Your Letters We’re put straight on our Delorean facts – by the company’s former CEO
An insider’s revealing insight to the last days of Delorean, the truth about 2CV engines and the love of Corvettes
My Delorean days
The excellent article (Grand Designs, March 2017) featuring Giugiaro’s Delorean DMC-12 and Lotus Esprit, Gandini’s Maserati Khamsin and Pininfarina’s Lancia Montecarlo, each intelligently critiqued by Ollie Winterbottom, was for once devoid of the often badly informed and biased views on the Delorean by certain British columnists over the past 30-odd years. It did, however, have certain inaccuracies that have festered over that same time.
Such was the confidence of the joint receivers, Sir Kenneth Cork and Paul Shewell, in the future prospects for the Dunmurry company and the car, a further 500 vehicles were built during the receivership. Hence your confusion that ‘around 8500’ (actually 8580) were built. This was the number before the receivers arrived in February 1982. So the grand total was in fact 9080.
In view of the razor-edged designs theme of the article, it’s worth highlighting that Giugiaro’s original design, from which Bill Collins produced the first two demonstrator/prototypes in 1976, had much sharper edges.
When I accompanied Delorean managing director, Charles K Bennington, in January 1979 to the first post-uk government funding meeting with Giugiaro in Moncalieri near Turin, despite the urgent need for the car to enter production, he persuaded us his original design was dated and that the sharp edges should be profiled.
The first Collins car had a mid-mounted Citroën CX 2000 powertrain, not the production PRV Douvrin V6. Citroën pulled out of negotiations when Delorean declared he wished it to be turbocharged. To my recollection, consideration was never given to the Ford Cologne V6.
Finally, it wasn’t British government money that ‘disappeared into a wormhole’, it was part of the original US investment from the likes of Sammy Davis Jr, TV chat show host Johnny Carson and Canadian brokers Wood Gundy. It would appear John Delorean considered this surplus to his needs once the Northern Ireland Office gave him all he asked for. Barrie Wills, former director of purchasing, supplies and product development, and third and final CEO (in receivership) of Delorean Motor Cars Limited 2CV Pilgrimage I loved the Citroën 2CV Pilgrimage (March 2017) but would like to point out that the 250 TVP prototypes were built before World War 2. The engines were prototype Citroën air- and water-cooled flat twins of 375cc & 700cc respectively, not BMW motorcycle engines. David Pickard The wedge of reason Phil Bell talks with great enthusiasm about his childhood infatuation with the Lotus Esprit, and of a near miss with buying one more recently (Welcome, March 2017), but he drives a Jaguar E-type, a Sixties one at that. You couldn’t get much further from the brave new world of Seventies wedges. Ian Haynes Broad taste in cars, not enough garage space or money to own them all. Phil Bell It’s about passion not investment Jim Needham, I salute you! Here’s a man who poured Ferrari-level restoration costs into an Alfa Giulia Spider (Epic Restoration, March 2017) simply because he loved the car and wanted it done right, not because he hoped it would be an investment. The definition of a true enthusiast. Brian Goldsworthy American defence I enjoyed Russ Smith’s story about the 1958 Chevrolet Corvette (The Pilgrimage, February 2017). Russ clearly did his research well and drove the car thoroughly enough to put the C1 Corvette into the context of its time.
I’ve owned at least 30 cars, many before they were considered classics, including a 1960 Lotus Elite (fun but fragile) and a 1965 Jaguar S-type 3.8 manual (not the family-man sports car people would have you believe), but I can say that my 1960 4-speed Corvette ranks among the best as a car to enjoy and run. Dan Taylor