Something you don't see every day...

[crfriend]

Sapphire and I ventured forth unto the wilds of Central Massachusetts today to take in some of the exhibits at the Spencer Fair which is going on this weekend. Among the items of agricultural interest were chickens and other assorted poultry, cattle (mainly dairy), and horse-pulling contests (we watched a pair of Belgians jerk 8550 pounds of concrete from a dead stop -- rather impressive).

However, before heading west, we needed to stop at the local "bank in the box" (an ATM) for some cash and I noticed a rather classic piece of mid 1980s steel (a DeLorean) rolling up the driveway of the shopping center towards us, and something looked "odd" about it. Fortunately I had my camera with me and shot this as it left the parking-lot and headed north:

time_machine-1.jpg

Not quite believing what I'd seen, I decided to take another shot as it receded up the hill:

time_machine-2.jpg

Fun stuff.

[skirted_in_SF]

Carl, don't you remember the deLorean pickup? Another reason they are no more, they were too early on the pickup for urban folks fad. (really need a tongue in cheek smilie for here)
It's been years since I've seen a sedan to pickup conversion on the street.

[JRMILLER]

Carl,
Did you make a sketch of the flux capacitor?

[crfriend]

Did you make a sketch of the flux capacitor?

This was a case of two ships that passed in the day -- he in his DMC rustproof beast and Sapphire and I in my little Nissan. I never got a look at the innards of the other car.

What a strange small world we live on...

[Gregg1100]

Was Lord Lucan driving the car-he has been missing from these shores for a good while ?

[r.m.anderson]

I believe that the DeLorean car used stainless steel for its exterior sheetmetal and had
doors that open uniquely like the Mercedes Gull-Wing car.
With all that superstructure on the trunk (boot) lid it must have some advanced form
of supercharging ram induction increasing the already fantastic horsepower even more.
With its light weight it was hard to keep weight on the power wheels to launch this beast.
Think of a jet engine on a skate board.
Very few made as the company encountered financial problems from the get go.
Still yet a great car with stainless steel exterior although stainless steel resists rust it
was not a car for northern hemisphere winters.
A rare treat that you would see one and see one on the road at that.

rm

[Since1982]

It's been a while since I've seen any of the Doc and Marty (Back To The Future) films but wasn't it 88 MPH they had to hit for the Flux Capacitor to work?
My fav was the one in the old west. With Mary Steenburgen climbing out on the train in that tight purple schoolmarm's mermaid dress. With ZZTop at the community dance.

[Big and Bashful]

I always thought it a shame that a fantastic looking car like a Delorean had to put up with a French V6 engine (130 BHP in U.S. spec). At least it looked nice and made a good bed for the Back to the Whatsit version.
Must have been great to see it in the flesh.

[crfriend]

I always thought it a shame that a fantastic looking car like a Delorean had to put up with a French V6 engine (130 BHP in U.S. spec).

They are quite the beautiful machines, and the body-style is one I very much like. If I'd been a few more years advanced in my career when they came out, I likely would have bought one, but on my then-paltry salary that was out of the question. I can't speak to the engine design, never having owned one, but I understand that automotive design and engineering is one set of compromises after another just to get the things to work at all -- and I'm amazed at the reliability that's achieved.

The lines of the machine are very lovely (in this author's opinion) and have precisely none of what I regard as "bad design" that's running rampant today. From the looks of it, visibility from inside the vehicle should be good (I drove a Plymouth Turismo with a similar profile for a few years) and they don't block other drivers' view of the road -- quite unlike the high-and-fat-tailled vehicles currently issuing forth from what (try to) pass as design studios.

Must have been great to see it in the flesh.

I've seen DeLoreans around in the past here. They're rare, to be sure, but they're around, and when one sees a running example one tends to pay attention. There's a fair bit of automotive enthusiasm around where I call home, and I still fondly recall the time I pulled into my local watering-hole to see not one, but three Ford Edsels in the parking-lot; I took that sight home as a cheap treat, just like the "time machine" Sapphire and I saw yesterday.

From what I've been able to glean on the Intartubes, the example from yesterday likely belongs to a husband-and-wife team who are making a 50-state tour in it to support finding a cure for Parkinson's Disease. The machine was in Chicago a week or so back, and Massachusetts can be reached in a week very easily. [Edit: Then again, maybe not, a brief look at the 'blog seems to indicate that they're still in the Windy City.]

There's also a convention coming up in November in Framingham (which I drive through going through to/from work) where (likely) another example will be present. But, to see this example -- on the road, mind you -- in a sleepy little suburb of Worcester, Massachusetts, was quite enjoyable -- yet another "cheap treat"; I think I'll coddle the memory for a bit.

[Ray]

Last year, when driving to the Champagne region of France, I passed a DeLorean which also had the "Back to the Future" kit on it. It's jaw-dropping! Made my day.

[Stuart]

I believe that the DeLorean car used stainless steel for its exterior sheetmetal and had
doors that open uniquely like the Mercedes Gull-Wing car.
With all that superstructure on the trunk (boot) lid it must have some advanced form
of supercharging ram induction increasing the already fantastic horsepower even more.
With its light weight it was hard to keep weight on the power wheels to launch this beast.
Think of a jet engine on a skate board.
Very few made as the company encountered financial problems from the get go.
Still yet a great car with stainless steel exterior although stainless steel resists rust it
was not a car for northern hemisphere winters.
A rare treat that you would see one and see one on the road at that.

If you get a close look at one, you'll see that the stainless stuff is basically a "decal" applied to a fiberglass ("GRP" in in the UK) body.

Most of the DeLorean was engineered by Lotus; the DMC-12 was basically a rear-engined Lotus Esprit. Similar pressed-steel backbone chassis, etc.

Not as fast as it looked, but it certainly was distinctive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLorean_DMC-12

stuart