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What is a DeLorean anyway? Well, it’s easy to answer that question if you’ve seen Back to the Future (and I think that most people have unless they have been living in the remote parts of Afghanistan for their entire lives).
Put simply it is the result of a sole visionary, John Z. DeLorean, who broke away from GM in 1973 to start up the DeLorean Motor Company (DMC). Their first and only product ever being the DMC-12 produced from 1981-1983 in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland. Despite consumer interest and because of economic difficulties, production seized and the DeLorean fell into oblivion.
The DeLorean was undoubtedly ahead of its time. The overall design is appealing even today and the technology is in many ways unsurpassed. Take the doors for example, they still haven’t become standard because no one has been able to solve the gull-wing mechanism as well as DMC did. Here is an excerpt from the DMC FAQ:
The cryogenically manufactured torion bars that counterbalance the doors were developed and manufactured by Grumman Aerospace. Their function is taken for granted by DeLorean owners but the design and function is very elegant.
The DeLorean torsion bar counterbalances the door by storing torsional energy (in a way similar to how a spring stores energy when compressed). The cryogenic manufacturing process was necessary in order to strengthen the torsion bar for repeated operation without the bar fatiguing or breaking. In a process that I do not understand well, the crystalline structure of the material was modified in the process so that the “grain” in the material would run through the bar in an optimal way. If you examine a DeLorean torion bar you will see that it is twisted along its axis several times over its short distance.
Furthermore, the underbody of the car is fiberglass with the famous brushed stainless steel panels being forged on top of this. The car is surprisingly light (only about 1200kg) and can do 0-100kmh in just under 8s without wheel spin.
They just don’t build cars like this any more.
