Classic Car: Delorean DMC-12

John Delorean had a history of building cars.  He helped developed the Pontiac GTO, Pontiac Grand Prix, and the Pontiac Firebird.  He created his own company, Delorean Motor Company.  To fund his car company, he sold drugs.  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.  In my opinion, if it were not featured in a particular film franchise, no one would care for the DMC-12.  Produced from 1981 to 1982 in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland' the Delorean had a few interesting design features.  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.  The Delorean also had gull-wing doors, a feature taken from the iconic Mercedes-Benz 300SL.  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.  It has a huge following because of a certain movie franchise.  I have also seen one being towed on the freeway in Houston.  However, it is nice to see the featured car from a movie franchise I enjoy.  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.  It come with either a 5-speed manual or 3-speed automatic transmission.  It goes from 0 to 60 mph in 9.6 seconds and goes up to 130 mph.  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.  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.  Jay Leno did a feature on it on his website, www.jaylenosgarage.com.  Top Gear named it one of the worst supercars of all time.  In 2008, 20 Deloreans will be produced each year in Houston.

License plate only works on Deloreans.  If you don't get the joke, go watch Back to the Future movies.

Final Thoughts:  It is nice to see the featured vehicle from a movie franchise I enjoy.  The Delorean-DMC12 could have used a flux capacitor because this car is slow.  The car needed a more powerful engine, and could have used an extra two cylinders.  I question its reliability since I saw one being towed.  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.