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In 1975, John Z. DeLorean founded the DeLorean Motor Company with one goal in mind; "to design and build a car that would be as safe as possible, reliable, comfortable, handle and perform well, be enormous fun to drive and unmistakably elegant in appearance."
DeLorean, born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, has been involved with the automobile industry all of his life. Early on in his career, he had been recruited to become the chief engineer at Pontiac. He is best known for bringing to life the GTO in 1964. DeLorean had many successful years with Pontiac, and in 1969 was promoted to the position of General Manager of Chevrolet. Over the next few years, he made noticeable improvements to Chevrolet's design and quality. Then in 1973, DeLorean was promoted to Vice President of General Motors American car and truck divisions. He was expected to become GM's next president, but due to constant disagreements with General Motors management, they parted ways.
Free from General Motors, DeLorean was now able to focus his attention on fulfilling his own dream of making the DeLorean DMC-12 a reality. He began by hiring the best engineers, designers and contructing the assembly plant in Northern Ireland. DeLorean planned to debut the DMC-12 in 1978, but it wasn't until 1981 when the car made its U.S. debut.
The DMC-12 carried a window sticker price around $28,000 and featured gullwing soors, rear-mounted engine, 304 grade stainless steel body panels which will never rust, and a PRV-6 engine and transmission made by Renault in France. The interior was available in either black or gray, with leather seats, power windows and mirrors, air conditioning and adjustable steering wheel.
Initial sales for the DMC-12 were outstanding, but by early 1982 sales fell drastically and forced DeLorean to search for more financial backing. Unable to do so, the DeLorean Motor Company, Ltd. was put into receivership and eventually went bankrupt in 1983.
The DeLorean Motor Company, Ltd. produced approximately 8,600 DMC-12s between 1981 and 1983. |
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Features
- Opening gull-wing doors and opening hood.
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