorean. That's tomorrow.
For now let's cast our eyes back to October 21, 1984. "Back to the future" was still many months in the future, the DeLorean Motor Company had evaporated in bankruptcy after losing millions of dollars, and the car's namesake and creator, John Z. DeLorean, was only two months past his acquittal on Drug trafficking charges.
The taint of the corporate failure and the allegations related to the drug deal ended John Z. DeLorean's storied career, and the car itself was only slightly less tarnished in the public eye.
The DMC-12's protracted development, underwhelming performance, spectacular initial quality problems, and then the spectacular fall from grace of it's founder and even others related to the company - former Lotus managing director Fred Bushell would later be convicted for fraud in matters relating to the Delorean Motor Co. - meant that the cars faced a very uncertain future.
Although the DeLorean did sell, it was not a huge success and unsold stock soon began to pile up. On February 19, 1982, the British government forced DMC into receivership. The factory stayed open until May, completing cars. Over the summer of 1982 DeLorean tried various ways of saving his company but to no avail. His arrest - it eventually came to light that he had been entrapped - came on October 19, 1982, and the company slid into bankruptcy not long after.
The unsold stock, and basically everything leftover from the company, were purchased by Consolidated International, a retail discounter better known for it's primary story - Big Lots. Consolidated's owner, Sol Shenk, had snatched up the remains of another failed supercar - the Bricklin SV-1 - in the 1970s and had done quite well selling off the cars and parts that remained from that venture.
The DMC-12s Shenk bought did sell - and so did the parts - but they couldn't be sold at a price high enough to ever repay all of DMC's debts, or return the car to volume production - a few DeLoreans were completed in a facility Shenk had in Columbus, Ohio, where most of the DeLorean parts inventory was shipped.
And it seemed like that was that - the adventure over, the lawyers continuing to battle it out (lawsuits over the DeLorean continued well into the 1990s).
But then came Doc Brown's time machine, and the DeLorean got an entirely new lease on life.
The car fit the film perfectly - not only because of it's futuristic apperance (almost a decade after the prototype debuted, it still looked new in 1985) - but also because it was plausible that Doc Brown would choose a DeLorean (cheap, available, exotic, fast) in a way it wouldn't have been plausible to choose a Ferrari or some other exotic.
The blockbuster success of "Back to the Future" got an entire generation interested in the DeLorean, and firmly established it as a cultural icon of the eighties, rather than as an automotive curiosity.
In 1995, long after the end of the DeLorean Motor Company and even some years after the "Back to the Future" phenomenon had subsided, a DeLorean fan purchased the entire remaining parts inventory from Consolidated and founded a new DeLorean Motor Company, in Texas.
Many DeLorean enthusiasts had already been modifying their cars to go faster and handle better, and the new DMC began helping with these efforts as well. In time, the popularity of the DeLorean led DMC to produce entirely rebuilt examples - effectively new cars in the way an MGB re-created with British Motor Heritage parts is a new vehicle - examples you can buy today, with a warranty.
The DMC-12 seen here (yes, it is being driven with the door up), which has some modern updates, is serviced at a branch of the new DMC - DeLorean Northwest.
Today, DeLoreans are arguably more popular than they were when new - good ones sell for considerable sums of money ($25,000 buys you a decent usable original, the price goes up with upgrades, provenance, and condition) and with modern upgrades they're perfectly usable as regular automobiles.
You wouldn't have predicted that in 1985...
©2015 A. Kwanten.