These Cars Don't Deserve The Hate They Get

I’m going to keep up my never-ending crusade of defending the DeLorean DMC-12.

Objectively a great car? Well, no. But in context and by the standards of malaise era “American” (DMC actually built in Ireland, of course) cars, it is underappreciated.

81 Corvette 0-60: 8.1s (fastest US production car that year)

81 Pontiac Trans Am 0-60: 8.7s

81 DMC-12 0-60: 8.8s (5 speed, we don’t talk about the 3-speed Renault slushbox)

It was overpriced for sure. You could almost get 3 Trans Ams for the price of one DMC at MSRP at the time, or very nearly in a new 911. But hey, at least you’d spend a little less at the gas pump with the DMC.

The DMC was constructed using a lot of off-the-shelf parts, but it was still the company’s first attempt in a brand new factory with a workforce of completely inexperienced labor and the cars tended to require a ton of time correcting production line issues after they were finished before they could be sold. The intent was to turbocharge them (and the low-compression PRV6 was in part chosen for this – the ability to fit it behind the rear axle instead of in front of it like in the 1976 prototype), but they only got a few turbo prototypes built before the Thatcher government closed the doors. The US Big 3 did their best to sabotage DeLorean by pressuring suppliers not to do business with DMC.

The interior is damn decent for 1981. The gullwing doors made tight parking spaces a breeze, needing only 14 inches of clearance to fully open. Despite the rear weight bias thanks to the rear mounted engine, the car on its Lotus Esprit-inspired chassis is pretty fun to drive. They look great, and properly cared for (no brillo pads, jesus), the brushed stainless looks great forever.

There were certainly some self-inflicted problems: John DeLorean positively pissed away company money on ridiculous bullshit all the time. He paid for prime office real estate in Manhattan, bought a company that made fake-snow machines for year-round ski slopes, tried to buy Lamborghini, tried to buy AMC out from under Chrysler, lived like a rockstar himself, etc.

The twin-turbo prototype cars were faster in tests than the Ferrari 308 and Porsche 928, and DMC ordered 5,000 TT engines from Legend Industries for the 1984 model year – which of course never got produced. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see what sort of refinements a second generation of the car would have brought. DMC was working with DuPont and experimenting with translucent automotive paint, too.