DeLorean Motor Company

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DeLorean Motor Company

logo
legal form Limited
founding October 24, 1975
resolution February 1983
Reason for dissolution insolvency
Seat Dunmurry , Northern Ireland UK
United KingdomUnited Kingdom 
management John DeLorean

The DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) was a project by former General Motors Vice President John DeLorean with the aim of producing sports cars. DMC was founded in 1975 and in 1981 in Dunmurry , Northern Ireland , series production of a model with a body made of stainless steel began .

The wedge shape drawn by Giorgio Giugiaro and the matt sheen of the brushed, unpainted stainless steel body of the gullwing made the only DeLorean DMC-12 model appear modern and unique. However, production had to stop after 21 months and around 9,000 vehicles were manufactured.

history

DeLorean DMC-12
DeLorean in the Auto and Technology Museum Sinsheim

In order to keep production costs lower than possible in the USA , DeLorean decided to build his factory in a country with the highest possible unemployment in order to receive subsidies from the government. So the choice fell on the then crisis area of ​​Dunmurry in Northern Ireland ; For this, the Labor government paid him more than £ 100 million after the contract was signed at the end of the 1970s and granted various tax benefits. The West Belfast area had high unemployment rates at the time, and the British government hoped that the creation of more than 2,000 new jobs would reduce the sympathy that the IRA had among the population.

The DMC-12, made in Dunmurry, initially sold well. More than 20,000 orders had already been placed before production started. Even if the sales price was more than double the initially planned US $ 12,000 (hence the name DMC-12 = $ 12,000), the demand was high. In the United States, the main market, the vehicle went on sale for approximately $ 25,000. The list price of a Porsche 911 was only slightly higher. Neither the performance nor the quality of workmanship of the vehicles justified this price. Nevertheless, the DMC in the first half after the start of production in the spring of 1981 had just taken 26.5 million US dollars and seemed an attractive product on the right track to be liabilities to investors, which include Johnny Carson and Sammy Davis Jr. were, as well as the British government.

But then in 1980/1981 the automotive industry experienced one of the biggest international crises in over fifty years (see 1979 oil crisis ). Sales in DeLorean's main market, the USA, fell rapidly from twelve to under six million cars per year. The market for sports cars and luxury cars collapsed particularly badly, which also hit many established manufacturers who were dependent on the American market and the strong dollar, such as Porsche and Ferrari . In addition, the young company had invested existing capital and was not yet able to build up any reserves. In addition, after the introduction of the DMC-12, DeLorean almost doubled its production numbers due to the initial high response. Now the company was unprepared for a sharp drop in sales. In this situation, unforeseen by John DeLorean, DMC-12s were heaped up in the hope of doing better again as demand picked up in the US.

The crisis in the automobile market, the disproportionately high price, sometimes blatant quality defects, which made expensive repairs necessary via the dealers, as well as the expensive double door construction aggravated the financial situation of DMC. At the same time, DeLorean faced a new government in Britain. In 1979 the Conservative Party had come to power in England. The new Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had to watch how the model project “DMC” of the previous administration gradually developed into a political and financial disaster that got out of hand. But John DeLorean had no choice but to ask its largest financier, the British government, for a loan increase. This shot up another £ 30 million by 1982. However, on October 20, 1982, the British government put the DeLorean Motor Company under bankruptcy administration . DMC's New York office closed for the first week of November 1982. The production of the vehicles in Dunmurry was stopped on December 24, 1982 and the company was liquidated in February 1983.

A total of around 9,000 DMC-12s were manufactured; the vehicles that had not yet been sold after the DeLorean Motor Company ended, were sold as a package to the then contractual partner Consolidated International. Company founder John Zachary DeLorean died in 2005.

A Texan investor has since taken over the company and is now offering “remanufactured” DeLorean vehicles in Humble, Texas, which have undergone an in-depth revision and restoration process. All major weaknesses of the DMC-12 are said to have been eliminated.

In October 2011 the (new) DeLorean Motor Company announced the production of electric DeLoreans from 2013, the sales price should be 90,000 dollars.

DMC-12

Planning for further DeLorean models

At the same time as developing the DMC-12, John DeLorean was already thinking about expanding its product range. Several ideas were played through, and three of them reached the serious planning stage. With the closure of the plant, however, they too failed.

DeLorean Medusa

Conceptual role model: Lancia Medusa

The DeLorean Medusa is the designation of a four-seater limousine with wing doors. The basis for this was a study by Italdesign , which Giugiaro first presented to the public under the name Lancia Medusa at the Turin Motor Show in 1980 . With the study, Ital Design wanted to show that optimal aerodynamics and the comfort of a large sedan were compatible. The Medusa had a drag coefficient of just 0.263, making it the most aerodynamic vehicle to date. Technically, the car was based on the platform of the Lancia Beta Montecarlo , so it was designed as a mid-engine vehicle. Contrary to other reports, the Lancia Medusa had no gull-wing doors, but four regular, front-hinged doors.

The mid-engine concept should have been the main reason that John DeLorean was interested in Giugiaro's Lancia Medusa. In the course of 1981 there were repeated discussions between DeLorean and Giugiaro about the start of a production of the Medusa, and at DeLorean's request Giugiaro made several sketches showing a Medusa, the front of which was adapted to that of the DMC-12. Giugiaro also considered equipping the Medusa with double doors at the front. Here too, however, there were only sketches; Corresponding modifications to the Medusa exhibition vehicle were not carried out.

In September 1981, the talks were so advanced that DeLorean, in an interview with Giugiaro, promised to start production in 1984, assuming an annual production of 10,000 copies.

In view of the company's crisis in early 1982, the conception of the Medusa was not pursued any further.

DeLorean TR 8

After bankruptcy proceedings were opened in 1982, considerations were made to utilize the DeLorean facility in Dunmurry. It seemed clear that this was not feasible with the DMC-12 alone. The bankruptcy trustees therefore came up with the idea of ​​making a smaller, cheaper model alongside the DMC-12. The choice fell on the Triumph TR7 , the production of which British Leyland had ceased a year earlier. The bankruptcy trustees negotiated with Leyland in the spring of 1982 to take over the rights and all production facilities of the TR7; the car would then be manufactured and sold as a DeLorean in Dunmurry with minor visual changes. According to British press reports, the Leyland management was in agreement with the proposal; In the end, however, these considerations failed in the fall of 1982 when John Delorean was arrested.

Movie

The drive of the DeLorean DMC-12 in the film franchise

In the Back to the Future series , a DeLorean DMC-12 is part of the time machine . In the feature film Driven from 2018, the company and bankruptcy history was also processed.

literature

  • Michael Schäfer: Too early for the future - the DeLorean drama. Delius Klasing publishing house, Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-7688-3364-6 .

Web links

Commons : De Lorean  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Texas DeLorean Club: DELOREAN VIN HISTORY (Engl.)
  2. ↑ Barrie Wills: John Z, the DeLorean an Me . DeLorean Garage, Houston, Texas, USA 2015, ISBN 978-0-9856578-8-8 , pp. 241 .
  3. ^ The DeLorean Museum - The Man. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 10, 2010 ; accessed on November 2, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.deloreanmuseum.org
  4. ↑ Consolidated gets DeLorean Motor Co. assets. Retrieved July 9, 2020 .
  5. ^ Electric DeLorean Coming in 2013. (No longer available online.) In: FOXNews . October 18, 2011, archived from the original on October 29, 2011 ; accessed on November 2, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.foxnews.com
  6. ↑ DeLorean. www.zidz.com , 2018, accessed April 8, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Driven in the Internet Movie Database (English)