DeLorean DMC 12 - how much does it cost to ride "Back to the Future" today?

DeLorean cars are practically unknown in Russia. But if you say that this is a car from the movie "Back to the Future", then the memory will helpfully slip a stylish image of a coupe with characteristic doors rising up.


It's sad for the manufacturer, but its only model, the DeLorean DMC 12, which should have been a best-selling sports car, has remained in the memory of several generations thanks to cinema. Commercial sales of the car failed miserably, although everything started well.

By the way, sometimes you can buy a DeLorean DMC 12 in Russia, although such models appear on sale in single copies and not every year. The last time a car of this model was sold for 1,7 million rubles in 2020.



In the US, you can find such a car without much difficulty. The average price for this model is about $30.

History of "birth"

The DeLorean brand and its only model, the DMC 12, came about thanks to the efforts of one man - John DeLorean. It is already clear that this comrade did not suffer from modesty, since he called the car in tune with his last name.

In the mid-1960s, John DeLorean managed to make a successful career in the automotive business. The engineer worked for Chrysler, Packard, Chevrolet and Pontiac, trying to bring them to the top positions in the sports car class.



It was John DeLorean who became one of the main reasons for the prosperity of the General Motors concern in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The talented engineer and manager was constantly promoted up the career ladder. After 1971, when more than 3 million Chevrolet cars alone were sold, General Motors bosses decided to honor DeLorean by making him vice president of the company.

Only John did not particularly appreciate his career growth. In 1973, he quit and went on a "free float", deciding that there was no need to waste his talent by working for his "uncle".

A couple of years later, the DeLorean company was created. John DeLorean planned to produce sports cars, but not ordinary ones, but the most beautiful and fast ones. They were supposed to look like messengers from other worlds.



It is for this reason that the model was chosen as the spacecraft for the film Back to the Future. But this happened only after the appearance of the serial DMC 12 in 1981.

Despite his self-confidence, John DeLorean was a professional. Therefore, to create a model, he attracted specialists.

Worked on the car:

✅ Lotus employees
✅ William Collins
✅ Giorgetto Giugiaro, who painted the Maserati Ghibli

The project was conceived as a grandiose one, and Chevrolet Corvette was chosen as the donor of the units. General Motors opposed this, deciding to punish its former obstinate employee.



I had to use units from European cars, and not from the most expensive ones. For example, I wanted to take Porsche units or Italian supercars, but there was not enough money.

Start of production and collapse

Thanks to his perseverance and connections, John DeLorean agreed with the British government to build a plant in Northern Ireland for loan funds. Then the state was ready to provide DeLorean with 100 million pounds.

In return, the plant was supposed to provide the Irish with jobs. Plus, the loan, of course, needs to be gradually repaid.

Workers for production had to be recruited from local residents - such were the conditions of the British government. This was one of the reasons for the collapse of the company.



Cars were produced from 1981 to 1983. The model was expected in the USA - the manufacturer signed contracts with more than 350 dealers.

The first DeLorean DMC 12s were so poorly assembled that customers began to return them en masse. In the USA, they tried to solve this problem by organizing special refinement stations, where cars were repaired on the spot. Nothing good came of it - the model still broke.

Then a wave of failures began and the company, which managed to produce about 9 cars, turned out to be financially bankrupt. There was no money even for the issuance of salaries to workers, not to mention payments on loans.



As a result, John DeLorean was arrested for drug smuggling. As it turned out later, the case was completely fabricated.

It is believed that General Motors organized the persecution of the new sports car manufacturer. The cause of the conflict was Delorean's book, in which he told the public about the unscrupulous business practices of his former employer.

At the last moment, the writer was afraid to publish his work, but co-author Patrick Wright did it despite John's requests.
So the DeLorean company went bankrupt in just two years, leaving behind 9 DMC 500 cars. So the car would have remained unknown if not for the movie Back to the Future. This event determined the fate of the model for decades to come.

How the car became iconic

In 1985, the film "Back to the Future" was released. The DeLorean DMC 12 became the main car in the film, the very “time machine”. The model was so unusual in appearance that it was the best fit for the role of an eccentric scientist’s self-made transport. And you do not need to collect the car from scratch.



Fans of the brand believe that the choice of the DeLorean DMC 12 as the vehicle of the main characters of the film was not even influenced by the appearance of the model. It's more about the hype around the brand and its creator - all the scandals just raged at the time when the work on the filming took place.

DeLorean DMC 12 was perfect for the role of "starship", especially after the "movie people" worked on it. When the movie "Back to the Future" was released, they started talking about the car - it turned into a kind of cult.

Fans began to buy up the DeLorean DMC 12 and this model is still in demand among collectors.

Technical features

John DeLorean conceived his sports car as the fastest, lightest, most stylish and maneuverable. The body was originally planned to be made of aluminum, and the frame of high-strength plastic. But the low qualification of workers and financial constraints prevented these plans from being fully realized.



The power frame was indeed made of plastic, and the body panels were made of stainless steel. The myths that this is aluminum appeared due to the polishing and brilliance of the parts.

By the way, the characteristic gray color of the car is not a paintwork, but bare metal.

The engine on the DeLorean DMC 12 was planned to be installed first with a rotary piston, then from the Corvette, but in the end I had to be content with a V6 with a displacement of 2,849 liters per 130 hp. With. This power unit was installed on Renault and Peugeot cars.

The stylish sports car accelerated from 100 to 1982 km / h in ten seconds, which was too slow even by the standards of 3. In the version with XNUMX-automatic transmission, there were no dynamics at all.

The weight of the model was planned at the level of 1 ton, but in reality he stepped over the bar of 1 kg. This also did not contribute to the explosive dynamics that the 250 hp engine. With. and could not give.



Handling DeLorean DMC 12 did not shine, despite the fact that Lotus Engineering helped to develop the car. It is possible that these are the machinations of the bosses of General Motors, who bribed the engineers. Or maybe low-skilled workers at the factory simply could not properly assemble the car?

The cost of the DeLorean DMC 12 was planned at $12. This, by the way, was incorporated in the title. In fact, the real price of the car crossed the threshold of $ 000, which was more than what was asked for the Chevrolet Corvette. It is not surprising that sales of such an expensive model failed miserably.

DeLorean DMC 12 was conceived by the creator as a new generation sports car. A stylish and deliberately "space" car flashed like a comet in the sky of the global automotive industry - brightly, but quickly. If it were not for the films of the Back to the Future series, only a few collectors would remember about the model now.