James Espey, vice president of the new De Lorean Motor Company, said the company will begin building new De Loreans next year. The cars will sell for $57,500 and retain the looks and gull-wing doors that made them famous.
This time De Lorean will assemble them by hand in Humble, Texas. At the rate of one or two cars a month.
When De Lorean closed in 1982, there were thousands of parts left and everything was shipped to a warehouse in Texas. Those parts and have been helping people restore and repair their De Loreans for the past 12 years. It is thought that of the 9,000 produced 6,500 remain on the road. The company will update the interior, provide stronger engines and address any shortcomings in the original vehicles. No mention of the engine that they intend to use.
The cars will be sold at five U.S. locations and one in Europe.
They claim that 80 percent of the new cars will be made with parts originally produced in the early 80’s. Whoa! Doesn’t sound like a new car to me. Sounds like they are taking the old bodies that are left, throwing in a new engine and redoing the interior. It should still be fun to own one.
Originally the creation of former General Motors whiz kid John De Lorean, The company folded in 1983. De Lorean was arrested in 1982 in a drug-trafficking sting. He was accused of conspiring to sell $24 million worth of cocaine to salvage his company.
Although De Lorean used an entrapment defense to win acquittal, legal entanglements plagued him for years. Forty outstanding cases when he died in 2005 at age 80. By then his home was in New Jersey, but they brought him back to Detroit for burial. At his funeral there were 25 to 30 De Loreans in attendance.
A Prince of Princes!
THE DE LOREAN
