8 From The 80s: DeLorean

This fantastically innovative car was designed and built by John DeLorean, the same entrepreneur who once helped invent the factory muscle car by dropping a 389 V8 into Pontiac’s lithe Tempest body. Though short-lived, the DeLorean automobile is legendary, and not just because of Back To The Future—the uniqueness of the car’s design deserves a good chunk of the credit as well. With its unpainted stainless steel exterior and reinforced fiberglass underbody, the DeLorean was strong and imprevious to rust; its 2.8L Peugeot-Renault-Volvo V6 put out a decent 130 horses; and its gull-wing doors, pivoting on aerospace-grade steel torsion bars, needed only 11" of clearance to open. Though demise of the company is sometimes mistakenly attributed to the cars, the DeLorean had few problems with either build quality or popularity. Many more would have been built were it not for drug-trafficking charges against John DeLorean, who was later acquitted, but too late to save his company. Nonetheless, a relatively large number of ‘81, ‘82, and ‘83 DeLoreans survive on CarDomain. Sean’s epic tribute to his DeLorean covers 20 pages, and upgrades to his ride include a flux capacitor. Dale has not one but two DeLoreans in his garage, including one with an aftermarket turbo kit installed by the first owner. Jeff’s done some mad detailing on his DeLorean, powdercoating many engine and suspension parts; and Greg’s done a fantastic job of updating his DeLorean with modern electronics. Jeremy’s page has a lot of cool pics of DeLoreans at meets, including the mighty D-Rex, a time machine and a rare painted DeLorean.