Feature: A Classic Contemporary
December 1, 2007
On a lazy sunday in Marin County, Calif., the black Ferrari 360 Modena with the chromed-out wheels is doing its best to attract the attention of all the farmers-market regulars. Maranello’s black beauty snorts and sprints through the crowded Civic Center parking lot, getting a few heads to turn in the process. But the real party is a few yards away, where four DeLoreans sit side by side, gullwing doors aloft.
There’s the gawking family of five that’s just rented Back to the Future, the grandmother in a wheelchair who pets one car’s stainless-steel hide, and a four-year-old who blurts out "When were this car made?"
"In 1981," answers owner Ryan McCaffrey, 27, "or about the same time those Scooby-Doo cartoons you probably like were created."
The tyke, satisfied, marches back to his mom to report the answer.
"This sort of attention is typical," says McCaffrey. "I’m just surprised that it’s been an hour and we haven’t gotten the ‘Where’s the Flux Capacitor?’ question yet."
In the rich history of American automobilia, few cars embody as much pop culture passion and pathos as the brainchild of John Z. DeLorean, whose personal saga is every bit as worthy of the big screen as Preston Tucker’s—and then some. With DeLorean you get an interesting car as well as beautiful women, FBI stings, cocaine and bankruptcy. And now, rebirth.
That’s right, if you want to buy a new DeLorean a quarter-century after the last cars rolled off the ill-fated factory floor in Northern Ireland, all that’s required is a call to the DeLorean Motor Company outside of Houston, Texas. And a check for $57,500. The first car is slated for completion in March.
"There are a lot of ways folks get hooked on these cars, from the appeal of the stainless steel to an appreciation for John’s story to a love of the Back to the Future movies," says James Espey, vice president of the new DMC, founded by Steven Wynne 10 years ago, when he purchased the name—with DeLorean’s say-so; he died at 80 in 2005—as well as all remaining DeLorean parts and a complete set of blueprints.
"But mostly I’d guess it’s John’s story," says Espey. "Here’s the son of a factory worker who turns into a brilliant General Motors engineer. He dated supermodels, built his own car company and then saw it all go away. A lot of people are fascinated by that. And although most of our business is in maintaining or restoring these cars, a lot of customers kept saying, ‘We’d love to be able to buy a new one.’"
Making this renaissance possible are the 55 tractor trailers’
worth of parts DMC has squirreled away in its 40,000-square-foot building. DMC
stocks 95 percent of the 2,800 parts that constitute a complete DeLorean, while
the remaining 5 percent "are parts within parts, such as the internal components
of a steering rack," says Espey. "We’re not going to break apart a perfectly
good steering rack to get it, so often we’ll just have to make it."
Which explains the economic engine behind the decision to build
new DeLoreans: the capital will make manufacturing obscure parts feasible. "Some
owners accuse us of wanting to build these cars just to get rid of our
inventory, but the truth is they’ll benefit from it, too, when it comes to
buying parts," says Espey.
The new DeLoreans will remain largely faithful to the originals, whose high points included a Lotus-derived chassis and Giugiaro-etched lines. Even the middling V-6 remains—a 2.8-liter Volvo-Peugeot-Renault number capable of 130 hp—although in optional supercharged form it will produce 250 hp.
"We’ll also make sure the car offers features such as satellite navigation, Bluetooth, iPod connections, heated seats, and other things people have gotten used to," says Espey. "This DeLorean should finally behave more like it looks."
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