Recently Motoring Weekly wrote a potted history about DeLorean, the stainless steel, gullwing sports car that was going to take the US by storm in the early 1980s until cash flow and legal troubles halted the infant company. When the company collapsed after making between 8,500 and 9,000 units, there was a factory full of parts and these were bought by an English ex-pat living … [Read more...]
DeLorean
For this marque article, I have chosen a manufacturer that was in business for only seven years and produced just one model. The company is DeLorean, founded in Northern Ireland by John DeLorean, an American industry veteran who had worked for Chrysler, Packard and General Motors before founding his own company in 1975. DeLorean’s parents had immigrated to the US from … [Read more...]
Gullwing Doors
Gullwing doors first hit the market in the 1950s thanks to Mercedes-Benz. They had developed the 300SL (the W194) for sports car racing from the 1952 season and the design required non-standard doors as the tubular chassis was very high – in fact it was next to the drivers seat as a safety precaution. This meant that either they had very small doors or the doors were hinged … [Read more...]