John Delorean had a history of building cars. Â He helped developed the Pontiac GTO, Pontiac Grand Prix, and the Pontiac Firebird. Â He created his own company, Delorean Motor Company. Â To fund his car company, he sold drugs. Â Delorean made one car, the Delorean DMC-12, and if you do not know what movie it was featured in, you lived a sheltered childhood. Â In my opinion, if it were not featured in a particular film franchise, no one would care for the DMC-12. Â Produced from 1981 to 1982 in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland’ the Delorean had a few interesting design features. Â It is one of the very few cars to be made from stainless steel, most cars were made from steel, aluminum, fiberglass and plastic, or carbon fiber. Â The Delorean also had gull-wing doors, a feature taken from the iconic Mercedes-Benz 300SL. Â Unfortunately, you cannot get a DMC-12 with a flux capacitor.
I first saw the Delorean DMC-12 in person at the October 2010 edition of Houston Cars and Coffee. Â It has a huge following because of a certain movie franchise. Â I have also seen one being towed on the freeway in Houston. Â However, it is nice to see the featured car from a movie franchise I enjoy. Â It is not the best looking car I have seen and it is missing the flux capacitor.
The Delorean DMC-12 weighs 2712 lbs and is powered by a PRV V6 that produces 130 bhp and 153 lb-ft of torque. Â It come with either a 5-speed manual or 3-speed automatic transmission. Â It goes from 0 to 60 mph in 9.6 seconds and goes up to 130 mph. Â This is slow by 1980’s sport car standards.
The Delorean DMC-12 was the time machine used in the Back to the Future trilogy. Â It has been featured in Forza Motorsport 3, Driver: San Francisco, Grand Turismo, Grand Turismo 4, Flatout: Head On, Burnout Paradise, and many other video games. Â Jay Leno did a feature on it on his website, www.jaylenosgarage.com. Â Top Gear named it one of the worst supercars of all time. Â In 2008, 20 Deloreans will be produced each year in Houston.
 |
| License plate only works on Deloreans. Â If you don’t get the joke, go watch Back to the Future movies. |
Final Thoughts: Â It is nice to see the featured vehicle from a movie franchise I enjoy. Â The Delorean-DMC12 could have used a flux capacitor because this car is slow. Â The car needed a more powerful engine, and could have used an extra two cylinders. Â I question its reliability since I saw one being towed. Â It has its charm for being one of the few if not the only car to be made out of stainless steel.
CarJunkie
Photos taken from a digital camera.
Originally written on April 18, 2011
About Author
