'81 DeLorean DMC-12 (back to the future)

John Z. Delorean, who was the driving force behind Pontiac from mid 1960's and the vice president of GM at the time, left GM near the end of 1970's, and establishing his own manufacturer.

DMC, or Delorean Motor Company set up base in Ireland. Its first mass production model was the DMC-12.

Delorean's objective was to release a reasonable, stylish sports car. However, as the recently-established DMC did not have the expertise to develop such a car, and the design of the DMC-12 had to be outsourced.

As a result the chassis was handled by Lotus, while the body design was undertaken by Italdesign. Chassis construction consisted of a Lotus-style steel backbone frame, with a PRV SOHC V6 engine capable of 128 BHP mounted in the rear. And of course its rustproof stainless steel body and gull-wing doors attracted a lot of attention.

While the DMC-12 recorded sales of 6500 cars at its first year of 1981, in the midst of this the company president was arrested for suspicion of drug posession. This matter ended witha not guilty verdict, but DMC tragically went bankrupt soon after in 1983. Total production of the DMC-12s until this time was only 8500.

After this, the entire inventory of DMC-12s were shipped from Ireland to the US, and passed into the hands of a newborn DMC which would do maintenance of the Deloreans. This company, responding to the requests and demands of Deloreans owners, announced a tuning menu that increased engine power to 197 BHP. Deloreans equipped with this engine are known as series 2.