The 1979 DeLorean Was Built to Rewrite the Rules of the Sports Car

[This story originally appeared in the September 1977 issue of Motor Trend with the headline "Introducing the 1979 DeLorean-the Car and the Company," and comes from a time when we had a space in our name.] When asked about his aims for the DeLorean Motor Company, John Z. Delorean refers most often to his desire to create "a smaller version of Mercedes-Benz." By that he means the company and, in a slightly different sense, the car. He doesn't want to build copies of Mercedes cars; there are too many of those already. But what DeLorean does want in his products is the same kind of fidelity to engineering principles, the same appreciation for detail, the sensitivity to proper uses of materials and the awareness of the environment that Mercedes-Benz cars exhibit. DeLorean describes his approach as that of building an "ethical car," and that seems to describe it pretty well.

This is not to say that other cars and companies are unethical by comparison. But it is intended to highlight the way the DeLorean will differ from other cars. It will seek to build in values that other cars don't provide in so great a measure. Ritual annual model changes aren't likely at DeLorean, for example, at least not just for the sake of change. The car has been designed for model continuity. And the materials and construction methods have been selected to give long life. Plastics, stainless steel and aluminum are the materials of choice, used to last long, keep the car light, and save on resources. Says John DeLorean, "Over our operating lifetime (12 years and 12,000 miles per year we save about 55 barrels of crude oil, per car, compared to the Corvette."

John DeLorean is no bleeding-heart altruist. He is going into the auto business to make money for his investors and himself. But he believes, on the basis of his observations of the way things have been done in the auto industry so far, that it will make better economic sense to meet people's needs on the drawing board and in the manufacturing plant than it will to leave to them-later-many of the traditional problems and burdens of auto ownership. He feels that his company's best interests will be served if it spends a little more, initially, on making a car that will save its owner money in the long run. To do this, however, DeLorean must build cars for which there is no direct price/volume competition. He believes the sports car, his first product, fills that bill.

The Car

DeLorean decided to start with a two-seater sports car for several reasons. One was that as a former Chevrolet general manager he was well aware that the Corvette returned a tidy profit to GM-and that it was a car virtually without competition. He felt there was a strong and continuing market for a sports car of quality, tailored with less flamboyance than the Corvette. Also, the dealer-wise DeLorean knew that by offering a sports car-the kind of car least catered to by American makers-he'd have something that would face the least possible competition on the showroom floors of the dealers he hoped to interest in carrying his franchise.

John DeLorean also had certain thoughts about what kind of sports car it should be. He favored gullwing doors, for example, for their individuality. He also wanted the engine to be in the rear. "I think there were two reasons for that," DeLorean told me. "Because the car is designed to be so light, we wanted to be sure we had the whole front end available as crush space for energy management. That is the factor that allows us to get crash survivability up in the range of a 40-50 mph barrier impact. Also, I think a mid- or rear-engined car is a little bit sexier than a conventional layout."

Deciding where the engine would be was easier than settling on what it would be. No important aspect of the car's design was more difficult to pin down. At this early stage in its lifetime the DMC was not about to build engines as well as cars, so the power train had to come from an outside source. It had to meet DeLorean's goals for light weight, good performance, compactness, high economy and moderate cost-no small order! Also, it had to be available to an outside customer like DeLorean.

At first DeLorean tried hard to get a two-rotor Wankel engine for his car. Initially he tried to get the rights to GM's mid-engined Wankel Corvette prototypes. Then he turned to Comotor, the Citroen affiliate that had been set up to build Wankels. As early as January, 1974, only nine months after he'd left GM, DeLorean had a preliminary commitment from Comotor for the supply of 30,000 engines and transmissions per year. For almost a year the Comotor Wankel remained the engine of choice, in spite of its $900 price tag. But Comotor foundered in the wake of the Arab oil embargo, and a Toyo Kogyo Wankel was picked instead, placed transversely with DeLorean's own drive train. By that time, in October, 1974, William T. Collins, Jr. had been hired from GM to take charge of the creation of the car. DeLorean gave him full responsibility for its design and production-the kind of free hand every auto engineer dreams about.

Early in 1975 Collins turned his attention to other engines. For a time the PRV V-6, the unit used in the Volvo 264, Peugeot 604 and Renault 30, was the preferred engine, mounted amidships with the same trans-axles used in the front-drive Renault 30. That didn't give good ground clearance at the rear, however. Then in '75 a change was made to a German Ford V-6, mounted east-west with a drive train built around a Borg-Warner five-speed transmission. One such power pack was built (they had to buy a Mustang I to get a V-6 engine with proper hardware) and installed for testing in a modified Fiat X1/9.

In the summer of 1976, in time for incorporation in the first running prototype, a change was made to a Citroen four-cylinder engine and drive train, the same one used in the new CX2400 sedan. This was a compact east-west unit that seemed, at first, well-suited to the DeLorean design. Citroen got cold feet, however, when it learned of DeLorean's plans to turbocharge the engine. At the end of 1976 the final engine choice was made: the PRV V-6 after all, but now mounted behind the rear axle instead of ahead of it. The engine is used in just the same way in the latest Renault-built Alpine 310. Collins' calculations showed that the share of weight on the rear wheels differed only 1% between amidships and rearward placement of the engine; it will be about 62.5% on the rear wheels.

In spite of these many changes under the rear deck, Bill Collins made steady progress through 1975 and 1976 on the design of the DeLorean sports car's all-plastic underbody. It is not just glass-reinforced plastic; it's made with a new process that produces an exceptionally light yet rigid panel. It does this by pressing two thin glass-fiber skins together with a resin-impregnated lightweight foam between them. Because the flexible foam initially carries the resin, the process is known as Elastic Reservoir Molding or ERM. After running his own tests on the qualities of ERM structures of various types, Collins was convinced the material could be used for the car's structure with entirely satisfactory strength and crash-protection results. It also allowed him to aim for a weight target of only 1000 kilograms or 2200 pounds.

One other advantage of ERM is that its low-pressure molding process allows almost any sort of material to be integrally bonded to its outer surfaces. Initially all the DeLorean sports cars will have outer skins of brushed-finish stainless steel, giving them a look of engineered efficiency. It's also durable and practical; tests cars made of stainless forty years ago still look fine. For service ease, the front and rear fenders will be of stainless alone, and detachable for repair.

The car's styling turned out to be perfectly suited to this glistening brushed-finish skin. DeLorean and Collins picked the sports car's designer with care. In the first week of November, 1974 they went to Italy to interview Turin's leading stylists. Why Italy? Why not the United States? Because they wanted a complete automotive design service capable of giving them a detailed final design and mockup-a capability that isn't for sale in the U.S.

“The model looks good. Now when can I have the drawings?” -William Collins Jr., president of DeLorean auto development

Based on reputation, demonstrated ability and cost, they picked Ital Design of Giorgetto Giugiaro. Ital Design was willing to do the job for a modest amount down and a bonus payment ($65,000) when the car goes into production. In February, 1975 Giugiaro was given the green light and a set of very demanding dimensions and descriptions of the conditions Collins wanted fulfilled. In March he was ready to show Collins, and later DeLorean, five different side-view renderings done to 1/10 scale and some front-end design choices. Collins was unimpressed at first, but he suggested changes and found Giugiaro willing to meet his needs.

More trips followed, and in July, 1975, less than six months from the go-ahead, Bill Collins saw and approved the final full-scale exterior model and the interior mockup. "Okay," said Collins, used to the GM system, "the model looks good. Now when can I have the drawings?"

"What drawings?" said a perplexed Giugiaro.

"Why, the drawings that define the body surfaces."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Collins," came the reply, "but it is the model that represents our definitive work, not any drawings. You'll find it clearly specified in the contract."

And so indeed it was. Collins took delivery of the model and had drawings made from a digital analysis of its surfaces in Detroit. There the first prototype was made by Triad Services, headed by ex-GM designer Mike Pocobello, who also did the basic design work on the sports cars suspension. This uses parallel wishbones and rack-and-pinion steering in front, with an AMC Pacer upright and upper wishbone. A special parallel-wishbone rear suspension design has the outer pivots placed well within the 16-inch wheel to give a negative rear scrub radius, which should cancel out any rear-wheel torque steering effects. In its latest form the rear suspension with coil springs, as in front) is quite elegant. The most advanced road tire yet made, the low-section Pirelli PT, is to be used.

On October 25th, 1976 Bill Collins was first able to drive the first DeLorean prototype, "around the block." He didn't have it long before it was whisked away by DeLorean's dealer developer, Dick Brown. The second prototype, with the 2.7-liter PRV engine, was completed in August, 1977. "I might keep it a little ugly in a few places," Bill Collins told me, "to keep the sales guys from stealing it." And before the end of 1977 Collins and his director of engineering, Peter Giacobbi, plan to complete a third design prototype with a higher percentage of ERM parts, air conditioning, the final front suspension, and a new narrower front deck lid.

Experience with these prototypes will set the final design for production of the DeLorean sports car. Preproduction molding dies of epoxy would be made over this winter, and from them ten more prototypes would emerge in the spring of ’78 These would be used for all the final tests required: air conditioning, durability, emissions qualification, and bumper and crash tests. By the fall of 1978 the final specifications should be set, and the production line could start running in December of that year with the 1979-model DeLoreans. When that happens, we'll give you all the details on its actual design and performance.

The Company

John DeLorean wanted nothing more than to see Malcolm Bricklin succeed. He knew Bricklin's chances were not good. He was aware that there was less real money behind him than there seemed to be on the surface, and Bricklin's timing, on the brink of the oil-embargo recession, could not have been worse. Still, reasonable success for Bricklin would have meant a much easier time for DeLorean in getting financing for his own auto company.

Bricklin's publicists created the fiction in the media that no successful entry into the automobile business had been made since World War II, presumably as a means of creating an underdog image for him. This wasn't quite valid. Car makers still in business who started in that line after the war include Ferrari, Porsche, Saab, Lotus, Subaru, Mazda, Reliant, Excalibur, Matra, Lamborghini, Suzuki and Honda. Granted, only one of those mentioned is American, and it's hardly a titan, but several of these names are well-known in the United States, a fact that illustrates there's no barrier to the entry of a new car maker here-provided he knows what he's doing.

John DeLorean touched on that important fact when I asked him what made his company different from the others that have tried to set up car making in America but failed. "In the United States," he said, "I don't think that since Walter Chrysler in 1924 you've really had anybody who's been very professional about it, from the standpoint of having a background in the business. Certainly Tucker had no background at all. Henry Kaiser's success is shown by the fact that the only thing that American Motors has that makes a lot of money is the part they bought from Kaiser: Jeep and AM General. Those weren't making money for Kaiser because they weren't professionals in that business. It doesn't mean that somebody outside couldn't be successful at it, but there's just an awful lot to know, and unless you do know it I think your chances are not too good "Walter Chrysler was general manager of Buick," DeLorean continued “when he decided to go off and start his own motor company. He really knew the business, and he hired some of the finest technical people of that day, Zeder, Breer and Skelton, three consulting engineers." The implied analogy between Chrysler and DeLorean, who headed Pontiac and Chevrolet before quitting GM, is, I think, valid. Added DeLorean, “I think that we have, and are assembling, an extremely competent and professional organization of people who have been quite successful in their own ends of the business, as opposed to a lot of these others who have tried, but really haven't done it that way."

Nobody has questioned John DeLorean's own automotive credentials. He came up through one of the best technical training courses in the industry, the Packard engineering department, and went on to head Pontiac engineering in its most creative years. He showed the breadth and depth of his ability with profit-improving performances at both Pontiac and Chevrolet. This has to be contrasted with the background of Malcolm Bricklin, who ran an auto import firm (Subaru) for a while, but otherwise used to brag about how little he knew or cared about cars. His lack of knowledge, especially of prototype testing and production, contributed directly to his company's troubles.

The strength of the DeLorean Motor Company at this moment is not in imposing brick and mortar. John DeLorean divides his time between a rented office suite in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and the New York offices of Chris-Craft, of which he is a director. Bill Collins and Peter Giacobbi are in cubicles at Detroit's Creative Engineering, where they supervise eight men on the Creative staff who work, under contract, on the design of the DeLorean. The man charged with signing up the dealers, C. Richard Brown, famous for his work in establishing Mazda in America, works from a West Coast base of operations.

There's been no money to spare for non-essentials in the DeLorean program so far. John financed the initial stages of the work himself. Then, at the end of 1975, a partnership was set up to receive a total of $3.5 million from a limited number of investors who would be entitled to heavy tax writeoffs from the partnership's development expenses. That's the money they've been spending until now.

Last June 29, DeLorean received SEC approval to sell shares in his main company, the DeLorean Motor Company, in $25,000 blocks to signed-up dealers. That stands to bring him between $3.5 million (150 dealers) and $9.5 million (400 dealers) by the end of 1977, when the sale either has to be completed or called off. The money will be used to complete the prototype engineering and plan the factory, production lines and sales system. How much of it will come in isn't yet known, but in May and June the DeLorean staff had the bittersweet experience of sending back dozens of $25,000 checks, because their offering wasn't yet approved.

Where, and with what financing, will DeLorean build his cars? That's changed even more than the sports car's power train. One of the most valuable documents DeLorean possessed in the early months of his venture was a commitment from Spanish officials to help him finance and build a factory. Other locations that have been considered are Maine, Brazil and Texas. One of the most intriguing sites that was weighed was the still-idle Volvo assembly plant in Virginia. DeLorean needs 550,000 square feet for a factory that he says "will look like a laboratory or a hospital inside. We don't have paint fumes or primer boiloff."

On U.S. soil DeLorean has found the right combination of facilities and financing. "We've signed a contract with the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico," he told me. "They provide about $65 million in financing, which comes in a combination of forms, some in outright grants and some in long-term low-interest loans. Our plan is to build a factory on Ramey Air Force Base, which is on the northwest corner of the island. Fortunately, Ramey has probably the finest air strip in that part of the world. We've been negotiating with American Airlines relative to shipping the cars out of there. It looks quite attractive economically." DeLorean also has encouraging reports on the quality of labor that will be available to him in Puerto Rico.

"We've got the plant designed now," DeLorean added. Needless to say, a lot of work remains to be done before it can be producing cars. When will you be able to walk into a DeLorean showroom and pick up the keys for a new gleaming-stainless sports car? At one time they'd hoped to have them on sale at the end of 1976; obviously that didn't happen. Now, says John DeLorean, "Our plan is to be in production at the end of 1978, probably with a pilot line, at first, and then slowly full production. Of course you don't want to introduce a car in December, so l'd guess that we'd build up some inventory, and our actual new-model announcement would be in the early spring of 1979, so we'd be hitting the good weather."

Once the sports car is launched, DeLorean expects to bring out another new car in about a year and a half: "We're now planning a sedan entry of about the Jaguar-Mercedes size except, we hope, with the same light weight and super-strong construction we're getting in our sports car. We want to continue to manufacture very high-quality products in market areas where uniqueness is really a significant factor. We don't ever intend to try to compete with the major manufacturers, because it's not economically possible for a small company."

One more question, Mr. DeLorean. What got you started thinking about an auto company of your own?

"It goes back eight or ten years, l would say, not as a positive plan but as something I've been thinking about. You know, for an engineer, life with conventional products is a series of compromises. The only question is who makes the most effective compromises. What you'd really love is a little company in which you wouldn't have to make the conventional economic compromises that are required by mass production, and in which you could try to do something that you could be very, very proud of. I've got a hunch that every engineer in the business thinks about it, at one time or another, and especially on those days when he's feeling very low about having to do something he doesn't believe in!"

True enough, Mr. DeLorean. You know how those engineers feel. And you're the one who's been elected to make a statement, with your deeds, on behalf of all of them. We wish you luck in putting the pieces together.