Cars - De Lorean DMC-12

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	Cars - De Lorean DMC-12

The De Lorean DMC-12 is a sports car which was manufactured by the De Lorean Motor Company from 1981 until 1983. It is most commonly known as the De Lorean, as it was the only model ever produced by the company. The DMC-12 featured gull-wing doors with a brushed stainless steel body. It was famously featured in the Back to the Future trilogy.

The first prototype was completed in 1978, and the final chassis was shared with the Lotus Esprit. Production began officially in 1981 at the DMC factory in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland. During its production, several aspects of the car were changed, such as the hood (bonnet) style, wheels and interior. About 8,583 DMC-12s were made before production ended in 1983, and as of 2006, 6,000 are estimated to be in existence.

Despite being produced in Northern Ireland, DMC-12s were primarily intended for the American market. Therefore, all of the production models were left-hand drive (designed to be driven on the right side of the road). Some of them were converted to right-hand drive by specialist mechanics in the United Kingdom, but no right-hand drive De Lorean was ever put into production, thus limiting the vehicle's popularity in the United Kingdom.

History

In October 1976, the first prototype De Lorean DMC-12 was completed by William T. Collins, chief engineer and designer (formerly chief engineer at Pontiac). Originally, the car's rear-mounted power plant was to be a Citroën Wankel rotary engine, but was replaced with a French-designed and produced PRV (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo) fuel injected V-6 because of the poor fuel economy of the rotary engine, an important issue at a time of world-wide fuel shortages. Collins and De Lorean envisioned a chassis produced from a new and untested manufacturing technology known as Elastic Reservoir Moulding (ERM), which would contribute to the light-weight characteristics of the car while presumably lowering its production costs. This new technology, for which De Lorean had purchased patent rights, would eventually be found to be unsuitable for mass production.

These and other changes to the original concept led to considerable schedule pressures. The entire car was deemed to require almost complete re-engineering, which was turned over to engineer Colin Chapman, founder and owner of Lotus. Chapman replaced most of the dubious material and manufacturing techniques with those currently being employed by Lotus; specifically, the existing suspension and chassis from the Lotus Esprit were used in the DMC-12. The original Giorgetto Giugiaro body design was left mostly intact, as were the distinctive stainless steel outer skin and gull-wing doors. (Giugiaro had also designed the Lotus Esprit.)

The DMC-12 would eventually be built in a factory in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, a neighborhood only a few miles from Belfast City Centre. Construction on the factory began in October 1978, and although production of the DMC-12 was scheduled to start in 1979, engineering issues and budget overruns delayed production until 1981. By that time, the unemployment rate was high in Northern Ireland and local residents lined up to apply for jobs at the factory. The workforce was comprised of both Protestants and Catholics who were happy to put religious differences aside and work together as a team. The production personnel were largely inexperienced, but were paid premium wages and supplied with the best equipment available. Most quality issues were solved by 1982 and the cars were sold with a five-year, 50,000-mile (80 000 km) warranty.

Although the De Lorean Motor Company went bankrupt in late 1982 following John De Lorean's October 1982 arrest, unassembled DMC-12s were completed by Consolidated Industries (now part of Kapac Co.). A total of about 9,200 DMC-12s were produced between January 1981 and December 1982. Almost a fifth of these were produced in October 1981. Very few cars were produced between February and July 1982, although serious production returned in August that year. At least one source indicates that only 8,583 DMC-12s were ever produced.

Construction

The DMC-12 features a number of unusual construction details, including gull-wing doors, unpainted stainless-steel body panels, and a rear-mounted engine.

Body

The body of the DMC-12 was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and clad entirely in brushed SS304 stainless steel. Except for three cars plated in 24k gold, all DMC-12s left the factory uncovered by paint or clearcoat. Painted De Loreans do exist, although these were all painted after the cars were purchased from the factory. Several hundred fiberglass-bodied "black car" DMC-12s were produced to train workers, although these were never marketed. Small scratches in the stainless steel body panels can reportedly be removed with a scouring pad. The stainless steel panels are fixed to a glass-reinforced plastic (GRP, fiberglass) monocoque underbody. The underbody is affixed to a double-Y frame chassis, derived from the Lotus Elan platform.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for De Lorean DMC-12 ]

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