DeLorean: Back to Production
2015 was the year of "Back to the Future" with the iconic movie's 30th anniversary, and now, 2016 is looking to be the year of Back to Production! That's right, you can soon buy a brand-new DeLorean starting later this year.
DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) hasn't built a new DMC-12 (the only model they ever produced) since the early '80s. Its founder, John DeLorean, lived scandalously and was eventually charged for drug trafficking, forcing the Ireland-based company into bankruptcy. While the movie kept the DeLorean name popular, the future of the brand went dim. That is, until Stephen Wynne acquired it all, and by all we mean EVERYTHING. The name, blueprints, the factory's dead stock of original parts, all his... and he decided to move it into a factory in Humble, Texas.
Since then, Stephen's factory has become both a sightseeing landmark as well as a restoration shop that can refurbish any remaining DMC-12s from the original 9,000 units produced. No matter if it's a fender-bender or had rotted away in some old barn, the factory uses its abundance of new stock parts to fix it. They can even make "new" built cars, where they take an existing DMC-12 chassis, strip it down to its bare bones and build the entire car back up with all original parts.
Now, in 2016, they're adding one more level of service: production of new DMC-12s! Through a recently passed federal law, they are now legally able to use those unused, original stock parts to build brand new, stainless steel, gullwing door-equipped DeLoreans. If you've been eyeing one every since seeing Doc Brown's tricked out Time Machine, you better start saving... and fast. With plans to have the first cars completed in 2017 and enough stock for only 300 units, the expected price tag will go for no less than $100,000!
In comparison, American Express collaborated with DeLorean Motor Company in 1981 to produce two 24k-gold-plated DeLoreans, priced at $85,000 each; adjusted for inflation, it costs somewhere around $220K by today's measure.
