Feature: A Classic Contemporary
December 1, 2007
Not long after, Nigh bought a hurting DeLorean for $9,000, and paid another $9,000 to get it running. Then, he turned it over to Botkin. More than two years later, the car was finished. Far from being one man’s private obsession, Nigh often takes the car to events.
Ask those northern California owners of the basic, classic DeLorean what they think of those obsessed with its BTTF iteration, and you get everything from pregnant pauses to shrugs.
"Hey, if they’re enjoying the car, that’s great," says McCaffrey, a senior editor at a magazine targeting Xbox fans. (In either a coincidence or an insight into what sort of people are attracted to DeLoreans, all four of the folks assembled in Marin labor in high-tech-related jobs.)
These men and their toys exude more fun than attitude. Just look at their vanity plates: RUSTPRF, BKINTYM and OUTTIME. Whether showing off their steeds’ fairly rudimentary engine or demonstrating how the doors close, the atmosphere is one of a science fair on a crisp fall day. Until they start to wax nostalgic about DeLorean, the man.
"He didn’t fit in, he was a maverick," affirms Rich Wipfler,
54, who works for a high-tech company in Menlo Park, and bought his DeLorean new
in 1982, paying $27,000 for his dream car. "That guy was a rock star."
"It was page one when he was arrested, and page six when he was
acquitted," fumes Ken Montgomery of Sacramento, a systems analyst and president
of the Northern California DeLorean Motor Club.
Montgomery then goes on a tear, recounting with a history professor’s flair the intricacies of DeLorean’s deal in Northern Ireland, emphasizing his attempt to stave off sectarian violence by employing people in his factory, as well as the British government’s unwillingness to provide DeLorean a lifeline when he needed it most. You’d think he was talking about a revolutionary, not a car builder. But such are the passions stirred by the man behind his eponymous car.
Eager to lighten the mood a bit, Gregor Hohpe, 40, of San Francisco, a Google software engineer, mentions that he’s about to transfer to the company’s Japan offices for a spell. He’d like to bring the car. "There’s a huge number of DeLorean fans over there," Hohpe says. "It’d be so great to cruise around there in this."
Hohpe seems to have a thing for interesting car experiments that didn’t quite make it. His other baby is a Cadillac Allanté, the ill-fated convertible that GM got Pininfarina to design. "It’s easier to get parts for my DeLorean than that Allanté, believe me," he says with a sigh. Which is perhaps why he’s also the proud owner of an Audi A4 wagon. Funky cars from the ’80s don’t always make for reliable transport.
Yet the group is eager to show off just what riding in a DeLorean is all about. McCaffrey hops in the driver’s seat and urges his passenger to pull hard on the dangling interior door strap. The gullwing door shuts with an admirable thud.
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