Was driving along a country lane yesterday, happened to look up someone's drive and then went on about another 50 feet along the road before realised what I'd just seen. The ultra distinctive lines of an open doored DMC Delorean!


Slammed on brakes- fortunately no-one behind me, reversed up to double check and there it was!

Decided I had to go have a look-see so strolled up the drive and ended up spending 45 minutes chatting to the owner and looking at this fantastic (looking) vehicle.

He was just cleaning it having been displaying it at a classic car show. It was in pretty good nick (no probs with rust! ) and was almost completely original including the 'California edition only' special carpet dashboard cover to keep the sun from bleaching/cracking the dashboard.

The Guy even let me sit in it which he doesn't normally do at shows. He'd had a new replacement leather interior made (at the same factory as had made the original run of interiors in Ireland) so he'd managed to get same type/colour of leather etc.

One thing that did strike me was that frankly it was a more straight forward construction than a Locost: an 'H' frame chassis with a wheel at each end to which they fix a GRP body. The stainless panels are then just glued to the GRP!
Bear in mind this thing had just 3.5man-years of design time compared to 15man-years for a Ford escort.
Again, like a Locost it had Cortina front hubs etc. Granada rear hubs and a Renault 2.5(2.4?) V6 engine. So basic parts are easy to get.
Apparently even the front headlights are from a VW Scirocco!

A real 'barstard' of a machine (sounded more like a Locost by the minute)!

Anyway, it made my day and I left with a huge grin on my face having never seen one of these things before.

If you want one apparently you can get a runner for £15K and as they built 6000 of them there's quite a big owners club and even body spares aren't that hard to get (though expensive).

Cheers,

James

Ah, you just reminded me of a show I went to recently in the local park, so I've upload some pics.
Check out "local show" in my archive.

I have seen 2 deloreans.

One was on the road in LA, the other was in Universal Studios in LA also. Apparently it had strange handling characteristics at 88 mph

Although 6k - 10k deloreans were made, most went to the use and only 20 or so were rhd.

Strangely, it was seeing a delorean that made me think of building a kit car - A rear engined delorean replica using mini bits was one of my first ideas.

I think there is a web site for DMC owners about.

atb

steve

theres a real nice one sits in the transport mueseam over here if i rember right it's a delivary mileage model 2

although i think its a nice lookin car i think its showin its age a bit but still one of irelands best exports

next to bushmills fire water

Oh and by the way i no a fella that works in the museam so if a job comes up lookin for sum1 to look after the cars i'll goin for it
as it has a good collection of cars, bikes and basically all things automotive and its where a lotta owners clubs meet up for shows


and its well worth a look if your ever over this side of the irish c

My wife is a massive back to the future fan and would do anything for a Delorean [ well almost]I have now got a good idea for my next project, she would probably even help build it. I think the body and chassis were closely related to the lotus esprit.
Paul.

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I have seen 2 deloreans.

One was on the road in LA, the other was in Universal Studios in LA also. Apparently it had strange handling characteristics at 88 mph

Although 6k - 10k deloreans were made, most went to the use and only 20 or so were rhd.

Strangely, it was seeing a delorean that made me think of building a kit car - A rear engined delorean replica using mini bits was one of my first ideas.

I think there is a web site for DMC owners about.

atb

steve

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Although 6k - 10k deloreans were made, most went to the use and only 20 or so were rhd.

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I hate to be the one to say anything nasty about the Delorean, but isn't it a pig ugly pile of crap?

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I hate to be the one to say anything nasty about the Delorean, but isn't it a pig ugly pile of crap?

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Somebody was going to say it sooner or later, I figured it may as well be me.

There's one at the end of our road. Belongs to a friend of my dad's, could probably have a drive if I wanted but not really bothered. I'll see if he's selling/restoring.
chris PTM

Yes rich,i've been waiting for someone to start the ball rolling too.
Its basic to say the least,cheap kit car makers like pilgrim and cobretti used the same running gear for there cobras and they were the crap end of the market.
Most motor traders dubbed it the most expensive kit car in the world,this is what probably gave lotus the idea of mix and match on that bond car whatever it was.

Whenever i see a De Lorean at a car show my first thought is how the hell did that yank get 80 million of our notes out of thatcher.

You're right about the basic, as I said it seemed far more straight forward than a Locost!
I saw a Top Gear special about it awhile ago too and Tiff said the engine was nutsack and the whole thing was heavy and underpowered.

Even so, personally I think it looks great and best of all- it was in Back to the Future!

And you can't beat that!


Cheers,

James

imo the only reason its popular world wide is cos of the films

and over here cos it was belfast workers that got YOUR money from thacther na na

Is it too politically incorrect to say nutsack to Belfast?

na dont think so hippy after all people over here must think the same

they tried to blow it up for near 30 years

I think it was about 150 - 130 hp?

Remember, its a USA market car, and the yanks like cruisers not blasters in general. 90% of their cars are auto after all.

I actually like the delorean. There are a lot of nasty looking kit cars out there too.

atb

steve

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There are a lot of nasty looking kit cars out there too.

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you could be right!

at least you have notice what im building tho!

Interestingly, years ago i had a big discussion with about 6 people I worked with. They all loved morgans, I thought they were antique crap.

When you go from 18 to 43 your tastes change.

I looked at options of buildign various kit cars. But not from a kit - not interesting enougth. I looked at the idea of a DMC as I mentioned.

However, i wanted something relatively simple in bodywork to build. I wasnt that struck with lotus sevens as they look quite basic. HOWEVER there are cars on here that have revised that view a bit, like hicosts car, the 'dream and the isonblade to mention a few. Even Chris Gibbs photo car looks nice but i dont see myself in a seven replica. So, it dawned on me that mr chapman wasnt really that mach of an innovator after all. All he seems to have done is to junk all the extra panels from a morgan or an MG from the 40's - 50's to create the seven. Look at a morgan against a locost and you will see the main 'tub' is pretty similar. So, thats how my idea got started.

Seeing all the extra crap thats involved in doing my car I sometimes wished I had been a bit more conventional though!

atb

steve

i uused to like the morgans till i started workin with the company in now and discovered the directors nice 2+2 morgan had a 1.6 cvh

then he recived delivery of an asboulutly georgous aero 8

2 months later the horn arrived


things about it seem to get hushed hushed latly but we did find out that they sent a few mechanics over to sort out a few "problems"

heated windows came free apparently cos of the damp comin in from the water leaks causin condestaion (that 1 i must say is speculation)

i have a video here of how they make morgans thats a bout 30 mins long. all by hand inc all the panels. I suppose when you have been doing the original car for 40+ years and something else comes along, theres gonna be problems!

So, someone bought an aero 8 then!

atb

steve

yeah but the companys not makin money (yeah right)

drives about in it with his little flat cap and everything looks like a right poof

but cant see why they put a heavy clutch and a dog box in a tourer

our store boss (us mere mortals are just about priveldged enough to look) said it was more like driving a tvr or a track day special but i wouldnt want to stick 1 in the gravel would be a bit expensive

i always thought open top drivers looked like tossers too until I went in one. The hats to keep your hair down, and the dark glasses in leiu of window shades etc.

So im a bit more sympathetic now! One more tosser coming up sometime next year perhaps


atb

steve

trust me its not to keep his hair down and incinuating he's a tosser is an insult to tossers every where

any 1 that spends five years waitin on a car and 50k needs their head examined

The speed that I'm going at it will be 5 years and £500 before my very locost is on the road.

Don't slag off Delorean - building that factory made my ex-employer an absolute fortune as we were supplying the hardcore for the site and given that Mrs T's money had been spent on buying the boggiest part of NI we were continually pumping ton after ton of stone in. Happy days indeed and allowed my ex-employer to get a listing within the top 300 wealthy bastards as acknowledged by the FT.

Well i hope your old boss is happy with the cash that came from my hard earned tax,cos i wasnt

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i have a video here of how they make morgans thats a bout 30 mins long. all by hand inc all the panels.

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