In January 1979 Charles Bennington, Director of DeLorean film car Motor Cars Limited, newly established in Northern Ireland, and Barrie Wills, Purchasing Manager, visited Italdesign . Giorgetto Giugiaro showed them his latest concept design, the Ace of Clubs. He pointed out that its four-year-old design was outdated and needed an overhaul.

Delorean Project

That just leaves the iconic wedge-shaped body with its feature gullwing doors, this is unmistakably the work of Giorgetto Giugiaro, famous for penning many of the greatest wedges of the 80s. Interestingly the DMC-12 was only the third car in history to feature gullwing doors, they look great, but we have to question just how practical they would be in a confined space. The DeLorean was featured in the Back to the Future film trilogy (1985, 1989, and 1990) as the car made into a time machine by eccentric scientist Doc Brown, although the company had closed before the first film was made.

Delorean Dmc-12: The Classic & Sports Car Verdict

Parts were used on other replicas, and the body panels were on display at Planet Hollywood in Hawaii until it closed in 2010. There’s a solid chance that the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about the DeLorean DMC-12 is its central role as the time machine in the iconic ’80s movie series Back to the Future. But the DMC-12 was an actual sports car produced by DeLorean Motor Company in the early ’80s. In fact, the DMC-12 was the only model that DeLorean Motor Company produced, and despite the car’s gull-wing doors and overall sleek and futuristic look, it was not a hit with consumers at the time. The collaboration graced the cover of the 1980 American Express Christmas catalog. Prices for DMC-12s vary widely with quality and demand, which varies over time.

Delorean Motor Company And The Dmc-12: The Full Story

His idea was for an ‘ethical’ sports car, with compact dimensions, efficient performance and high levels of safety. To top it off, Giorgetto Giugiaro was entrusted with designing the elaborate coupé, which has now secured a position in the collectors’ market. DeLorean also sought lucrative incentives from governments and economic organizations to pay for manufacturing facilities by looking to build his first factory in an area of particularly high unemployment.

The DeLorean Motor Company went bankrupt in late 1982 following John DeLorean’s arrest in October of that year on drug trafficking charges. He was later found not guilty, but it was too late for the DMC-12 to remain in production. Approximately 100 partially assembled DMCs on the production line were completed by Consolidated International (now known as Big Lots).

A dream of selling modern sports cars faded into history after a run of just 9000 cars. With its distinctive stainless-steel body, the DMC-12 polarised opinion and, ultimately, the production process failed to correspond with DeLorean’s ‘ethical’ vision. Furthermore, the build quality of the approximately 9,200 examples built at the Northern Ireland plant left a lot to be desired. That’s certainly the case with the Electrogenic DeLorean DMC-12 conversion.

Regardless of the material they are usually finished, primed, and painted. The DeLorean Motor Company took a different approach by finishing the DMC-12 with brushed stainless steel panels. Over half of the 16 right-hand drive cars had these modifications carried out. In recent years several owners of these cars have replaced the Rubbolite lights with original federal style tail lights in an effort to return the cars to their original specification. Some owners have also fitted federal style licence plate bezels on their cars. Convincing Hollywood celebrities such as Johnny Carson and Sammy Davis Jr to invest in the firm, DeLorean eventually built the DMC-12 in a factory in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, a neighborhood a few miles from Belfast city centre.

Less than a year later, the DeLorean released the DMC-12’s first prototype. The “12” represented the original plan to sell it for $12,000 (about $50,000 in today’s money). The cooperation with DeLorean Motor Company begins in 1974 when John Z. DeLorean, ex GM vice president, and William Collins, DMC president, create a program for a two seats car with rear engine. The most ever paid for a DMC-12 was $541,000, which someone shelled out in 2011 for one of seven Back to the Future cars—one of three that survived.