It’s a shame when you have the right idea at the wrong time. In the automotive world, great ideas take time to come to life; reaching reality it can take so long that the plot might be lost along the way, and the world they were conceived in could have changed dramatically. This is almost certainly the case with the original DeLorean DMC-12. The famous GT car was envisioned in the early 1970s, and over the development time of nearly a decade the price rose dramatically and performance shrank to embarrassing levels before its release right into the teeth of a recession. To make matters worse, by the time of the DMC’s launch, there were a large number of worthy and even superior competitors at the price.
Maybe things could’ve been different. I have an idea how. Let’s hop into a time machine—does anyone know of a suitable one?—and head back to the heyday, such as it was, of DeLorean with a plan that maybe could’ve kept the dream alive.
First, some backstory. John Z. DeLorean rose to become one of the youngest executives at General Motors by being able to see market opportunities. He is credited (rightfully or not) with creating the “muscle car” genre of giant engines in inexpensive cars at Pontiac to bring performance to the masses.
Photo: GM Heritage Collection
When you’re at a corporation as huge as GM, you can get to market as quickly as anyone. Build a car on your own, however, and you’ll be looking for financing while trends are coming and going. These are just some of the headwinds John Z. faced when he launched his own company in 1975 with the goal of creating the greatest sports car the world had ever seen.
You probably know how the story went after that. It’s infamous in car culture. The factory in Northern Ireland, the backing from the British government, the help from Lotus, the financial struggles, the drug sting and the eventual death of the dream. But we’re not here to talk about that today. We’re here to talk about what might’ve been.
Photo: Italdesign
The two-seat DMC-12 was supposed to be the first of a number of cars in the Delorean lineup, but John never had a chance to bring his other cars to fruition. The next car—a four-seat rear-engined “sedan” whose design sketches and prototype images were shared on The Drive a while back—seems like more of the same (especially if still PRV V6-powered) and unlikely to have changed his fortunes against the BMW 7 Series, Mercedes W126, and even Maseratis it would have competed against.
I think it’s a pretty appealing design, and Jason has said good things about the layout as well, which almost ensures that it would have failed in the marketplace.
Photos: DeLorean.com
In hindsight, what Delorean really needed to have done was find a new market where nobody was really playing, and a car that could have succeeded with the people that could have anything would want it, recession be damned. Instead of a me-too sports car, it would be a worthwhile addition to a new high-status vehicle category. That’s our alternate reality for the day.
Let’s say it’s the late 1970s, and it’s acknowledged that the Land Rover and Jeep CJ are quite outdated. The British government is looking for companies to bid to develop a new military vehicle similar to the upcoming American HUMMER, just much smaller. The LHMA, or “Llama,” would be the Lightweight Highly Maneuverable Autocar, a vehicle that they perceived could be of great use to the UK and NATO allies.
You would think that Land Rover would be the automatic choice for this job, but don’t forget that at this time British Leyland was an absolute mess and on life support (and AMC Jeep was not a whole lot better). There was actually a lot of promise for the Delorean Motor Company. There were supposedly orders on the books, Northern Irelanders that hadn’t worked in years had jobs, and despite its shortcomings, the Lotus-developed car seemed poised to succeed.
Lotus was always on the ropes, and head honcho Colin Chapman would have seen this request for a proposal as a quick cash grab. Lotus had done development on the DMC-12, so could he and his partner DeLorean have convinced the government that their seemingly thriving venture was the right choice for designing and building the LHMA?
For all the criticism of Lotus, it always had some great engineering talent at work for them. Under the surface, the LHMA would have a Lotus-signature backbone chassis with independent suspension on all four wheels, looking much like a giant RC car chassis. As with most Lotus, you could pop in whatever engine you could find.
The LHMA would likely have a very industrial-looking body, not unlike later British-built military vehicles such as the larger Jackel below:
Image credit: wikipedia
Let’s say that the plan worked and that Lotus/DeLorean got the contract. DeLorean himself would have no real interest in military vehicles, of course, but he would have had an interest in the tens of millions of dollars his firm would get. Plus, he would have had another motive. An LHMA-based chassis would underpin his next model: a luxury SUV.
The term ‘SUV’ didn’t even exist yet, but the rise in popularity of ultra-expensive off-road vehicles like the Range Rover and Jeep Wagoneer Limited in the late seventies (along with highly optioned Blazers and Broncos) pointed to a segment about to explode. Honestly, anyone should have seen this emerging market. I certainly saw it happening at the time, but nobody would listen to me since I was like 10 years old, but why should that have mattered?
Image: Land Rover
In this alternate reality, DeLorean and Chapman would work with the LHMA frame to build this new vehicle called the DMCx4. The chassis really suits a longer, narrower engine (and thankfully rules out the crappy Volvo V6 DMC-12 powerplant). What about Chapman’s growing relationship with Toyota? The Land Cruiser six could work, but let’s put in a supercharged 5M-GE straight six in this thing to be that much slicker. If not that, we could make it a bit wider and pop in a small block Chevy (you can do better than a 305 V8, but you could certainly do a WHOLE LOT worse as well).
Giugiaro would likely be called on to create a stainless steel body with urethane bumpers and rocker panels. The urethane would run the full perimeter of the car for an intentional color break, since the bumpers will never be able to match the finish of the stainless steel (always a visual issue with the nose/tail cones on the DMC-12). The whole upper body could get scratched to Hell by branches and rocks and just be buffed out with steel wool.
source: coverking
I tried my best to rip off the ItalDesign angular style. The nose features covered headlamps and a low grille with signals and driving lamps that echoes the appearance of the DMC12, as does the design of the wheels. I thought about four doors or two doors and then realized that a DeLorean just couldn’t have normal doors.
How about two sliding doors with the opening of a four-door body? These could be manual or electrically sliding, but they would be a good choice for a variety of reasons. First, they’d have a ‘wow’ factor. Second, they would be great for tight locations like garages. Finally, when open it would be like a Jeep sans doors, allowing you to poke your head out of the car when rock crawling (even though the only crawling in this thing would be accidentally going over a curb at a Beverly Hills hair stylist). Framing would require a bit of the window-in-window design of the gull-winged car or later Subaru SVX.
In the back, full-width taillights would be mounted to a fold-down tailgate with an electric roll-down window mechanism identical to that in a GM or Ford full-sized station wagon. A large high-intensity beam backup light would live below the bumper.
Inside, DeLorean would offer essentially the same interior as the DMC-12 with shared components wherever possible. The only real differences (other than more headroom) would be the additional shifter for the transfer case, the turbo boost gauge on the far left of the main cluster, and an extra gauge pod on the center console with inclinometers, compass, and 4WD system monitors. You can also see the track for the sliding door below the armrest:
source: RM Sotheby’s via Silodrome
A stainless steel bodied off-roader with military-grade independent suspension all around, leather-lined interior, and a bulletproof motor? Is there any way that this thing could have NOT succeeded?
Of course, we know what really happened. Quality issues and the recession hammered the DeLorean DMC-12, the government pulled the plug, and John DeLorean got desperate for financing. This led to his arrest by FBI agents on cocaine trafficking charges, something he fought in court as entrapment. He was later acquitted, of course, but his days making cars were effectively over. Chapman might’ve also faced legal troubles too, had he not died of a massive heart attack in late 1982. DeLorean himself died in 2005, and his company’s name lives on today in not one but two startup ventures.
Who knows, maybe these two could’ve invented the luxury SUV segment that defines a lot of the auto industry today. One can dream.
All illustrations by The Bishop
I take it you really know nothing about DeLorean at all? The PRV was a great engine and how you say the DeLorean had “embarrassing” performance numbers, I take it you never researched the cars that the DMC-12 was up against back in 1981, not todays cars cause thats unfair. But in 1981 against a 190hp Corvette ( top of the line in 81 ) only beat it by 1.4 secs. Now is that really that much faster. The PRV in europe is the same as the 350 Chevy here in the states. It was a engine in EVERYTHING and came in all flavors of power. You have to thank the lousy state of California for the performance numbers with all that emissions crap bolted to the car. The DMC-12 was and is a fine automobile, I should know as I been daily driving one for years with its PRV and K-Jet and get 30 mpg! Its more reliable than todays cars. Also you can tell you know nothing was the Twin Turbo version that almost made it to market with 250hp. The DeLorean only weighs 2800lbs so its good for what it started out with. You young people who write this crap need a education on history.
This is actually pretty cool & looks off-road capable with decent approach and departure, unlike most SUV’s that are just tall wagons. It also reminds me, for some reason, of a Laforza (Rayton-Fissore Magnum). Well done!
Too many weird angles for a Bertone design, but for a non-Range-Rover eighties luxury SUV, it’s beautiful! It has some Monteverdi vibes..
And since Monteverdi didn’t seem to care if anything made money or not, he/they could actually have built it.
I often wonder how the original Range Rover would have looked, if David Bache hadn’t looked out the window of the design studio, and seen a Ford Cortina MkII Estate in the parking lot (rear roof’s the same..) So there’s a free idea for your project queue, should the pile become low. Happy new year, Hans 🙂
Jakob- Happy New Year too you, too, sir! Yes, a Moneteverdi that could be mass produced (and not on an old Scout chassis) is exactly what I was going for.
Fun fact since we’re talking about rear windows- the Jaguar XJS Eventer shooting brake has the rear window from a Citroen Ami 6 estate. When coachbuilding the Eventer, they took a template through a car park and put it on random cars to find one that came closest.
That hood and disappearing headlights gives me the feel of Buick Skyhawk meets Chrysler LeBaron.
Stick in one of the varieties of Buick V6 as an alternative for power.
CSRoad- as long as it isn’t a V6 diesel (or the infamous 350 Diesel V8) I’m fine with that.
You nailed this one, Bishop. It’s almost a shooting brake w/ 4wd. I’d absolutely have bought one—15 years later for $1200-and cosplayed Richard Burns on fire roads.
The only way this could not have succeeded is if JZD himself insisted on remaining involved, by the end, he was his own company’s biggest enemy. The British government had put together a whole financial rescue package, it just would have meant John losing control over most of the company (he would have been allowed to keep the US sales organization) – he couldn’t tolerate that, and went looking for alternative funding to buy it out himself, which left him vulnerable for the entrapment scenario. And once that hit the news, everything just fell apart.
ranwhenparked- I think you’re absolutely right. Many fascinating documentaries on the subject and I think the saddest part of the whole thing was the factory in Ireland. The people there were very happy to have work, employees from both sides supposedly working together without incidents at the height of The Troubles, and ultimately all for nothing.
Its an interesting “what might have been” – the UK has always been a very friendly country for small, boutique sports and luxury car builders, not hard to imagine DeLorean just fitting right in among the ranks of Morgan, Lotus, Aston-Martin, etc. There was a viable business in there, with employment and production levels scaled back to match demand and debts cleared, then just run lean for a few years until the 1980s economic boom took hold and lifted all ships in the luxury sea.
That looks like something Monteverdi would have built. Put in a roof hatch and elevating seat and it would have a good shot at the oil sheikh market.
Slow Joe- I was sort of inspired by the Monteverdi Sierra where they fully dolled up an International Scout. Bitter even tried on with a Chevy Blazer. I think you could be referring to the Sbarro Windhawk which had those features (built for a dude that was into falconry and wanted to do it from the comfort of his car- I’m not making this up) and six wheels.
well the Sierra was not a scout based SUV, those were the re-skined Dodge Aspens.
But Scout was ending when the Delorean started, so they could very well have taken Monteverdi Safari/Sahara tooling for cheap most likely and bought scout parts and continued the scout with more modern body stying in the US but put delorean name on them. The Monteverdi Safari did look a lot more like this rendering near the end.
This looks like it was assembled with legos. This is not high class it would never sell.
Exactly. The New Bronco looks like Legos and is a huge sales flop. I heard they can’t mark them down enough to get rid of them
The wealthy famously hate G-Wagens and Range Rovers.
And yet again you design a vehicle I’d gladly buy right now.
The Matrix XRS is basically a Lotus Elise wagon, right? 😉
It has the 2ZZ in a crossover 😀
Sort of! With a Celica GT-S suspension and a taller final drive!
This is what would happen of the designer of the Subaru SVX dropped acid while abusing a time machine.
Porschebago- the time machine adds a few pounds obviously
My favourite styling element in your render is how the wheel arches look like they were cut out with tin snips.
Are you suggesting that this should/would have been front engine? I fail to see how this would have caught on with their customer base. They would want a proper frunk to keep an eye on their cocaine while driving.
Andy- tin snips? What are you implying? That someone tried to stuff something in the wheel wells or rocker panels? They’re EMPTY Andy…EMPTY….NOTHING to search for in there…
Sir, step out of the vehicle.