A brief history about the Delorean DMC-12 - Well, as many of you already know, John Delorean was the former Vice President of General Motors and was favored to be the next president of the company, but in 1973, however, he left his $650,000 a year job to form his own car company. His goal was to build the "ethical sports car."

But where to build such a car. Several locations were looked at, including Asia, Detroit and South America, but Northern Ireland was the eventual location of choice. Delorean wanted to start production in the late seventies, but due to lack of funds and trouble finding a building site, the production model cars didn't make it through the assembly line until early 1981.

The Delorean was thought up, of course, by Delorean himself, but was designed primarily by Giugiaro of Italian Design and enginneered by Lotus technitions. If you squint your eyes and sort of blur your vision you may not tell the difference between a Delorean and a Lotus Esprit of the same time (that wasn't painted, of course!). The basic components of the car are a whishbone "double-y" frame with fiberglass sheets laid on top of that. Then you have the famous stainless steel panels.

The two main features that are most easily identified are, in fact, the stainless steel panels and the gull wing doors. Of the short-lived 1981-1983 model Delorean there were approximately 8,583 production model Deloreans that were ever made including two, 14 carrot gold-plated Deloreans. The original plan was to make 100 for the American Express Christmas catalog of 1981, but few were willing to cough up the $85,000 price tag. These two rarities currently reside in a bank in Snyder, TX and in an automobile museum in Cleveland, OH. I hear the owner in Snyder, TX is asking over $250,000 for his right now.

In total, John Delorean borrowed over $120 million dollars from the Brisitsh government to fund his project and to give jobs to the unemployed. But that money was never paid back. Delorean tried to raise money through an elaborate scheme to sell narcotics, but was caught never having made the deal. He was acquitted of all charges. And then, sadly, in October of 1982 the Dunmurray plant closed, having the last few Deloreans rolled of the assembly line.

Delorean is considered a recluse by some, but to others, such as myself, he is considered a genius. Delorean is reportedly working on two new concept cars - one that will cost over a million dollars and another one that he has said will be well under the $30 thousand range. They both, of course, will have the famous gull wing doors on them! Delorean currently resides in a semi-retired life in New Jersey. There are many Delorean clubs throughout the U.S. and the world right now to remember and honor the company, the car, and the man...

Please see my Little Known Facts section for more detail and information about this awesome car!