DeLoreans To Go Back To Production (cnn.com) 276
An anonymous reader writes: The last time a DeLorean was built was about 35 years ago, but that is all about to change. Next year, you'll be able to buy a new 2017 DeLorean to satisfy all your deepest Back to the Future dreams. CNN reports: "The new production plan is itself something of a time warp. The cars will be built from an inventory of a million spare parts that have been in storage ever since the Belfast plant closed. Only the engine will be a creature of the 21st century."
First... (Score:5, Funny)
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I would go back and top your first post, but I am out of plutonium. And this Mr. Fusion is just a scam.
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"This is heavy."
Nope (Score:5, Funny)
I'm not buying one unless it's powered by a Mr Fusion.
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That only powers the time circuits. The engine itself is a regular ICE that takes unleaded. You need both in order to time travel.
Sadly, the electric car mod was something Doc Brown did not do to his DeLorean.
Re:Nope (Score:4)
Wow! So they are 95% of the way to having a working time machine. That's progress...
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Sadly, the electric car mod was something Doc Brown did not do to his DeLorean.
How can you possibly know what is powering this [youtu.be]?
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The flying circuits were also electrically powered by Mr. Fusion, along with the Flux Capacitor, but the engine ran on ordinary gas, and we know that because Doc Brown said so and that was the entire plot obstacle of the third movie: they're stuck in the Old West with no gas (and busted flying circuits), so they can't get up to speed to return Back To The Future.
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I'll settle for one that starts and runs when I turn the key.. That Marty guy's car was a mess....
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And actual time travel. :D
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They are doing an electric version. Charge it with solar power and you get about as close to running on fusion power as you are ever likely to.
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Next to come back... (Score:3)
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The Avanti name, factory, and design were sold and subsequently resold several times. Low volume production of Avantis continued until 2006. The factory has since been gutted and nothing remains.
I saw one of them about 16 years ago; it has a nice luxury-sports type look except that the front is bit peculiar.
Infamous (Score:2)
I have heard they were built so poorly that they are infamous as the only collectable car that you do not want to have original internals.
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I have heard they were built so poorly that they are infamous as the only collectable car that you do not want to have original internals.
Jaguar v12 - usually replaced with a north american v8.
Re:Infamous (Score:4, Interesting)
Jaguar v12 - usually replaced with a north american v8.
The big problem with that motor isn't the motor, it's all the stuff around it. The reliability went way up on the XJ12 for its last year of production, after it had been purchased by Ford. That's the only one you want. If I had an older one I'd want to throw away all the electrics and replace them completely. I'm starting to think that might be a good idea even in my Mercedes, which luckily has only a few wires going to the engine to monitor it and to run the glow system. The really fun stuff is everywhere else.
Side Impact Regulations (Score:2)
Good luck with the side impact regulations from 2007 that you need to pass:
http://www.edmunds.com/car-saf... [edmunds.com]
Re:Side Impact Regulations (Score:5, Informative)
Clearly you failed to actually read the article:
Normally it would be impossible to make DeLoreans under current federal safety rules, according to Espey. But new regulations are going into effect later this year that will allow the production of replica cars without requiring them to meet safety guidelines involving air bags and crash tests.
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and on top of that
The original DeLorean engines only have 130 horsepower, while the new V6's will have between 350 to 400 horsepower
Re:Side Impact Regulations (Score:5, Funny)
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400 horsepower and they don't need to meet modern safety regulations... What could possibly go wrong?
Maybe we can nominate the company for a Meta-Darwin Award.
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Re: Side Impact Regulations (Score:2)
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Except I would actually want the Cobra.
Except you can actually get a kit car that's even better than the real Cobra, because it has numerous refinements and you can get the same output out of a lighter engine today.
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Oh, and the replicas are much, MUCH cheaper too.
You can buy a fully completed one that will beat the pants off almost any modern sports car for ~50K. Granted it has no roof and only seats two ... but to some that's a feature not a problem :)
I've toyed with the idea of getting a Factory 5 kit for a few years now. The lack of garage/build space in brooklyn makes it a bit less practical though.
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Great, now if we can just get rid of the Chicken Tax and the ban on most imports newer than 25 years old, then we'd have something. Getting rid of the dealer laws that keep Tesla out of a lot of states would be nice too, but let's not push our luck too much here.
Without reading TFA (hey, this is Slashdot!), I'm going to guess that they had a run made of that one quarter panel (front right?) that they ran out of quickly because DMC hadn't ordered a fresh run of them for parts before going bankrupt.
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"Gal-wing"? Is that where the young ladies enter and exit?
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As long as they keep the production numbers low enough - a few hundred cars a year, they're exempted. Doesn't mean the car is safe.
It's just that below a certain number they're considered 'custom' cars that there's not enough production to justify the full up testing that might destroy half of them. I think the current test set ends up being about 12 cars if you do everything - and it's not like they can do a rear-end crash test on a car that was previously tested in a front end collision, because the str
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Considering the "safety" of the cars with Takata airbags, this is no worse and can be considered far better since the driver doesn't have the expectation of that particular "safety" feature...
http://blog.caranddriver.com/m... [caranddriver.com]
This could rock (Score:3)
The engine and transmission were underwhelming in the original, and modern engines with significantly higher power, and lower weight, are ubiquitous. If it had decent engineering -- as in, if they are using a modern differential and wheel bearings -- the stainless steel body could make for a car that lasts for decades. However, man, the dash design was seriously dated and would need a ton of updating to look even modern, much less futuristic.
In other words, I'm dubious about the commercial viability of that car's design with only a new engine. A new engine, drivetrain, interior, and electronics, would make an interesting car... but that's not quite the same as "only the engine [will be changed]".
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By the way, the fine article refers to this change in regulations [classiccars.com] which allows low-volume manufacturers to produce classics without things like airbags or OBDII. That's interesting because a ton of cars vanished from the landscape not from lack of consumer demand but because the design was unable to be economically and aesthetically updated to meet new regulations. The Jaguar XKE is a perfect example. Again, cars using modern drivetrains, fitted in classic bodyshells, would be a neat mix of beauty and du
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It almost makes you wonder if maybe they shouldn't have found a modern car they could mount the body panels to.
It's kind of too bad you can't very easily have a modular car system where parts could be relatively easily interchanged.
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It's kind of too bad you can't very easily have a modular car system where parts could be relatively easily interchanged.
You do, though. The motor and transmission are held in with mounts which can be redesigned for other powerplants. The front suspension on all modern vehicles is attached to a subframe, if there is clearance for the various suspension bits then a new subframe can be made to hold the old bits on a new vehicle. Automakers do this all the time, for example the Chevy Astro front suspension was lifted from the Caprice, although it has different hubs.
The problem is that it usually doesn't make sense to reuse the s
$100,000? (Score:3)
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It's a toy, not a practical every day drive. Aside from looking cool and being in a classic movie, the DeLorean has very little going for it. It's heavy, not very quick even with the new engine, poor handling, uncomfortable, heavy controls, the parts weren't exactly well made with precision...
If it came with BTTF trim it might be worth $100k, or if the electric one had an 85kWh battery...
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It's a toy, not a practical every day drive. Aside from looking cool
I thought the DeLorean looked cool until I finally saw one in person. They look great from every angle but the front... from which they look like a boat. The front of the body is so high that the styling falls down completely. From the back to the front it's sports car, sports car, sports car, volkswagen sedan. There's no good reason for the hood to be so high on a mid-engined car, but it is anyway.
People who bought a Pantera got a much better deal. At least it's worth fixing.
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I think it looks cool in person, and you can drive with the doors open... It's a classic British sports car, slightly odd looking from some angles, doesn't quite fit together properly, and underpowered. The joke was that a real Delorean could barely do 88 MPH. In fact, some models had a speedo that only went up to 85.
That's what made it an ideal time machine. It looked like it was built in some bloke's shed from a kit anyway, so anything you added to it looked pretty much factory fit.
Only the engine (Score:2)
They are not using the engine (Score:2)
Which was mediocre even in its day.
I bet they could find some cute little 8 to put in there, that's what I would do. Hell, I wonder if there's room in Deloreans to retrofit an Audi V6 and transaxle. That would pep them right up. You could stuff it into a tree in no time.
What happened to the electric one (Score:2)
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Autopilot (Score:3)
Only the engine... (Score:2)
"Only the engine will be a creature of the 21st century."
The engine definitely needs to be.
Cost... (Score:2)
I just wonder if the new engines will make the car actually able to reach 85mph.
The body dies were destroyed, maybe not? (Score:3)
It was widely reported at the time that the government (who were very unhappy) had the body dies destroyed. None of the articles mention how they will build new cars after the legacy stock of body parts is depleted.
But there's evidence that they're at the bottom of Ards Bay, Connemara, being used as fish net anchors.
http://www.dmcnews.com/Resourc... [dmcnews.com]
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How big of a deal would it be to just make new dies? Or, perhaps, is there some alternate process they could use to make the panels?
I don't know enough about that sort of manufacturing to have a good idea. But it *was* the early '80s. And they didn't do much in the way of "curvy", "aerodynamic", or "low coefficient of drag" back then. The DMC-12, like most cars of that era, is predominantly a collection of nearly flat surfaces and straight lines, with some minor curves at the wheel wells and corners.
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How big of a deal would it be to just make new dies?
It is a huge deal. Making the tooling to stamp out cars is probably the biggest percentage of the cost of preparing for their production, assuming an existing assembly line.
Or, perhaps, is there some alternate process they could use to make the panels?
Stamping is the cheapest way to form sheet metal, especially stainless. Stainless is harder, so you can't work it as much and working it is harder. If you tried to do it by hand with an air hammer and english wheel, you'd have a bad time. A lot of the shapes used on body panels are difficult to make without stamping, when you get to the
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It's much cheaper to make new dies these days, using either the original plans or by laser scanning existing parts.
Ugh! (Score:3)
They can probably sell 300 (Score:3)
I can see a few problems though. The original frame/engine mount only had to deal w/ 130 hp, so probably some modifications needed there. The weight distribution was 35/65 front/rear. With a presumably heavier engine/transmission and anything else needed back there that ratio could get problematic.
DeLorean, Meet Avanti (Score:2)
When the (by then diversified) Studebaker Corporation pulled the plug on automobile manufacturing, a couple of Studebaker dealers hui'ed up to create a company to keep making Avantis. Among other things, they bought the existing stock of Lark convertible sedan frames the Avanti body sat on. From '66 through '83, they cranked out about 3000 Avanti II's, basically Studebakers with Chevy engines and transmissions.
When the company ran out of Lark frames, they reworked the car to use the Chevy Monte Carlo chassi
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Not much plastic in a Delorean - the body of the car is sheet metal, unlike a lot of modern cars.
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Not much plastic in a Delorean - the body of the car is sheet metal, unlike a lot of modern cars.
The plastic parts of a modern car body tend to be those that are the first to hit something (or someone), i.e. front and rear bumpers. Some people might say that's a good thing.
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What the dash isn't molded plastic in a Delorean like it is in every mass produced vehicle today?
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In a reasonably climate controlled warehouse they'd still be in 'like new' condition. If not, the company that bought DMC's rights and became DMC has the molds to make new ones.
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Huh, when I did the research I found that the new DMC company had the ability to make all parts if necessary, though for a lot they still had lots of original parts they could use for most of it.
Then again, they might of ended up recreating some tooling, or even using more modern production methods.
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With modern tech, it's easy to recreate both the body panel toolchain and the plastic molds - 3D scanning is so far beyond 30 years ago. However, it likely makes no financial sense at all to build that toolchain or make those molds - those are very capital-intensive.
Re:Great.. (Score:4, Funny)
Dumped in the ocean? Quick! Get David Cameron on the phone!
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This is nonsense. If they have the parts to create new cars, it's trivial to make new molds for those parts. Even if the original molds were scrapped it doesn't take much to create a mold from an existing thing to make a replica of that thing. It's not even extraordinarily expensive from a corporate perspective.
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Re: Great.. (Score:3)
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Thats good it sounds like most of it wouldn't degrade much in storage. Anyone who has ever delt with trailer house tires should know what I was talking about still looks brand new but breaks as soon as you try to use it.
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Not much plastic in a Delorean - the body of the car is sheet metal, unlike a lot of modern cars.
I thought the body was stainless steel on these things - no need for paint.
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It's stainless sheet metal, and you are correct - no need for paint.
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Not much plastic in a Delorean - the body of the car is sheet metal, unlike a lot of modern cars.
I thought the body was stainless steel on these things - no need for paint.
Yes, I think you can call it the anti-Corvette. A steel body and a fiberglass frame.
Re: Great.. (Score:2)
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You'd be surprised at how well plastic holds up when it's made to take the sun all the time. In terms of body panels, those very first Saturns(made by GM) are 26-27 years old now. They used plastic composite body panels. Those interior panels? Also held up very well. If I have one complaint, it's like many cars and their roof liner the foam is actually what fails as the mating surface.
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my Mk.II Burner has a 30 year old Skyway mag on the front. I still ride it.
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You don't have to worry about mileage because as soon as you drive one you'll understand why DMC went out of business.
One of the common mods is to replace the 4 cylinder with the 6 cylinder that DMC had wanted as an option for the car.
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You don't know what you are talking about. DMC-12s had only one engine option: the PRV, which is a V6. It's power output was a rather anemic 130HP, so perhaps there is an engine swap to a more powerful V6.
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Okay, I mis-remembered. To put it simply: Due to fuel requirements and such, it ended up with, as you say, an anemic engine for a vehicle that was supposed to be 'sporty'. I remember reading that DMC had wanted to have an engine upgrade option - I just mis-remembered that it was a v-6 stock, which would have made the most likely upgrade a v-8. That being said, even back then a bigger v-6 would probably have been a valid option, and I do know that a number of owners did put an upgraded engine into the ve
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No need for any engine swap, just fix the PRV V6
Well, part of it was my memories from 10-20 years ago, some then put a new engine in. But yeah, note that I said there's upgrades that boost the stock engine - meaning the stock engine is still there, just upgraded from 130 hp to 200.
Your changes, which would require new pistons and cams, and a replacement exhaust (the upgrade list I saw replaced the whole exhaust system with a slightly bigger one).
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If you have to rebuild the engine, it makes much more sense to rip it out and throw it away, assuming you can either find another transaxle that will work or mate the new engine to the original transaxle. That engine was a dog, and making it not a dog will be expensive. If you're replacing that much of a motor that old, replace the motor.
Re: Meh (Score:2)
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A turbo 4 or V6 would be beautiful.
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Although this may seem silly, the concept isn't, and this is where Tesla has it wrong. An Electric DeLorean would just back into a Garage, and then let the Electronics take over. The DeLorean would be precisely positioned, and Robot Arms would delve in, swap depleted Batteries for recharged ones, and in less than the time it takes to fill a tank with Gasoline currently, one could start scraping Bugs off of the windshield, and then drive off. Recharging Batteries in place is so Baker Electric, 1899.
I'm not sure if this was a joke or not, but that is the stupidest idea I've heard all day.
Re:Meh (Score:5, Informative)
You could already get a good used one for $15,000-$30,000... http://www.hemmings.com/classi... [hemmings.com]
You don't have to worry about mileage because as soon as you drive one you'll understand why DMC went out of business. Also the added derp from all the people saying "OMG BACK TO THE FUTURE CAR" will wear off and you'll want to keep it locked away in your garage.
Trust me as someone who drove the the "Urkel Mobile" (BMW Isetta) for a few weeks.
Except that for a DeLorean, "good" is incredibly relative. The car's engine was an engineering disaster, and if one still runs it's on *very* borrowed time. There are a million kluges in the way they're built...for example, there was a problem where the throttle would stick in cold weather. It turned out that there was an issue with condensation forming, which would then run down into the throttle cable assembly...and freeze. Their solution? Put an l-shaped bracket above the assembly to make the water miss and land somewhere else.
In another example of how at-risk the engines are, an episode of "Comedians Getting Coffee" with Jerry Seinfeld and Patton Oswalt began...began...in a DeLorean. I say "began" because they didn't make it half a mile before the engine suffered a catastrophic failure, resulting in all kinds of fluids running freely and horrible sounds coming from inside. Chest-burster kind of engine failure.
And when you consider that a Mazda Miata genuinely has more horsepower than these cars ever had, the concept of having the look of a DeLorean, the body of a DeLorean, but NOT the original engine they came with...well, that sounds like a pretty good idea to me. I can see why they're giving it a shot, and it doesn't surprise me that the demand has been pretty high so far.
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And when you consider that a Mazda Miata genuinely has more horsepower than these cars ever had, the concept of having the look of a DeLorean, the body of a DeLorean, but NOT the original engine they came with...well, that sounds like a pretty good idea to me.
They also handle like dogshit by the standards of the day, let alone modern standards. Absolutely the only reason to buy one is if you saw BTTF too many times.
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And when you consider that a Mazda Miata genuinely has more horsepower than these cars ever had, the concept of having the look of a DeLorean, the body of a DeLorean, but NOT the original engine they came with...well, that sounds like a pretty good idea to me.
They also handle like dogshit by the standards of the day, let alone modern standards. Absolutely the only reason to buy one is if you saw BTTF too many times.
Tapping on his head... "McFly... Think McFly.... "
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Practically every current car has more horsepower than a DeLorean. My 2009 Scion xB has 158 hp, and that car only cost me $16k brand new. You'd be hard-pressed to find anything less. Hell, the Nissan Versa (cheapest current car in US market) has 109 hp, which is pretty darn close to 130. At the time, however, 130 hp was sort-of OK but still kind of shitty but it wasn't that shitty. There were new cars with less than half that power in the mid-80s.
Having said all that, I'd still like to get one of those new
Re: Meh (Score:4, Insightful)
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Of course it was! Its unreliability was a plot point!
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But do they start and get you to 88 MPH when you want it to?
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They should. 85-90 is doable on I-294
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85-90 is Rush Hour traffic on I-95 in Miami,
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Due to a change in the law, not due to the addition of otherwise required safety features...
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Will the new DeLoreans be any better?
A new engine might be a good step in that direction.
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No word on where they will source the "Flux Capacitor" from?
$298 on Amazon [amazon.com].
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car without an autopilot?
We could do that [capnaux.com].
Re: death trap (Score:2)
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