1981 De Lorean. Images courtesy OldCarBrochures.org.
When announced in the mid-1970s, the De Lorean DMC-12 was a car that seemed to come from decades in the future. From its gleaming paint-free stainless steel skin to its corrosion-proof plastic underbody to its (planned) Wankel power and safety-conscious airbags, the “ethical sports car” conceived by one-time Detroit wunderkind John DeLorean was to be like nothing else on the market. What launched in 1981 may have been a semi-hollow promise of the car’s real potential, but there’s no denying that the De Lorean DMC-12 remains one of the most iconic automobiles of the 20th century.
History tells us that the car DeLorean showed the world in October of 1976 was not the car that arrived at DMC dealers some five years later, indicating that the original design was, perhaps, a bit too advanced in its thinking. Plans to produce a chassis via a process called Elastic Reservoir Molding, for which DeLorean had purchased the patent from former Pontiac chief engineer Bill Collins, were scrapped, necessitating a time-consuming re-engineering process that involved Lotus’s Colin Chapman. The De Lorean that would debut in 1981 would use a Vacuum Assist Resin Injection underbody bolted to a backbone chassis not dissimilar to the one used in one of Chapman’s earlier designs, the Lotus Esprit.
Power would no longer be derived from a Wankel rotary engine, and even DeLorean’s second choice – Ford’s legendary Cologne V-6 – would fail to see the light of day in his car. Instead, the De Lorean came to market with a 2.8-liter Peugeot-Renault-Volvo V-6, rated at a mere 130 horsepower and 160 pound-feet of torque, but available with both a five-speed manual or three-speed automatic transmission. Though its relatively light curb weight of 2,840 pounds aided performance, the De Lorean’s 0-60 time of 9.5 seconds and top speed of 120 MPH hardly put the car in the same league as the Porsche 911, one of the cars identified as a potential rival at the De Lorean’s debut.
Underneath, the De Lorean’s four-wheel independent suspension used double wishbones, coil springs, telescoping shocks and an anti-roll bar up front, along with a multilink trailing arm suspension in the rear. Disc brakes were used in all four corners, and the rack and pinion steering came without power assist. Though this yielded decent steering feel at speed, it also made parallel parking a challenge for all but the strongest drivers. Initial plans called for the De Lorean to be mid-engine, rear drive, but the changes to chassis and engine ultimately saw the car debut as a rear-engine, rear-drive model carrying 68 percent of its weight over the rear wheels.
On the plus side, the De Lorean came to market with the same stainless steel skin and gullwing doors envisioned on the concept. As owners would soon find out, this was both a blessing and a curse; though the stainless skin (which attached to a glass-reinforced plastic monocoque) was easy to care for, it was difficult to repair. Small scratches could be buffed out with sandpaper or non-metallic scrubbing pads, but dents in the stainless steel panels were difficult to repair due to the nature of the material; even DeLorean’s initial plans called for replacement of the panels instead of repair. The car’s gullwing doors were far less of an issue, though some complained of poor ventilation from the diminutive side windows required by the narrow door bottom.
Initially, plans called for the De Lorean to be priced on par with the Chevrolet Corvette, which stickered for just over $16,000 in 1981. Re-engineering the car added significantly to the price, and by the time the first cars arrived at dealerships, the De Lorean cost more than $25,000; nearly on par with the higher-performance Porsche 911′s $28,000 asking price. Despite this, interest in the De Lorean remained high, with many dealers reporting sales at $10,000 over sticker and customer waiting lists for delivery.
Production of the cars took place in Dunmurry, on the outskirts of Belfast, Northern Ireland. In an effort to counter high unemployment in the area, the British government agreed to loan DeLorean $120 million in start-up money, and a factory was constructed that would support growth beyond the minimum projection of 10,000 to 12,000 annual units. Despite rumors of quality issues at the plant, evidence indicates that this was no more or less of an issue than with any other new automotive manufacturing operation, and by the 1982 model year, most of the initial production bugs had been ironed out.
Though initial sales were brisk, they fell far short of the 10,000 units needed to break even, and by February of 1982 the De Lorean Motor Company was in receivership. Reorganization involved a complex web of companies, including parent De Lorean Motors Holding Company, manufacturer De Lorean Motor Cars Limited, distributor De Lorean Motor Cars of America and R&D arm De Lorean Research Partnership. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission was not convinced the company could survive, and a planned stock offering that would have generated revenue for ongoing operations was cancelled.
John DeLorean once again turned to the British government for assistance, but the best it offered was to match monies raised from other investors. Desperate to raise capital, DeLorean found himself in the midst of an FBI sting operation; any hopes of a revival were ended by a suitcase full of cocaine and a series of charges for money laundering, which DeLorean would later beat.
Ultimately, the failure of De Lorean as a company rested on far more than the arrest of its founder. A weakening market for luxury cars, production cost increases, and unfavorable exchange rates all contributed to the end of a company that once showed such promise. By December of 1982, the plant in Dunmurry would be shuttered after the construction of 9,170 automobiles, returning some 2,500 employees to the unemployment line and costing Britain an estimated $100 million in loan defaults. That would likely be the end of the De Lorean saga, except for two things: the immortalization of the car in the Back to the Future film series, and an impressive supply of De Lorean spare parts, now owned by the De Lorean Motor Company (no relation to the original) of Humble, Texas.
Though the last De Lorean built in Ireland left the factory in 1982, today’s De Lorean Motor Company can supply nearly 99 percent of the parts needed to refurbish an existing car, and even has plans to restart production of “new build” De Loreans, which had been offered until the sale of the company’s stainless steel frame supplier. In an odd way, then, John DeLorean’s vision of a car that would live on, bearing his name, long beyond his own demise, is still alive and well today.