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new delorean
Owners of the ultimate geek car, the DeLorean, are no strangers to modifying their McFly rides, including hovercraft and electric conversions of the iconic silver-skinned sports car. Now, thanks to the new DeLorean Motor Company, buyers of new DeLoreans and owners of the classic ones can outfit them with everything but a Mr. Fusion. We stopped by the new DMC's headquarters in Houston, where we got the scoop on the new DeLorean and more importantly, what you can now do with the old one.
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The Future Is Back: Jalopnik Tours New DeLorean HQ
Owners of the ultimate geek car, the DeLorean, are no strangers to modifying their McFly rides, including hovercraft and electric conversions of the iconic silver-skinned sports car. Now, thanks to the new DeLorean Motor Company, buyers of new DeLoreans and owners of the classic ones can outfit them with everything but a Mr. Fusion. We stopped by the new DMC's headquarters in Houston, where we got the scoop on the new DeLorean and more importantly, what you can now do with the old one.More »
12:30 PM on Mon Jul 7 2008
By Matt Hardigree
89,720 views,
83 comments
Latest by n/a: I enjoy the Northstar DeLoreans. I believe they make them out of Durnago, CO. About 10 years go I got a DeLorean with 10K for 12K at a Meacum action. more »
jalopnik reviews
The first time I saw the gullwing doors on a DeLorean DMC-12 open, in Back To The Future, it was abundantly clear something important was happening. Something cool. Then I learned that it had a chassis engineered by Colin Chapman and a body designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. Then I read about the cocaine and the stunning fall from grace. Then I visited the headquarters of the company dedicated to keeping the brand alive. Then I got to drive one. The story of our pilgrimage to the reborn Mecca of stainless steel '80s sports car dreams below.
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The Future Is Back: Jalopnik Drives The DeLorean DMC-12
The first time I saw the gullwing doors on a DeLorean DMC-12 open, in Back To The Future, it was abundantly clear something important was happening. Something cool. Then I learned that it had a chassis engineered by Colin Chapman and a body designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. Then I read about the cocaine and the stunning fall from grace. Then I visited the headquarters of the company dedicated to keeping the brand alive. Then I got to drive one. The story of our pilgrimage to the reborn Mecca of stainless steel '80s sports car dreams below.More »
12:00 PM on Mon Jul 7 2008
By Matt Hardigree
10,065 views,
110 comments
Latest by n/a: Fantastic! Finally something I've been in love with my entire life opens right in my back yard...and I'm stationed in Japan...damn the luck... more »
gadgets
Flux Capacitor Replicas Now Available, Plutonium Not Included
It's only taken 23 years, but the heart of the DeLorean is back in a mass-produced replica form. There's no more need to hound eBay looking for a Flux Capacitor because Diamond Select Toys is mass producing the nostalgic time-traveling device. The Flux Capacitor has all of the same lighting effects and adjustable power settings. It's available for $275 and would make a great addition to your novelty art car or your family's mini-van. Look for it in a slammed Neon at your local Chili's parking lot. [Diamond Select Toys via Chip Chick]
novelties
NY Times Profiles Vagina-Equipped DeLorean Owner
Cue the sirens! This just in! There are female DeLorean owners out there and now there is officially proof because The New York Times decided to profile one Lauren J. Reilly, the owner of a completely stock 1981 DeLorean DMC-12. The 31-year-old advertising firm producer lives in Midtown Manhattan and milks the car for all the attention she can get from tourists and jaded onlookers. Reilly described owning a DeLorean as "5 percent being a rock star," which is debatably accurate. The design enthusiast decided on the DeLorean as a birthday present for herself after doing lots of research prior to buying a hers on eBay. Unfortunately the near legendary French V6 is performing exactly as the stereotype would suggest More »
alternative energy
Radiation-To-Electricity Coming Soon: Bring On Mr. Fusion!
A recent scientific breakthrough may make the process of turning radiation waste to electricity a reality just in time for the return of the DeLorean. We're jumping the gun, a tad. The Mr. Fusion from the famed Back to the Future series was capable of turning beer, banana peels and other garbage into energy to power the DeLorean. This system is a bit different. More »
retro
If you've ever wanted to see what happens when Doc Brown's time machine hits a wall at 40 mph, then we've got a real treat for you — this here's an early crash test of a DeLorean DMC-12. Enjoy the Mr. Fusion smashing action — at both real-time speed and slow-mo — so you can view every time-bending frame in all of it's gory destructive detail. Or, feel free to check out our latest news on the revival of the car made into a time machine. [Hat tip to John!]
Video Of A DeLorean DMC-12 Crash Test Not Involving Marty McFly And A Train
If you've ever wanted to see what happens when Doc Brown's time machine hits a wall at 40 mph, then we've got a real treat for you — this here's an early crash test of a DeLorean DMC-12. Enjoy the Mr. Fusion smashing action — at both real-time speed and slow-mo — so you can view every time-bending frame in all of it's gory destructive detail. Or, feel free to check out our latest news on the revival of the car made into a time machine. [Hat tip to John!]
retro
Time Magazine: We Gotcher 50 Worst Cars Of All Time!
Since we don't really consider Time Magazine the definitive source for things automotive, we aren't surprised at the wrongness of some of their (well, actually Pulitzer-winning writer Dan Neil's) choices. The Model T? The Fuller Dymaxion? The '71 Imperial? There's something to piss off all of us here, though admittedly they did include such citrusy favorites as the execrable V8-6-4 Caddy and the breathtakingly unreliable Triumph TR-7. In any case, you get a list of a bunch of interesting cars- just the thing for a Monday morning. [Time]
classic ad watch
It's hard to imagine a time when the De Lorean DMC-12 was actually marketed, with a straight face. The massive publicity of a huge coke bust coupled with an overwhelmingly successful movie featuring the car in a slapstick role sort of joke-ified the DMC-12 for eternity, but try to imagine yourself watching this ad before all that happened. Would you consider buying the Northern Ireland-built stainless-steel wonder, when faced with the other offerings of the early 80s? Remember, John Z. was the man who brought us the Pontiac GTO! How about now?
Live The Dream With a New De Lorean DMC-12!
It's hard to imagine a time when the De Lorean DMC-12 was actually marketed, with a straight face. The massive publicity of a huge coke bust coupled with an overwhelmingly successful movie featuring the car in a slapstick role sort of joke-ified the DMC-12 for eternity, but try to imagine yourself watching this ad before all that happened. Would you consider buying the Northern Ireland-built stainless-steel wonder, when faced with the other offerings of the early 80s? Remember, John Z. was the man who brought us the Pontiac GTO! How about now?
woodward dream cruise
Looks like the mainstream media's elbowing in like a French auto journalist on our new DeLorean story from the Woodward Dream Cruise (gallery of the DeLorean parade re-included below). As you can see from the video above, the good folks at the Texas-based DeLorean Motor Company decided to give the exclusive on the first completed brand-new DeLorean to ABC's morning show. It makes us sad that we didn't get it. But, we're happy to see the first one built from old parts looks exactly like the old one. We kind of expected as much. While it's nice — we're interested to see what, if any, changes are made to the new DeLoreans to be built from all-new parts rather than stock-piled mothball-smelling pieces they've been keeping in the back room.
First Newly Built DeLorean Shown On ABC Morning Show
Looks like the mainstream media's elbowing in like a French auto journalist on our new DeLorean story from the Woodward Dream Cruise (gallery of the DeLorean parade re-included below). As you can see from the video above, the good folks at the Texas-based DeLorean Motor Company decided to give the exclusive on the first completed brand-new DeLorean to ABC's morning show. It makes us sad that we didn't get it. But, we're happy to see the first one built from old parts looks exactly like the old one. We kind of expected as much. While it's nice — we're interested to see what, if any, changes are made to the new DeLoreans to be built from all-new parts rather than stock-piled mothball-smelling pieces they've been keeping in the back room.
woodward dream cruise
That's the official word from the folks at DeLorean Motor Company anyway. We sat down with James Espey, veep of the DeLorean Motor Company, one of a large corporate contingent in Detroit on Saturday for the Woodward Dream Cruise. They were there to cater to the large number of DeLorean enthusiasts in town to cruise their classic flux-capacitor-carrying time machines. The burning question we had was whether the AP story was correct in hinting that DMC would again be building DeLoreans. His response was absolutely clear:
Let's Do The Time Warp Again: The DeLorean Will Be Back In 2008!
That's the official word from the folks at DeLorean Motor Company anyway. We sat down with James Espey, veep of the DeLorean Motor Company, one of a large corporate contingent in Detroit on Saturday for the Woodward Dream Cruise. They were there to cater to the large number of DeLorean enthusiasts in town to cruise their classic flux-capacitor-carrying time machines. The burning question we had was whether the AP story was correct in hinting that DMC would again be building DeLoreans. His response was absolutely clear:"Job one will begin the third quarter of this year, with delivery by Q1 of 2008. We're aiming for $57,500 as the sale price."And yes, we're also told it will look like a DeLorean — square nose, gull-wings and all. This time, instead of attempting to mass produce the cars, the DeLorean folks will be building them by hand at their assembly plant in the li'l town of Humble, Texas. No word yet on issues regarding EPA testing or production numbers (we didn't think to ask), but the Detroit News is claiming it'll be one or two a month. The shots below were from the Saturday meet-up during the Woodward Dream Cruise where we spoke with Espey.
question of the day
Ralph Nader: Devil Or Angel?
Philosophy Week marches on... This isn't Wonkette, so we won't be discussing Florida circa 2000, OK? We will be discussing what Ralph Nader did in 1965: publish a book called Unsafe At Any Speed. Far too many people think of Nader's polemic as "the book about the Corvair." Truth is, only one of the eight chapters was about the butt-engined Chevy. The larger theme of the book was that automakers routinely chose profit over safety and constantly fought against items such as seatbelts, padded dashboards and collapsible steering columns. GM sure didn't help their case by sending private dicks and hookers after the morally upright Nader. Also remember that none other than John DeLorean in his own book On A Clear Day You Can See General Motors, wrote that everything Nader said about the Corvair was not only true, but known to GM before the car ever went on sale. More »
allegorical shorthand
Vehicles as Metaphor
Mental_floss explores the automobile as metaphor, aligning the Edsel with failure, the Pinto with volatility, the DeLorean with spastic hype, the Yugo with shoddiness and the Corvair with a lack of safety. Which is all well, good, fine and dandy. But there are other, more obscure vehicular metaphors out there. And it is your mission, dear readers of tha Jalop, to find and explain them. So get to 'splainin'. [mental_floss]
engine swap
Rotarize Your DeLorean, Get Two Chicks At The Same Time
Everyone knows the DeLorean man is someone special- hey, look at all the attention his luggage gets from the sniff-dogs at the airport- but sometimes he needs his ride to stand out from the rest of the stainless-steel white-powder-financed gullwingers. Thus, the rotary-powered DeLorean! Just drop in a '90 Mazda 20B engine cranking out about 300 horses and you'll be able to outrun the fastest "Back To The Future" jokes with ease. More »
retro
Behold the Polaris, a Rear-Engined Pontiac!!
Er, we mean a re-badged Corvair. Still though, as nifty as the Corvair was, it would have worked much better as a Pontiac. After all, what builds more excitement than flipping over? Oh we know, we know. Mean old Ralph Nader said nasty things about the poor little Corvair. And he wasn't alone. Here's what a Pontiac brand manager named John Z. Delorean had to say about the Polaris,"Frank Winchell, now VP of Engineering, but then an engineer at Chevy, flipped one of the first prototypes on the GM test track in Milford, Michigan. Others followed. The questionable safety of the car caused a massive internal fight among GM's engineers over whether the car should be built with another form of suspension."More »
news
Hey Look! De Loreans in California!
Don Steger of Garden Grove, California has an irrational obsession with De Loreans. We hesitate to call anyone's obsession irrational, given our penchant for Citro ns, pickups made out of passenger vehicles and oddball Eastern Bloc cars. The pot is definitely calling the kettle black here. And truth be told, we've got a thing for De Loreans, too. But as much as we may fantasize about hiring a Czech mechanic named Sabina with a phenomenal rack and a slightly dour demeanor to run our vintage-Skoda repair business, its likelihood is fairly close to nil. On the other hand, Steiger's opened a new De Lorean Motor Company franchise in his Orange County town. Steger = 1, Jalopnik, = 0. More »
retro
DeLorean Motor Company Planning New... Book
Though the DeLorean has been put out to pasture, the Delorean Motor Company (DMC) still exists on the sunny plains of Texas (or at least in a warehouse building in Humble). To commemorate 25 years of plant closure, the company is inviting old employees to contribute to a book titled: "I lived the Dream - Stories from those who build the DeLorean Sports Car." While this will mostly appeal to the DeLorean enthusiast set, we're glad DMC is looking Back in order to give something To The Future automotive enthusiasts who will wonder what all the fuss was about. Still no word on if the books will be used to traffic cocaine via Amazon. More »
retro cars
