Beschreibung:

The brainchild of ex-General Motors executive, John Zachary De Lorean, the sporting and innovative De Lorean was designed by ex-Pontiac engineer, Bill Collins, adopted a Lotus-designed steel backbone chassis and all independent suspension. It was powered by a rear-mounted, 2.9 litre, overhead camshaft V6 engine. The working components were clad with a highly individual 'gullwing' body with a distinctive brushed stainless steel outer skin over glass fibre inner panels. Built in Northern Ireland with substantial financial backing from the British Government, the De Lorean found an international market, being particularly favoured in the Middle East. Sales however never approached projected levels and John De Lorean's indictment on drugs charges in 1982 brought the project to a very expensive halt for the British taxpayer. The De Lorean is one of the exceptions to the common theme of Vintage Italian Automobiles in this collection, but it here the Giugiaro body styling is the link to the theme and its design was of course as much of its era as a Double Bubble Zagato was of the Fifties. On this occasion its acquisition was more to do with the advice and encouragement of one of the mechanics who helped the owners with the cars who just loved the De Lorean. This example which was sold new in the year that one of the brother's daughters was born appeared for sale at around the time of her 6th birthday. The car was a good low mileage example, exactly what they were looking for and it was purchased on May 2nd, the exact day as her present! The car they had found was a low mileage example with a modest mileage of 33,000 on the clock. For collectors who were totally hooked on fast cars, the De Lorean didn’t quite live up to their expectations. They were not the only people to have thought this and back in the day efforts to twin turbocharge the motor had reached prototype stages using Legend Industries turbos. By chance, the collection’s mechanic knew the widow of the founder of Legend Industries, and was able to get the some parts and the "original" specification for the twin turbo that they designed for the De Lorean, so they reworked their car to this specification. They kept the original block, but enhanced the pistons and cam, ever hopeful that the car would go as well as it looked. The upgrade was a success, but for these guys it still wasn’t fast enough so they installed an alcohol injector, and thanks to that were able to obtain about 300 horsepower… Of course, with improved horses, they needed to make sure that the rest of the car could cope, so they fitted Koni adjustable shock absorbers were fitted, the front springs were lowered by about one inch and ventilated brakes were fitted. The tires are BF Goodrich Comp T/A. When finished they took the car to Bridgehampton to test it and found that it could do 0-60mph in 5.5 seconds and would top out at 160 mph! Aside from the track the car has been regularly used on the road, with longer journeys including driving to Florida and back, while its mileage has only risen to just less than 35,000. The car's condition of the car can best be described as commensurate with its age and with having been enjoyed, its interior shows some wear as does the engine compartment, and it being more a driver than a show queen. Over the course of the last 20 or so years the De Lorean has been maintained by De Lorean Specialists P.J. Grady Inc. for which there are bills on file approaching $10,000 and in house with parts supplied by Specialty Automotive De Lorean Parts of Olympia, WA. Arguably the definitive specification that might have made production, twin turbo-charged De Loreans are few and far between and as such it can be recommended to all fans of this fascinating tale.