The Story of DeLorean

[Ace-Garageguy]

Excellent documentary produced by the BBC. Warning: there's no loud banging music or hysterical commentary, so it might not appeal to "reality" TV aficionados.

[aurfalien]

Wow, very cool, thanks Bill.

The only reason DMC failed was due to that persons name which was on the moniker.

However at least he did provide many to live a dream, albeit for a short while. At least they did that, tragic as it all was in the end.

Edited January 10, 2015 by aurfalien

[1930fordpickup]

Thanks Bill. That was a good show.

[Danny Lectro]

Very good documentary. Thanks for sharing, Bill.

[MsDano85gt]

always liked the DMC always will want to say theres still a company out there with a wearhouse full of delorean parts keeping the dream alive, you can still have a new one made i want to say?? mite be very costly though

[dublin boy]

Wow, very cool, thanks Bill.

The only reason DMC failed was due to that persons name which was on the moniker.

However at least he did provide many to live a dream, albeit for a short while. At least they did that, tragic as it all was in the end.

The car failed because it had to be redeveloped totally by Lotus, there's a lot of Esprit underneath it.

It was too expensive, too heavy and slow with a federal spec Renault V6, and was badly built.

[GeeBee]

Been watching it through the chromecast, could have done with a few "Sub titles" though .....

[aurfalien]

The car failed because it had to be redeveloped totally by Lotus, there's a lot of Esprit underneath it.

It was too expensive, too heavy and slow with a federal spec Renault V6, and was badly built.

I feel there is a more fundamental reason. His management style in terms of keeping the 3 head engineers not knowing about one another concerning project lead was to me, a serious flaw.

Sure tech reasons contributed, etc... but with a cohesive team and a well defined project head the car could have been a success.

One can be a victim of there experience and he probably developed his management style while at the then big 3. Which worked there, but not at a small company who needs to be nimble and innovative.

But then again, we now have decades of properly defined workflow and best practice to glean from. Were as back then it may not have been the case.

[dublin boy]

Northern Ireland had no car building background or experience.

Great Salesman though. He sold a pup to the UK Government.

It was all a dream, he had a big house in Belfast with solid gold taps/faucets. He went over and back on Concorde (at amazing expense too) a few times a week.

The drugs thing was a complete fit up though, to be fair to the man.

Fantastic bullshitter.

[aurfalien]

So do you think it coulda worked under different leadership while in Ireland?

They seemed very willing, able and vested in the product. And I always thought were there is a will, there is a way.

[1930fordpickup]

It could have worked with a little more time. Had they had a chance to put a better power plant in the Car. Also if they could have built a simpler car to start the process to create a cash flow that was positive. With people that had their hands in the til you will never know . They may have just taken more .

[Ace-Garageguy]

I was really rooting for John Z there at the outset. Unfortunately, the car got compromised WAY too much, and became a slow, too-costly pig in the process. Lotus did the best they could with it, but from the beginning, there was no real clear vision of exactly what the car would be...only that there would be a car to poke GM in the eye with.

I think if he had been just a little less ambitious, and had been content to start with a limited-production car that was completely developed and performed very well, he might have made it. Better to employ 100 people for a long time and build the business slowly, adding to the workforce to keep up with demand, than to try to bite off half the elephant immediately. Hard to chew such a big mouthful, you know?

The price the thing finally came in at...well, it was delusional to think there would be as large a market for the car as was projected.

At any rate, I'm glad he got off the drug charges. That always smelled too much like a setup to me, even at the time.

[aurfalien]

Ahhh, good points Bill.

Its funny though, guys from larger places have a seemingly harder time of adapting to smaller envs but the opposite is true of people coming from small places going to larger ones.

The poke GM in the face thing smells of ego which after all, is one of the 7 deadly sins I believe?

All I really have to say about DMC is that it sucks to be out of a job, as they all were in the end. And also that it was cast perfectly in Back to the Future.

[dublin boy]

That car was almost Porshe 911 money.

A V6 Capri Injection 2.8 was faster for less than half the price.

They were built 100 miles up the road from me guys in Belfast.

Edited January 10, 2015 by dublin boy

[Craig Irwin]

The unpainted stainless body and gull-wing doors put development moneys in the wrong place, didn't help either.

[The70judgeman]

@Daniel- Yes, there is a small company, in the Southwest US I believe, that bought all the remaining stockpile of parts. So, as of right now, there are NOS parts to be had. They also plan to start reproducing parts as well. If you've seen the show "Wheeler Dealer" on Velocity, Mike Brewer was there to buy parts for the DeLorean he bought and shipped to England to fix up and sell.

[1930fordpickup]

Someone painted one black in Toledo back in the mid 80's . It looked better in black.

I agree Craig 100% .

[Ace-Garageguy]

Someone painted one black in Toledo back in the mid 80's . It looked better in black.

Quite a few got painted. It was really tricky to buff out minor damage on the brushed stainless, so some owners opted for paint. Getting paint to stick to it was problematic, too. To see a bunch, Google "painted DeLorean" .

Some got hot-rodded too, and then there are these...

Edited January 10, 2015 by Ace-Garageguy

[1930fordpickup]

That stretched car is cool.

[moparfarmer]

In the book "On a sunny day you can see GM" (I might be wrong on the title a bit) DeLorean was at the proving ground when the Vega was tested..The front end fell off the car. He said build it the public will buy it..And you know, they did..He could sell anything..

[Danno]

He could sell anything..

Even white powdery substances.

[hgbben]

This book is great, very detailed from many aspects throughout the company

[aurfalien]

How would you compare it to the documentary posted other then its more details?

Are they consistent with each other?

[Fabrux]

You would think that DeLorean would've learned from Malcolm Bricklin's failed experiment.

[Atmobil]

Here is another good documentary about the Delorean.

Many have said that it was a great achievement to set up the factory and get the production going, in the middle of a politicly and religiously very tense area. It also gave jobs to a lot of people that did not have a job. I like the story behind it, one mans great vision that like som many others failed to go all the way. Too bad really.