WI: DeLorean Motor Company a Success?

I'm a little surprised nobody has copied the design (doors pop out and up, digital dashboard) for nostalgia/pop culture reasons.
Besides the actual new DeLoreans previously mentioned, you might have heard of this little company called Tesla and their Model X with...exactly those features? Okay, the Model X is a luxury crossover SUV, about as different from the DeLorean as could possibly be imagined, but it does have those features (well, okay, the doors) pretty clearly exactly for nostalgia/pop culture reasons.
 
Maybe his GM background prevents this but what about cloning a Pontiac engine with circa 400HP and dropping it into the DeLorean?
 
There's this thing called the "Displacement Tax Threshold" throughout Europe from long before the Oil Crises. It is three liters in France, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, Austria and Sweden, two liters in Italy, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Denmark. Only Norway, Iceland, and Finland lacked them. Even in the relatively liberal United Kingdom, there was a threshold of four liters, which is the main reason for the survival of the Jaguar AJ Inline 6. The only engine in Pontiac's stable remotely capable of 400 horsepower at the time was the Super Duty 455 big block pushrod V8, which would require a redesign of the DMC-12 into something that looked more like the Vector W8, and even then, the likes of Ferarri, Lambourghini, Alpine, Mercedes, and even Rolls-Royce/Bentley, Bristol, and yes, DeTomaso would be laughing their heads off.

The real point of divergence is what if instead of being a maketeer/huckster, John Z. DeLorean had been the same sort of amateur Enthusiast/Engineer as Carrol Shelby, Smokey Yunick, Don Panoz, or Christian von Königsegg, and DeLorean Motor Corporation reflected that?
 
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Maybe if you change the timing (IOTL it launched at a bad point in the economy) and have better build quality (like just having Valmet or another coachbuilder actually construct it while he does what he's best with, promotion), it could succeed..... for a time. Delorean is still going to be running uphill, with some specific points beyond just economic issues. One of this is the decline in the coupe market (especially higher-price models) in the late 1980s.

I still don't see it lasting that long.
 
Now this is the car that should have saved a company.

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Result more riots in Belfast, with the deLorean plant raided and such an ugly thing disposed off.
 
CA0257C2-1E2A-43E5-966B-2D067A38FCD1.jpeg
250bhp 2.991 Litre V6 6R4 engine set up same as in Metro 6R4, with upgrade to 410bhp.
Twin turbo 3.498 542bhp version used in Jaguar XJ220.
 
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Marc

Donor
Result more riots in Belfast, with the deLorean plant raided and such an ugly thing disposed off.

Hey! The Studebaker Avanti is sculpture in motion. (And in true fact, a very impressive bit of automotive design considering it was only briefly produced in the early 1960's)
 
View attachment 477504 250bhp 2.991 Litre V6 6R4 engine set up same as in Metro 6R4, with upgrade to 410bhp.
Twin turbo 3.498 542bhp version used in Jaguar XJ220.

TWR purchased the rights to the V64V engine from Austin Rover in 1989 and developed a completely new turbocharged engine, codenamed JV6, under the auspices of Allan Scott, with proportions roughly similar to the V64V, and suitable for sports car racing.

The only other car that utilized the engine was the experimental Lotus SID prototype that was derived from a heavily modified Lotus Esprit.
 
Why did they use that engine was there no other option? Rover v8? Some volvo or bmw engine ? Peugeot? Other uk/italian/french or german stuff?
 
DeLorean were capable of 0-60 off about 9 seconds whilst rivals were recording 7.5 seconds. Indeed the 2.8i Capri would and did eat it.
Now if Davie Woods engine was available & built using the drive train of the 6R4 (yes a few years earlier than OTL) road car would give a 6-6.5sec 0-60 and 150MPH.
Rally spec engine would give 0-60 in under 4 sec with top end of 180+. That’s Ferrari & Lamborghini territory.
 
Why did they use that engine was there no other option? Rover v8? Some volvo or bmw engine ? Peugeot? Other uk/italian/french or german stuff?

DeLorean were capable of 0-60 off about 9 seconds whilst rivals were recording 7.5 seconds. Indeed the 2.8i Capri would and did eat it.
Now if Davie Woods engine was available & built using the drive train of the 6R4 (yes a few years earlier than OTL) road car would give a 6-6.5sec 0-60 and 150MPH.
Rally spec engine would give 0-60 in under 4 sec with top end of 180+. That’s Ferrari & Lamborghini territory.

the PRV engine was used due to availability, proximity, and fact Renault financed them (ending up as company's largest creditor, excepting of course the British government)

the car was planned to be much lighter, the model closest to it, Alpine a310 is approx. 600lbs. lighter, and US emissions control strangled 20+hp out of the engine.

their patented plastics process was "projected" to serve as the chassis, but could not be painted, thus the stainless steel skin. when they abandoned the plastics process they added a chassis but kept the stainless steel skin (unneeded weight)

have no idea what could have been salvaged of the original designs prior to Lotus taking over development? as it was they had to hire a team of "super engineers" from Detroit to finish the car, likely they could have pulled together a team for less than what Lotus charged (and Delorean and Chapman "borrowed")
 
Apparently the favored option was originally the Ford Cologne V6, an admittingly heavy engine that would have been further strangled by emissions to 115-144 hp 2.8-2.9 for US market yet was capable of being turbocharged. Not sure what other engines were considered in OTL aside from the ill-fated rotary engine.

The best bet would have been a PRV V8 version of the PRV V6 had it reached production or falling that in the event the following options were considered either an Alfa Romeo V6 or a Maserati V6.
 
even a successful DMC is going to resemble Lamborghini rather than Chrysler.

as to the engine choice, have read the PRV V-6 performed well (or acceptably) in Euro-specs, and they plotted turbocharged versions.
 
Sounds like its requiring about thirty different PoD to get to a viable DeLorean manufacture.
You need to combine two factors. First, a windfall income source that prevents the accounting/drug fiasco. Second, some of dozens of performance related changes. If the company survives to 1985, it has a chance.
 
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