DeLorean Cars
Classic · 1 model
DeLorean: One Car, One Arrest, One Time Machine
ClassicDeLorean Motor Company built exactly one model, the stainless steel gullwing DMC-12, went bankrupt within two years, and then became immortal when Back to the Future turned the car into a time machine.
DeLorean models we cover
John Z. DeLorean was a General Motors star, the engineer-executive behind the Pontiac GTO, who walked away to build his own sports car. With government incentives, he put his factory in Dunmurry, outside Belfast, and delivered the first DMC-12 in 1981.
The company collapsed in 1982, and its founder''s arrest in an FBI drug-money sting the same year, on charges he was acquitted of after an entrapment defense, made the collapse legendary rather than merely commercial. Around 9,000 cars were built in total.
Then the movie happened. Back to the Future put a DMC-12 on screen in 1985 as the time machine, and a failed car company acquired the kind of fame billion-dollar marketing budgets cannot buy. A Texas company holding the parts stock and the name has serviced and restored the cars ever since, and survivors trade well above their original price.