1981 DeLorean DMC12 Coupé
Registration no. WPC 246X
Chassis no. SCEDT26T4BD006424

'Throughout the history of the British Motor Industry, hope and enthusiasm have tended to overrule commercial common sense. The DeLorean episode was perhaps its clearest example in Government.' - Martin Adeney, The Motor Makers.

The brainchild of ex-General Motors executive John Zachary De Lorean, the DeLorean sports car project was touted around the world before finding a home in Northern Ireland thanks to generous grants from the British Government. Designed by ex-Pontiac engineer Bill Collins, the DMC12 was extensively reworked by Lotus prior to production, emerging with the latter's trademark steel backbone chassis and all-independent suspension, and powered by a rear-mounted Peugeot/Renault/Volvo 2.9-litre overhead-camshaft V6 engine. Apart from its larger-than-life creator, it was the car's stylish coupé body that attracted most attention by virtue of its method of construction - a combination of glassfibre inner panels and stainless-steel outer skin - and doors that opened gull-wing fashion à la Mercedes-Benz 300 SL.

The much-hyped DMC12 finally arrived in 1980 and immediately ran into quality control problems, a not altogether surprising occurrence considering the local workforce's unfamiliarity with automobile manufacture. No doubt the company would have sorted out the glitches given time, but sales never approached projected levels and De Lorean's 1982 indictment on drugs charges - he was subsequently acquitted - brought the project to its knees. By then some 9,200 DeLoreans had been built, of which approximately 6,500 survive today. They are now seen as highly collectible, thanks in no small part to the one that starred in the 1985 motion picture, 'Back to the Future'.

This example was supplied new in the USA before being exported to Germany where it was purchased in 1995 by the immediately preceding owner. The current vendor purchased the car at a UK auction in March 2015, at which time it was said to have 'covered just 10,000 miles in the past 19 years' and to be 'in very respectable order'. Offered with a history file containing a V5C registration document, sundry service invoices, and a quantity of expired MoT test certificates, this instantly recognisable and highly collectible rarity is MoT'd to June 2019 and is described by the private vendor as in good condition throughout.