WI: DeLorean Motor Company a Success?

Best case scenario is one of the big boys makes him an offer he can't pass up.

I'm a little surprised nobody has copied the design (doors pop out and up, digital dashboard) for nostalgia/pop culture reasons.

Well, there is a company is Texas that assembles DeLoreans, believe it or not.

Using some leftover parts, they can build you a hand-crafted DeLorean.

The car was crap and the company was running on borrowed time.

So the bottom line was that DeLorean was an arrogant chiseler who was the Automobile version of Ken Lay?
 

kernals12

Banned
Well, there is a company is Texas that assembles DeLoreans, believe it or not.

Using some leftover parts, they can build you a hand-crafted DeLorean.



So the bottom line was that DeLorean was an arrogant chiseler who was the Automobile version of Ken Lay?
I think he's more like the Fyre Festival organizers.
 
So the bottom line was that DeLorean was an arrogant chiseler who was the Automobile version of Ken Lay?
More of a swindler who got the British government to pay for the construction of a series of overweight """""sports""""" cars which were so poorly made that it wasn't uncommon for one to be able to fit one's thumb into the gap between the hood and the body.

It's a real shame, the idea of making a car in Northern Ireland so as to unite the Catholic and Protestant communities was a nice idea. Shame they got Mr. DeLorean, and we got the DeLorean.
 
More of a swindler who got the British government to pay for the construction of a series of overweight """""sports""""" cars which were so poorly made that it wasn't uncommon for one to be able to fit one's thumb into the gap between the hood and the body.

It's a real shame, the idea of making a car in Northern Ireland so as to unite the Catholic and Protestant communities was a nice idea. Shame they got Mr. DeLorean, and we got the DeLorean.

Let us remember that Mr. DeLorean was a member of a major corporation, and was responsible for such beauties as the Pontiac GTO.

Like James Buchanan, Mr. DeLorean had a resume that implied success. But like James Buchanan, he couldn't cut it with his hand at the wheel.
 

kernals12

Banned
Let us remember that Mr. DeLorean was a member of a major corporation, and was responsible for such beauties as the Pontiac GTO.

Like James Buchanan, Mr. DeLorean had a resume that implied success. But like James Buchanan, he couldn't cut it with his hand at the wheel.
It's incredible to think that in 1972, DeLorean was this close to becoming the CEO of General Motors.
 
The 70s and 80s, it must be noted, were not a good time for exotic carmakers. The energy crisis, high interest rates, and insurance costs left them hemorrhaging money year after year. Even without any accounting fraud, DeLorean would still struggle hard.
Timing was a problem. In 1981, manufacturers were going to diesel cars to improve fuel economy. By 1984, gas prices had stabilized and there might have been more room for an evolving DeLorean line. By then, fuel injection and corrosion protection were extending vehicle life. After all, Renault introduced the galvanized-body Fuego in 1982.
 

NoMommsen

Donor
Ceramic engines were researched extensively in the 80s, but the complexity of machining them and their tendency to shatter could not be overcome.
Oh, that, ... yeah.

Thought you meant the swash-plate engine lay-out - or "axial engine" as it's called here.
 
Timing was a problem. In 1981, manufacturers were going to diesel cars to improve fuel economy. By 1984, gas prices had stabilized and there might have been more room for an evolving DeLorean line. By then, fuel injection and corrosion protection were extending vehicle life. After all, Renault introduced the galvanized-body Fuego in 1982.

Also, interest rates were sky high in a desperate attempt to fight inflation. So borrowing was non-existent.

So if the DeLorean had been released in, say, 1984, would it have been a success?
 
I'm not an engineer, but it seems like there's a reason why not one automaker produces a swashplate engine.
I don't know much about swashplates, but they had limited application on aircraft. The rotary Wankel engine, applied by Mazda in its RX series, had constant problems with mechanical sealing and required constant servicing. Owners who did their own servicing (very few) got used to it, but a majority of car owners would not support the constant servicing. What looked like an engine of the future turned out to be an experiment that did not get perfected for the market.
 

kernals12

Banned
I don't know much about swashplates, but they had limited application on aircraft. The rotary Wankel engine, applied by Mazda in its RX series, had constant problems with mechanical sealing and required constant servicing. Owners who did their own servicing (very few) got used to it, but a majority of car owners would not support the constant servicing. What looked like an engine of the future turned out to be an experiment that did not get perfected for the market.
Don't get me started on the rotary engine. You also forgot to mention that it also drank fuel and belched out smog. It was a giant turkey that ruined several automakers. And yet there are people who still tell us that it's a great engine.
 

NoMommsen

Donor
I don't know much about swashplates, but they had limited application on aircraft.
...
It actaully has some ... interesting application :
powering with about 500 hp modern torpedos​
I'm not an engineer, but it seems like there's a reason why not one automaker produces a swashplate engine.
Again, what reason ?
That they aren't used as car motors isn't much of an argument at all.

If you don't know, than perhaps don't call for 'unkown' as an argument in a discussion.

... in earlier times people also thought the earth is a flat plate ...
 
but a majority of car owners would not support the constant servicing

Though back in the day, many autos need the distributor point dwell adjusted, solid lifter valve lash adjusted, overall timing, messing with the automatic choke to work right, tweaking the idle and even main jest of you changed elevation by a thousand feet: cars just needed a lot of wrenching ever 2-3000 miles until the mid '70s

screwing around with apex seals every 1500 miles wouldn't have been out of place in 1955.
By 1975, that underhood time started to drop, quickly
 

Marc

Donor
Now this is the car that should have saved a company.

5918.jpg
 
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