DMC DeLorean

The **DMC DeLorean** is a rear-engine two-passenger sports car manufactured and marketed by John DeLorean's DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) 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**. However, the DMC-12 name was never used in sales or marketing materials for the production model.

Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and noted for its gull-wing doors and brushed stainless-steel outer body panels, the sports car was also noted for a lack of power and performance incongruous with its looks and price. 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.

With the first production car completed 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 and after total production reached about 9,000 units.

Despite the car having a reputation for poor build quality and an unsatisfactory driving experience, the DeLorean continues to have a strong following driven in part by the popularity of *Back to the Future*. 6,500 DeLoreans were estimated to still be on the road as of 2015.

## History

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 (ERM), a unit-construction plastic chassis, a mid-engine layout, an 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. The engine selection was reconsidered when Comotor production ended and the favored engine became the Ford Cologne V6 engine.

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.

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 1,985 cc (121 cu in) I4 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 (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo) 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.

The chassis was initially planned to use elastic reservoir moulding (ERM), which would lighten the car and lower its production costs. DeLorean had purchased patent rights to the essentially untested ERM technology, and it was eventually found unsuitable.

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. A central warning system 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.

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.

In order to train the workforce, a small number of pre-production DeLoreans were produced with fiberglass bodies and are referred to as "black cars" or mules. 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 rolling off the assembly line 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.

## Reception

The automotive press was generally complimentary. *Motor Trend*, *Car and Driver* and *Road & Track* made generally positive remarks about the car, particularly its commendable fuel economy, and argued that the DeLorean is more of a GT car rather than a sports car or race car, given a disappointing performance in comparative tests.

Later reviews have been harsher. In 2017, *Time* included the DeLorean in its list of the 50 worst cars of all time. In his book *Naff Motors: 101 Automotive Lemons*, Tony Davis described the build quality as "woeful". *Top Gear* writer Richard Porter included it in his book *Crap Cars*, calling it "dismal".

## Back to the Future

The DMC DeLorean is most notably featured as the time machine in the *Back to the Future* film trilogy. Six DeLoreans were used during the production, along with one manufactured out of fiberglass for scenes where a full-size DeLorean was needed to "fly" on-screen. The cars used in the first film had the original V6 engine (whose sound in the movie comes from the V8 engine of a Porsche 928). Two of the cars used in *Back to the Future Part III* were equipped with Volkswagen engines and dune buggy chassis for filming the scenes in the Western terrain.

Only three of the cars still exist, with one that was destroyed at the end of Part III, two additional cars were abandoned, and the fiberglass replica used in Part II was scrapped. Universal Studios owns two of the remaining cars, occasionally putting them on display or using them for other productions. The third car, used in *Back to the Future Part III*, was restored and was sold at auction for $541,200 in December 2011. A fully-restored *Back to the Future* DeLorean can be viewed at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.