Author Topic: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles  (Read 6616 times)

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Offline maginnovision

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #25 on: March 04, 2020, 02:06:09 am »
I had an 84 Toyota Celica supra that would crush deloreans. When I got rid of it I thought to get one but went with a 95 M3 for an upgrade instead.
 

Offline james_s

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #26 on: March 04, 2020, 03:42:57 am »
The bar is low for performance. The engine was something like 150HP and stainless is heavy. In a race between a DeLorean and a Prius I'm honestly not sure what I'd put my money on. The DeLorean looks amazing though so it definitely has that going for it.
 

Offline TheSteve

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #27 on: March 04, 2020, 04:36:20 am »
Two twin turbo DMC12's(VIN 502 and 530) were made before the companies demise - they solved the power issue and most likely would have gone into production had the company survived.
VE7FM
 

Offline james_s

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #28 on: March 04, 2020, 06:25:52 am »
That sounds like exactly what the car needed, would have been fun to take one of those for a spin.
 

Offline frogg

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #29 on: March 04, 2020, 04:59:06 pm »
IMHO a car best enjoyed by letting someone else own it. A Faberge egg with 4 wheels, to be owned by people who collect other Faberge eggs with 4 wheels.

The coffee table book, "DeLorean - Celebrating the Impossible" is significantly cheaper and captures in photos the best part of the uniqueness of the DeLorean - its story.
« Last Edit: March 04, 2020, 05:12:22 pm by frogg »
 
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Offline SiliconWizard

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #30 on: March 04, 2020, 06:53:26 pm »
The bar is low for performance. The engine was something like 150HP and stainless is heavy. In a race between a DeLorean and a Prius I'm honestly not sure what I'd put my money on. The DeLorean looks amazing though so it definitely has that going for it.

It was certainly on the low side for a car branded as a "sports car", but not that awful either. Weight was ~1200 kg, which was a bit heavy at the time, but by today's standard, it's almost "light". A typical Prius IV is actually heavier than this, with lower max. power. Of course, mileage has just nothing to do between the two, with the Prius being at least 5 times less hungry or even less.
 

Offline boffin

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #31 on: March 04, 2020, 07:08:54 pm »

There are however a number of other cars out there that are worth quite a bit more today. A quick search at movie cars shows the 1977 Pontiac Trans Am Firebird (used in "Smokey and the Bandit" movie) was about $5,500 in 1977 dollars, which makes it around $23,000 in 2020 dollars. Good luck finding any that cheap today... they are well above that value and for an actual muscle-car that could do the business.


LOL !

...
early W72 cars came with the standard 180 hp air cleaner. Pontiac offered the T/A 400 cu in (6.6 L) with a single 4-barrel Rochester Quadrajet carburetor RPO W72 rated at 200 bhp (203 PS; 149 kW) at 3600 rpm and a maximum torque of 325 lb⋅ft (441 N⋅m) at 2400 rpm, as opposed to the regular 6.6 Litre 400 (RPO L78) rated at 180 hp (134 kW).
...


200hp in a car that weighed two tons.  That's not a sports car; the power to weight ratio is similar to that of a '71 Datsun 510  (just over 1 ton, 96hp).  Of course in a race the Transam would be hampered by the poor handling, and the Datsun with a fully independent suspension would run rings around it.


 

Offline TheSteve

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #32 on: March 04, 2020, 07:11:13 pm »
It was also sad that back in 81 they couldn't have the speedo go past 85 MPH - how Marty got it up to 88 we'll never know...
VE7FM
 

Offline SiliconWizard

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #33 on: March 04, 2020, 07:26:36 pm »
It was also sad that back in 81 they couldn't have the speedo go past 85 MPH - how Marty got it up to 88 we'll never know...

I didnt know that about the speedo, but the car itself had an effective max speed of ~200 km/h (about 125 mph), so reaching 88 was definitely no big deal. And for the fun story, IIRC the DMC that was used in Back to the future had custom instruments anyway.
 

Offline james_s

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #34 on: March 04, 2020, 07:28:03 pm »
That brief law always makes me laugh. I remember reading a few years ago that the woman who created the law still believes it saved lives. I have a hard time believing that anyone is going to believe that their car won't go faster than the speedometer. When we were young and invincible my friend had a car with a 85 mph speedo and we would bury the needle and see how long it took to come down off the peg. If anything it encouraged speeding.

Regarding performance, I looked and in the US the DeLorean was only 130HP. 0-60 tested at around 10.5 seconds with a manual so it was slower than a non-intercooled Volvo turbo wagon of the same era.
 

Offline TheSteve

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #35 on: March 04, 2020, 07:36:54 pm »
Yep, it wasn't quite the vision that John DeLorean had. Had the company survived though I have no doubt the next car would have improved quite a bit. I enjoyed driving mine on sunny days and didn't really feel I needed more power. Of course I was always pretty paranoid someone would ding a body panel.
VE7FM
 

Offline james_s

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #36 on: March 04, 2020, 07:43:27 pm »
I'm sure it would have evolved into something pretty awesome.

It's a shame that suffocating over-regulation has beaten all the uniqueness and innovation out of the car industry. I doubt we will ever again see the small car companies producing unique innovative vehicles like we had up into the 80s. I've long thought we should have an exempt class of cars not required to comply to the bucket list of mandatory safety features without having to exploit loopholes like having only three wheels to legally be classified as a motorcycle.
 

Offline SiliconWizard

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #37 on: March 04, 2020, 07:49:13 pm »
I think it was more of a concept car than anything else anyway. Raw power was not the main point at all (but yes they were working on a much more powerful version...)
IMO the vision was definitely futuristic - departing from anything that had been done before, even using big and hungry engines in sports cars, which were still the norm at the time. In that period (late 70s, early 80s), DeLorean was not the only one designing a "sportish" car with a comparatively smaller engine than usual and breakthroughs in design. My opinion is that the relative low power was even more of a feature than a problem, at least initially. The fact it didn't quite meet its market is not just because of that anyway, and that can happen to any company.

I have never had a chance to drive one, but that would certainly be a lot of fun.
 

Offline boffin

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #38 on: March 04, 2020, 08:12:16 pm »
It was also sad that back in 81 they couldn't have the speedo go past 85 MPH - how Marty got it up to 88 we'll never know...

The US models (like all US cars of the day) were sold with spedos that only went to 85MPH.  Even Ferrari <LOL>

For the BttF they repainted the dial to go from 15 to 95, instead of 5 to 85.

Compare Doc's with the stock DMC12


 

Offline TheSteve

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #39 on: March 04, 2020, 09:02:31 pm »
Yep, there were several different mods and new gauge faces to update the speedo. There was also a true Canadian version of the car made that had metric as the primary measurement and they went to a higher gauge top speed.
Another regulation that hurt the look from factory was the minimum front bumper height. The original design had a lower nose. Most of the cars today have had shorter front springs installed.
Here is a short video of my car that was made by the new owner right after I sold it to him(he is named Steve as well).
VE7FM
 
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Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #40 on: March 05, 2020, 06:22:33 am »
I'm sure it would have evolved into something pretty awesome.

It's a shame that suffocating over-regulation has beaten all the uniqueness and innovation out of the car industry. I doubt we will ever again see the small car companies producing unique innovative vehicles like we had up into the 80s. I've long thought we should have an exempt class of cars not required to comply to the bucket list of mandatory safety features without having to exploit loopholes like having only three wheels to legally be classified as a motorcycle.
While there are definitely various examples of less successful regulation, that "over-regulation" has gradually and consistently lead to dwindling roads deaths over the years. This has been discussed a few times before but you seem to insist on sticking to the same narrative because you like old cars better.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2020, 06:27:01 am by Mr. Scram »
 
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Offline james_s

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #41 on: March 05, 2020, 07:08:00 am »
While there are definitely various examples of less successful regulation, that "over-regulation" has gradually and consistently lead to dwindling roads deaths over the years. This has been discussed a few times before but you seem to insist on sticking to the same narrative because you like old cars better.

Well I'm sorry that you are unable to choose one of these safer cars for yourself without someone forcing that choice for you but I wonder why it bothers you so much that others may be able to make that choice  themselves? Are you ok with the fact that I can buy a motorcycle or a 3 wheeled "car" that bypasses those regulations or do you think those should be abolished as well in the name of safety? Frankly I don't care about overall death rates on the highways, I've chosen to drive a safe car because safety is something I value, others may have different priorities and if I lived somewhere without such horrid traffic I'd be a lot more comfortable driving a smaller, lighter less safe car. I don't need a mandatory list of safety features, unlike you, I don't need someone to make that choice for me. I'm fully capable of deciding for myself. 
 

Offline Refrigerator

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #42 on: March 05, 2020, 02:24:49 pm »
I had an 84 Toyota Celica supra that would crush deloreans. When I got rid of it I thought to get one but went with a 95 M3 for an upgrade instead.
Walking at a moderate pace would also crush a DeLorean  ^-^
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Offline boffin

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #43 on: March 05, 2020, 05:37:13 pm »
I'm sure it would have evolved into something pretty awesome.

It's a shame that suffocating over-regulation has beaten all the uniqueness and innovation out of the car industry. I doubt we will ever again see the small car companies producing unique innovative vehicles like we had up into the 80s. I've long thought we should have an exempt class of cars not required to comply to the bucket list of mandatory safety features without having to exploit loopholes like having only three wheels to legally be classified as a motorcycle.
While there are definitely various examples of less successful regulation, that "over-regulation" has gradually and consistently lead to dwindling roads deaths over the years. This has been discussed a few times before but you seem to insist on sticking to the same narrative because you like old cars better.

And let's not forget the 'over-regulation' that made Los Angeles' air actually breathable.  As a small child I lived in LA, and they would broadcast "smog alert status" on the radio.

 

Offline james_s

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #44 on: March 05, 2020, 06:08:53 pm »
I'm not talking about emissions regulations. I'm quite ok with requiring fuel injection and catalytic converters. The former is an improvement over carburetors in every way, the latter is a passive device that has no real negative aspects aside from cost. It's the safety mandates that bug me, it's an enormous list of features that cars are required to have with no room to question whether the feature is really necessary for a particular car. Then we add layer upon layer of band aids to patch the deficiencies created by earlier band aids. The result is that cars have become extremely bloated and incredibly expensive to repair. It's no longer possible to build an elegantly simple car, but there are loopholes like giving it only 3 wheels. Having one less wheel certainly doesn't make the car any safer, but it does allow it to be registered as a motorcycle which is exempt from most of the safety mandates. So why not have an exempt class of four wheeled cars? Like buying a motorcycle, those of us who get them know what we're getting.
 

Offline Red Squirrel

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #45 on: March 05, 2020, 07:55:14 pm »
Overregulation seems to be a rampant problem in general really.  It makes everything more complicated and more expensive than it has to be.     Some regulations are good, but too many are not.
 

Offline edy

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #46 on: March 05, 2020, 08:11:40 pm »
That's why the Tesla Cybertruck broke the internet. It goes so bat-sh&t crazy out of the typical truck and car design that it makes people either love it or hate it. But there is a method to the madness...

Apparently the body panels are made of 30-times cold-rolled stainless steel that is hard to form with any stamp machine so they instead use the BRUTALISM-design style of flat angular panels to minimize the number of pieces needed to assemble. Also, the rigidity makes the car exoskeleton structurally integral to the strength of the car, not your typical chassis.

If I had the money I'd be all over buying Tesla, but can't yet afford it unfortunately. The DeLorean should be rebooted by Tesla as an all-electric more car-like form of the Cybertruck... called the Cybercar.

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Offline Gyro

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #47 on: March 05, 2020, 08:13:11 pm »
Overregulation seems to be a rampant problem in general really.  It makes everything more complicated and more expensive than it has to be.     Some regulations are good, but too many are not.

I'm sure Boeing would happily agree.  >:D
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Offline angrybird

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #48 on: March 05, 2020, 09:29:16 pm »
That's why the Tesla Cybertruck broke the internet. It goes so bat-sh&t crazy out of the typical truck and car design that it makes people either love it or hate it. But there is a method to the madness...

Apparently the body panels are made of 30-times cold-rolled stainless steel that is hard to form with any stamp machine so they instead use the BRUTALISM-design style of flat angular panels to minimize the number of pieces needed to assemble. Also, the rigidity makes the car exoskeleton structurally integral to the strength of the car, not your typical chassis.

If I had the money I'd be all over buying Tesla, but can't yet afford it unfortunately. The DeLorean should be rebooted by Tesla as an all-electric more car-like form of the Cybertruck... called the Cybercar.

I would love a tesla too, but there's that whole "1/10th the usefulness of a normal car, at best" thing that keeps me from doing it :-\

Test drove a model S, they are fast, but you can't take his car camping... You can't drive to the grandparents on the other side of the state...  You can't do most of the things that I do with my cars...  Until this changes, these battery powered cars are good for the metro areas only!
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Offline edy

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Re: DeLorean DMC-12 w/ 1200 miles
« Reply #49 on: March 05, 2020, 09:50:57 pm »
You can't drive to the grandparents on the other side of the state...  You can't do most of the things that I do with my cars...  Until this changes, these battery powered cars are good for the metro areas only!

Surely there must be a way to throw a diesel-powered generator on the bed of that Cybertruck and use it to range-extend the vehicle. I have no idea what the efficiency of that would be but perhaps someone with gas-generator experience knows how much charging can be done per volume of fuel, and what size generator you would need to keep up with the current drawn from the battery. In a pinch, you would never be out of juice... no more range anxiety. And when you can charge up from the grid you do that.

I'm guessing running the Tesla (or DeLorean) on the fuel-powered electric generator wouldn't be as efficient as directly driving a car on fuel. Then again, you would be charging up batteries with it so whether you are moving or standing still, that generator will always be going towards charging you up which can allow you to use that energy later (again assuming you pick a generator with an output greater than you are consuming as you drive the vehicle).

Any back-of-the-envelope calculations by someone who knows the output of a generator and the fuel used per kWh of electricity produced? Apparently Tesla batteries have somewhere between 60-100 kWh capacity. I'm looking at a 2200 Watt generator on Amazon and it says something like this:

Truepower technology provides clean, stable power ideal for sensitive electronics, tools and appliances while the 1.2 gallon fuel tank allows 10.75 hours of run time at 25-Percent load.

So does that mean 25% load on a 2200 W generator is 550 W? So it could deliver 550W for 10.75 h on a 1.2 gallon fuel tank? How does this translate to trying to charge a Tesla? Apparently it can take up to 4 full days to charge up a Tesla fully on 120V outlet.

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