The old gull may fly again
Automotive News |
 August 27, 2007 - 12:01 am EST





Remember that DeLorean sports car you didn't buy 25 years ago? Well, you may get another shot.

Stephen Wynne, president of a Texas company that bought nearly all the remaining spare parts for the failed stainless steel creation of former General Motors exec John DeLorean says he plans to restart production of the gull-winged sports car next year.

DeLorean Motor Co., near Houston, plans to hand-build two cars a month. Prices will start at $57,000.

The original DMC-12 was based on a Lotus design and powered by a wheezing 130-hp V-6 used in Peugeot, Renault and Volvo cars of the early 1980s. Only about 9,200 were sold before the venture folded in 1982.

But fueled by the popularity of the Back to the Future movies, the DMC-12, like Elvis, has some drawing power from beyond the grave.

Plans call for several technical upgrades, including a more powerful engine.  ..... but if time travel is your thing, you'll have to come up with your own flux capacitor.

Twenty-five years after the stainless steel carmaker went belly up, the vehicle that starred in all three "Back to the Future" movies will get a new lease on life, according to executives of the new DeLorean company, formed in 1995.

James Espey, vice president of DeLorean Motor Co., said the company will begin building new DeLoreans next year. The cars will sell for $57,500 and retain the squared-off looks and gull-wing doors that made them unique.

Instead of mass producing the cars, DeLorean will assemble them by hand in Humble, Texas. Espey said the company will build one or two cars a month.

"Job 1 will begin in the third quarter of next year," said Espey of a possible start time.

Standing with several DeLorean owners along Woodward Avenue during Saturday's Dream Cruise, Espey described the cottage business that emerged from the wreckage of the bankrupt original DeLorean company.

"When DeLorean closed in 1982, there were thousands of parts left untouched," he said. "Everything was shipped to a warehouse in Texas. We took those parts and have been helping people restore and repair their DeLoreans for the past 12 years."

Dave Swingle, president of the company's Midwest office, said his 4,000-square-foot shop in Chicago remains busy strictly with DeLorean work.

"There's currently about a one-month wait at the shop to get work done on a car," Swingle said.

Espey said the idea to build new cars came because of the continued success of restoring the vehicles, which have grown in popularity. Out of the 9,000 DeLoreans originally sold, about 6,500 remain on the road.

Even as the supply of spare parts diminished, the demand remained, Espey said. So the company decided to start producing new parts, which led to the decision to combine the old parts with the new.

Roughly 80 percent of the new cars will be made from parts produced in the early 1980s. However, the company will update the interior, provide stronger engines and address any shortcomings in the original vehicles.

The cars will be sold at five U.S. locations and one in Europe.

Kevin Smith, editorial director for the automotive Web site Edmunds.com, told the Associated Press he's interested to see if the effort fares better than the first attempt. He said quality control is often an issue with limited production, "but I'm always optimistic for people who want to make new and interesting cars."

The newest version of the DeLorean will certainly be interesting and exclusive, Smith said, "and for some people with means, that's enough."

Originally the creation of renowned automotive engineer John DeLorean, DMC folded in 1983. DeLorean was arrested the year before in a drug-trafficking sting. He was accused of conspiring to sell $24 million worth of cocaine to salvage his company.

Although DeLorean used an entrapment defense to win acquittal, legal entanglements plagued him for years. He died in 2005 at age 80.