Undoubtedly more than any other car manufacturer, Delorian The Hollywood brand.
Other brands, such as the Aston Martin franchise, have popularized various models James BondDeLorean is a brand whose status was created only through a movie franchise, in this case Back to the future Series
Iconic in pop culture, the company’s real-life trials and tribulations were nothing short of Hollywood blockbusters.
To this day, the brand is best known for its landmark DeLorean DMC-12: its futuristic (for the time being) design, and those doorknob doors are still quiet today.
History: The development and fate of the original DeLorean company and DMC-12
DeLorean takes its name from founder John Z. DeLorean.
DeLorean himself was a well-known industry figure, especially in America, where he had a career with companies like Chrysler and Packard before working for General Motors, where he was responsible for the engineering and marketing of the fictional Pontiac GTO.
Further success came in the Chevrolet division, which he was able to revive to sell nearly three million cars per year by 1971 (then served as a separate, relatively independent division among many GM brand companies).
Around the same time, Delorian began having problems with GM’s executive management and colleagues about moving to Chevrolet and the larger GM company, and, being well-known as a Maverick, decided to leave to start his own business.
Founded in late 1975, DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) wanted to build a sports car as its first model, and with the help of Giorgetto Giugiaro and his famous Italdesign studio, prototype designs were completed by 1979, a massive change. Chassis supplied by Lotus.
Internally, the car was dubbed the ‘DMC-12’ for allegedly wanting to sell the car to customers for $ 12,000 or less. However, a cascading series of problems soon became apparent for cars and new companies.
One of the most complex problems was the engine. DMC originally approached Citroën to use its rotary engine, but the power plant’s unusual fuel economy, especially during the oil crisis of the early 1970s, made this option inappropriate.
Instead, DMC had to adopt a 2.85-liter V6 engine built by the then Peugeot-Renault-Volvo (PRV) alliance. Despite its large displacement and having six cylinders, it had a high power of only 97kW at 5500rpm and 207Nm of torque, which makes the car less powerful for its weight.
One of the most enticing aspects of the DMC-12 was its design with glowing doors and stainless steel body panels, but this intricate part not only did not have the problem of sealing the gaps in the panels and the weather, all the factory cars (a few gold-plated bars) were colorless, and They looked exactly like each other from the outside, removing the opportunity for customers to personalize their vehicles.
As a newly formed company with a car designed from scratch, DMC was forced to recoup costly tooling and R&D costs as part of the final cost of the car, and already combined with a complex design and manufacturing process as well as shipping costs. At the firm’s Northern Ireland factory in the United States, the DMC-12 had a selling price of around $ 25,000 – or twice what DeLorian initially predicted.
The actual production and production of the car was not without problems.
DeLorean sought to maximize the amount of incentives, grants and tax breaks the company received by building its new factory in an economically underdeveloped area to provide more jobs for local workers and was similarly tempted by their proposal that the UK government build a factory in Northern Ireland.
What DeLorian did not fully realize was that Northern Ireland was not only in a revolt and effective civil war in the late 1970s and early 80s, but had zero efficiency in building local workforce vehicles.
This means that the initial examples of the DMC-12, which was discontinued in 1981, were made incompletely, and a rigorous quality assurance process solved many of the car’s subsequent problems, damaging the company’s reputation.
John Delorian himself was not completely free from sin, and this only exacerbated his problems by tarnishing the company’s image. While in custody, he was charged with cocaine trafficking by the FBI in 1982, and shortly thereafter, was charged with embezzlement using funds from companies and investors for personal gain, although he was again acquitted.
A total of 9000 instances of DMC-12 have been produced in more than two years due to vehicle problems, its production and other complaints, and the company was declared bankrupt by 1982, just seven years after its inception. .
When the DMC-12 first appeared in the original Back to the Future film in 1985, the company stopped working and the car was already out of production.
Efforts to revive
After the death of the original Delorian motor company, it was uncertain how or where existing Delorian customers, especially in the United States, would go to fix and maintain their vehicles.
Stephen Winn, a British mechanic, however, was proficient in servicing French cars and was familiar with Renault’s engine using the DMC-12.
In partnership with a DeLorean owner, he founded DeLorean One in 1985, a company that gained access to all remaining parts and inventory of the original DeLorean motor company and used it as a basis to run a mail ordering equipment and catering service business for DeLorean. . Customers
The firm later changed its name to DeLorean Motor Company (echoing the original firm’s name) and moved its headquarters to Texas.
In line with this move, the company has expanded from a mere service center and parts distribution business, actually producing reproductive parts according to the original design and engineering drawings and specifications.
Newer, Texas-based DMCs retrieve and sell original DMC-12s, often with upgrades to cure infamous quality and reliability issues of the examples produced during the original production.
DeLorean Alpha5 and future plans
Alpha5 marks another major expansion of the new DMC’s business model, with the company ambitiously developing a modern car from old car recovery to designing and engineering and ground up.
Alpha5 translates some of the themes of the original DMC-12’s design into a modern context, and while retaining features such as glowing doors, cannot be distinguished from the original in any other way.
It marks the debut of DeLorean’s first electric car, and features a 100kWh battery pack for a target range of more than 480km, despite the concept claiming 0-88mp / h (you know, you know). 4.35 seconds.
A production version is expected to be readily available by 2024, and the car will be made in Italy, with Powertrain being built in conjunction with UK partners.
The current CEO, Just de Vries, previously worked for the EV company Carma and worked for Tesla between January 2012 and September 2013.
The new DMC will not only be an EV-company, but plans to build a V8-powered sports coupe, an electric sedan in the Porsche Tycoon’s vein, as well as a hydrogen fuel-powered SUV. .
Fit ambitious.
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