but it's such a crazy story that we have to tell it,
so buckle up baby, 'cause where we're going.
- We don't need roads.
- Most of America was introduced to it
in 1985's Back to the Future.
It was a car unlike anything else on the road
and for generations car fans and film buffs
looked for Doc's flying car to leave flames
instead of skid marks.
It's perhaps the most recognizable car ever made,
though it was only in production for barely two years.
It had gullwing doors, tiny windows,
and was built out of stainless (bleep) steel.
But its fame and desirability came three years too late
to save the company that made it,
created a name for a man who was perhaps too close
to the rock star that Marty McFly wanted to be,
but how many know the tale behind the stainless steel wedge,
about the maverick auto engineer
who built a car company, stamped his name on it,
and lost it in a whirlwind of jet setting excess
that culminated in a $6 million cocaine bust?
It's a story that so perfectly sums up the '80s.
You think Scorsese made it up, but he didn't.
This all happened.
This is everything you need to know
to get up to speed on the DeLorean DMC-12.
(retro video game music)
John Z. DeLorean was an automotive success story.
He began working for Chrysler will still in college,
learned his commitment to quality at Packard Motors,
and worked as an engineer at American Motor Company.
He then moved to General Motors,
where he rose through the ranks as a young designer.
DeLorean is credited for the birth
of the historic Pontiac GTO and the Firebird.
As the youngest head of Chevrolet,
he was tasked with rolling out
the much less iconic Chevy Vega.
To distract from its shortcomings,
DeLorean harnessed his reputation
as a jet setting auto exec hot shot
and stepped into the spotlight doing magazine interviews
and TV spots touting that the Vega could beat
any European car in handling an acceleration.
It couldn't.
But his claims drove the car's success
and helped garner Motor Trend's Car of the Year in 1971.
By 1972, John DeLorean's work ethic,
commitment to quality, braggadocio,
and, "Hey, (bleep) you, I know what I'm doin'," attitude,
made him the youngest vice president in GM history.
The public saw him as a six foot four American dreamboat.
He had cultivated a reputation
as the automotive industry's golden boy.
After a decade at GM, he had grown tired
of the politics between execs and designs
and emboldened by his new public image,
he left GM to build his dream car.
- (bleep) you, (bleep) you.
You're cool, and (bleep) you, I'm out.
- In 1973, he formed the DeLorean Motor Company,
and by 1976, DMC had his mitage and prototype
making the rounds to garner investment.
The private capital came from DMC Inc.
DeLorean himself put in no cash but owned over 80%
of the common stock in return for car development work
that he valued at $3.5 million.
Smart guy.
DeLorean went all Nick Fury
and put an all-star team together to build his car.
He tasked chassis design to Colin Chapman,
founder and owner of Lotus, and he designed the body
with Giorgetto Giugiaro of Italdesign.
They settled on a stainless steel car
with gullwing doors that was under 45 inches high
with about five inches of ground clearance.
To further the upfront cash flow,
DeLorean promised four gold-plated DMC-12s for $80,000 each.
Those all exist.
Also, I just wanna point out how badass this dude is
for making a gold car named after himself.
That's like me making a car and naming it the Pumphre 502.
502, shout out, Louisville area code.
That's where I was raised, baby.
For his legacy, DeLorean had to find new technology
to accommodate the groundbreaking design.
To make the doors lighter, only half the window rolled down
and they needed special struts designed by German aerospace.
For weight, the body had to be fiberglass
with stainless steel panels,
and they couldn't find an engine suitable
for the design, so they commissioned one.
This flying wedge would be powered
by the Peugeot-Renault-Volvo, PRV, 2.85 liter V6,
which produced around 130 horsepower.
- That sucks.
- Now we have an American company
in charge of an Italian designed car
in an Irish factory powered by a Franco-Swiss engine.
What could go wrong?
Turns out, everything.
John DeLorean was a risk taker who gambled on himself.
He toed the line between success and disaster
and he was about to find himself
in a perfect storm of bad luck and bad timing.
For starters, DeLorean was facing
allegations of drug trafficking.
Drug trafficking.
- I don't know what even that is.
- DMC's PR was doing a good job
dismissing the allegations, which we now know
looked more like rich guy buying coke in 1980.
Investment was still solid
and the cars began rolling off the line.
Unfortunately, the DeLorean DMC-12 was introduced
at the start of the largest slump
in the American auto industry since 1930,
and while the prototype was estimated to cost $10,000,
the production cars had to sell at $25,000 each.
That's in 1980s money.
That's $58,000 today.
Here's what he did right.
Design, handling, marketing,
cutting edge digital technology.
Here's what he did wrong.
Literally everything else.
First, to recoup debt, he rolled it out too soon
and it was plagued with bugs that probably
would've been worked out at a larger car company.
The innovative windshield embedded antenna didn't work,
so the high tech digital radio
would scan for stations continuously.
Also, the alternator didn't generate
enough current for the car's new tech.
The battery would discharge and strand drivers
wherever it died, and the engine produced 130 horsepower,
all for just 7,000 more dollars
than a fully loaded Corvette,
which hit 60 miles an hour almost two seconds faster.
I wanna remind you guys that we're talking about
probably the worst Corvette in history.
In 1982, teetering between bankruptcy and breakout success,
DeLorean outsourced development of a twin turbo version
of the PRV engine that proved quicker
than both a Ferrari 308 and a Porsche 928.
All they needed was a little more money
to get over the hump.
Talk of a public offering at $12 a share
would've brought 120 million into the company,
but it kept getting pushed as John DeLorean,
who, you know, knows best, sought instead
a partnership with a larger automotive company.
By January of '82, production was curtailed
to three days a week because of capital concern.
DeLorean is still riding on the reputation of his name,
and though he was just a phone call away
from a lucrative payday by going public,
he was searching for a way
to get an influx of private capital.
Had he made the call, who knows?
Maybe we'd all be driving DeLoreans now, but he waited,
and this is where the story of a stainless steel,
time traveling gullwing gets really, really (bleep) weird.
- You're gonna see some serious shit.
- Undaunted by reason, the feds put a plan in place.
In October of 1982, John DeLorean got a call
about an investment opportunity,
an offer that could save his business,
so naturally he hopped on a plane from New York to LA
and went to a meeting in an LAX hotel,
but it was a (bleep) sting.
The FBI set him up with more than 59 pounds of coke
with about $6.5 million in 1982 money,
and nabbed him leaving the hotel.
They allege that he tried to finance
a drug trafficking ring to turn 220 pounds of cocaine
into financing to save his company.
DeLorean wanted desperately to get back to his plant
in Ireland, but while he was on the plane,
the British government suddenly concerned
over his debt closed his Ireland plant.
What followed was a media firestorm, and two days later,
the FBI broadened its charges against Mr. DeLorean
to claim that he tried to import heroin from Thailand.
I mean, who hasn't?
Almost immediately after his arrest,
DeLorean Motor Company declared bankruptcy,
not making it through the month.
(bleep).
In 1984, a jury found John DeLorean innocent of all charges
and asserted that it was a clear cut case of entrapment,
but the damage was already done.
After his acquittal, DeLorean was asked when he planned
to return to the automotive industry.
His response?
"Would you buy a used car from me?"
- Step right up and get yourself
a brand new DeLorean, just $60,000.
- So how did a generation of car lovers
fall in love with what could've been
just a never rusty footnote in automotive history?
Everyone knows that time travel happens at 88 miles an hour
and if we're fact checking in the DeLorean DMC-12,
it would've taken a lot more than the Twin Pines parking lot
to get there, but Hollywood doesn't care about facts,
and neither did kids watching the silver screen.
But seeing it on the screen somehow made it even more real
than seeing it on the street ever could.
A DeLorean was never featured on Trapper Keeper folders
like the Contosh or Ferrari Testarossa.
It was on lunchboxes with flaming skid marks
and Michael J. Fox lifting his glasses to check his watch.
The company had folded, so for all intents and purposes,
the car didn't exist.
The DeLorean became whatever fiction we wanted it to be.
A blazing fast anomaly that left flames in its wake,
a purebred American motor car if we decided.
Seldom sought but sometimes spotted,
like a unicorn or automotive artistry.
DMC has long since folded but a generation
of car loving film fans kept their eyes peeled
on road trips for the time traveling DeLorean.
Everyone remembers the excitement of seeing one on the road.
I've seen five, and I remember all of 'em.
After summer break you'd get back to school
and tell everyone you saw the Back to the Future car
and they'd be all like, "You're a liar,"
and I'd be all like, "(bleep) you Mark, I saw it.
"You're the liar."
Now, let's get back to the future.
In July 2007, DMC Texas announced
that the car would be returning
in a very limited production, about 20 cars a year.
Taking old chassis, they rebuilt new stainless steel panels
to churn out mint refurbished time machines.
The new cars are made with 80% original parts,
so the term return to production,
while welcome, is a bit of a stretch.
In 2009, the price of a refurbished DeLorean
from DMC Texas started at like, 57 grand.
That's not bad.
In 2015, the Low Volume Vehicle Manufacturing Act
was signed into law and DMC Texas announced
they would be producing replica DeLoreans
with an expected release date of 2017.
Clock's tickin', fellas.
According to their web site,
the company's official statement is,
"A number of hurdles exist before production can begin,"
something their founder, John DeLorean learned the hard way.
This is everything you need to know
to get up to speed on the DMC DeLorean 12.
If you had $60,000, would you spend it on a DeLorean?
How many times have you seen Back to the Future?
What's your favorite Back to the Future?
Mine is two.
Is it totally creepy that I'm not bothered
that Marty kissed his mom?
(bleep) you, Dad, I kiss my mom all the time.
What other cars do you wanna see us cover?
What did we miss in this video?
What did you like about this video?
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