Little story of a botched car that traveled through time


The British government funded the US product for years

The delays in the start of production meant that DMC was constantly on the brink of insolvency. The company repeatedly had to be rescued by the British government through guarantees or bridging loans. When the car and factory were finally finished in the late summer of 1980 and the first DMC-12 had been screwed together in Dunmurry, it turned out that there was still a long way to go before series production. Because it took three times as long as planned to build a car.

If the history of the DMC-12 had been disastrous up until then, things were about to get even worse. It officially started on January 21, 1981: The first DMC-12 rolled off the assembly line in Belfast. Again DMC was practically broke, it needed another bridging loan, and only the British government remained as a lender. When the first cars arrived in the USA, they were in such a bad condition that in some cases around 150 working hours per car were necessary before the DMC-12 could go on sale. Even after that, the defects increased and there were several product recalls.

During 1981, when things seemed to have stabilized, DeLorean made a fatal decision. He ordered production capacity to be doubled. From then on, the company manufactured twice as many vehicles per day as it could sell. The result: the parking areas filled up with DMC-12, but soon there was no money to cover the running costs. It didn’t take long for everything to collapse like a house of cards. In early 1981, further rescue attempts failed, the British government sent in a liquidator, and an arrest warrant was issued for DeLorean for embezzlement.

In October 1981, Northern Ireland received a message that meant the end: John DeLorean was arrested for drug trafficking. This ended the dream of a new car company. The insolvency administrator in Belfast announced the liquidation and the last employees were sent home. DMC filed for bankruptcy and was left with more than $200 million in debt. And so, on December 24, 1982, the last DMC-12 rolled off the assembly line, one of almost 9,000 units that were produced there.

A cult car thanks to the flux compensator

Although the group could not be rehabilitated, the brand image of the DeLorean soon celebrated an almost miraculous rescue. Apparently the car was missing a crucial component: a flux compensator. The device that enabled time travel with the DMC-12 and of course only worked in the film. This story took place in 1985 when the first part of the Back to the Future trilogy was released and teenager Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, was jetting into the past in Doc Brown’s aka Christopher Lloyd’s pimped DeLorean for time travel . Since the film was so successful, more parts followed in 1989 and 1990.

Incidentally, DeLorean was acquitted in the drug trial because it turned out that he was deliberately subdued by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration to commit a crime. However, he did not build another car until his death in 2005. His phenomenal rise to the top of General Motors was followed by a deep fall. Journalist Michael Schäfer comes to the conclusion in his book “Too early for the future – The DeLorean drama”: “Responsibility for the failure of the DMC-12 rests solely with DeLorean, who cannot control his greed for power, size and recognition got.”



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