The Coolest Worst Car of All Time.

Six of the twelve DeLorean's we saw at DMC Houston

I was watching the History Channel the other day because I am such an exciting individual.  Whilst doing so something came on about John Z. DeLorean and his creation the DMC-12 or more commonly known as the DeLorean, or probably even more commonly known as Marty McFly’s 85mph time machine.  A stainless steel car with gull-wing doors, a super car look without the super car price.  This was a car that would get noticed wherever it was taken.  You can’t hide in a car that’s sun reflection can be seen from space.  This car, although kind of neat was just a bad idea to build a whole business around.  It was expensive, it was heavy and its little Peugeot V-6 motor was barely adequate.  John DeLorean’s business of car building went down the tubes along with whatever cocaine the FBI busted him with. 

Anyway, that’s enough about the business failure bologna.  In this History Channel piece on the DeLorean they happened to mention that the remainder of the failed companies’ cars, parts and everything related were shipped to a place in Houston, TX; where I happen to be at the moment!  The place is called DeLorean Motor Company or DMC.  They actually still build cars with the parts they have, they service them, restore them and are a parts dealer for the three DeLorean collectors that are out there.

I told my wife “Banessa” about the goofy back to the future car and that I wanted to travel back in time and check one out.  She was all about it as long as I promised not to say, “Where we’re going we don’t need roads!”   I agreed and we were off to DMC.  When we pulled into the parking lot of this place set back in some run down industrial section of Houston we were greeted by six stainless steel DeLorean’s, all waiting to be restored.  Walking up to the cars you realize just how low they sit as their roof lines barely reached to my lower chest.  You also realize what kind of guts it would take to try and build a whole car company based on such a niche type vehicle.  I have to admit, I like the DMC-12 but the one thing about it that really bothers me is the stainless steel.  I used to go insane at my teenage job where we had stainless steel appliances and I went to my wits end trying to keep them clean. It is just so not right but at the same time is probably the biggest single element of the cars neat character.  We went inside and were greeted by the shops ferocious junk yard dog.  As I bent down and petted the tiny poddlelasabichonchiuauaterrier mix thing a man walked out (James) and said, “Wow, you’re the first person she’s never bit.”  I then backed away from the miniature mongrel.  The man was very helpful.  He gave me a little history on the DeLorean, showed me a bare chassis, (which looks like it would twist like a prezel in hard cornering) a motor, some other parts and then handed me the keys to a DeLorean with 24,000 miles on the clock.  I proceeded to rev up the engine, did a burnout and hit 85mph to go back and check out how my mom and dad made me.  Okay, just kidding, I only used the keys to check out one of the three cars on the showroom floor.  The interior felt something a kin to say an 80’s Porche 944.  It smelled like old leather and the speedometer really only went to just above 85mph.  Did I mention that the doors opened up gull-wing style?  Man that is actually pretty cool.  You get to the rear of the car and you lift up two compartments to reveal the Peugeot V-6 that in a lighter car may have been pretty good.  James told me that John DeLorean wanted anything on the car that you could touch our see to be unique from other cars but that he wanted the working parts to be common so that they could be found anywhere and so that car guys could work on there own cars.  That right there I think made me a fan of this quirky stainless steel car.  The uniqueness just made me want one and the ability for me to identify all the working parts made me think I would like to keep one in my garage to tinker with.  Then we left and saw some guy transporting a camper shell on the roof of his Chevy Astro van with one tie down strap and I forgot all about the DeLorean.  Here’s to the folks that are keeping that dream alive, I have other garage visions back in my future.