DMC Open House
May, 2003
by Ken Montgomery
After a long delay, the new DeLorean Motor Company was ready to have their official Open House. Their first try was 2 years ago (click HERE to see it), but the weather caused major damage in the Houston area thus causing construction delays.
Three NCDMC members
attended the DMC Open House in Houston, TX (Me, Jeff and Alex). We were
all there sans-cars but we still enjoyed the event. It was wonderful
to see the company in their new modern home. It surely makes the future
of the DeLorean look bright. We all took the 'Gee' tour. That's what
people say when they see the huge rows of parts - over 2.6 million -
that fill their impressively clean facilities.
If you've never been to a big DeLorean meet you really must plan to
attend a future event. They are a ton of fun. Along with the photos,
I'll also be making a video to show at one of our gatherings.
Click on the photos to see a larger image.
These are shots of the front of the building on Saturday morning, as the
cars were showing up for the day's events.
Here the 3 competitors are preparing for Concourse judging.
One of the cars preparing for the People's Choice show.
A body shell on display.
Inside the showroom were a built-up frame and a car without the outer
skin. These provided an excellent chance to see what the more hidden places
on a DeLorean look like.
This is the last remaining lower body mold. The opened the mold for the
first time just for the Open House. With some preparation, this and the
upper mold could be reused and more body shells could be produced! But
don't hold your breath. There's no demand for 'new' cars.
Several shots of the inside of the huge warehouse.
This is the drilling jig that was used to locate the placement of holes
in the body.
This is the original surviving set of blueprints for every part of the
car. These had to be 'liberated' from the factory before the government
destroyed them. This also applied to the body molds.
Looking down from Stephen Winn's office to the showroom below.
Dan, Leif. Knut, and Don. Wave guys!
The open show.
The Players Run
car.
The last right-hand door made.
Several tech-Seminars were held during the day.
If your car is this rusted out it may be time to think about getting another
car. This car will be rebuilt with a new frame and MANY other parts.
A couple pictures from the evening dinner and reception.
This is another little-known DeLorean spin-off project that was planned
in 1981.
Drag race day! This is not really a good idea in a DeLorean. The group
managed to trash 2 transmissions and caused electrical problems on another
(which was fixed on the spot). The best anyone could make was 85mph at
the quarter mile.
With this many DeLorean experts you'd figure they'd solve the problem
quickly.. and they did, despite it being an unusual problem (a short in
the distributor advance solenoid).
Just a bit of electrical damage. Actually, this was existing damage. Make
sure to replace those fuses and clean/tighten the connectors!
Nitros on the Player's car!
OK, how about a REAL drag car. It crossed the quarter mile mark at 200mph
and it was only warming up!
OK, how do we stack up against a 6cyl Jag.. Close. It got to 89mph. We
tried dragging some 'other' cars we had with us and those cars did a little
poorer than the DeLoreans.
After a hard day's racing, where do you go for lunch? Hooters! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
All of the pictures with the date in the corner are by Dave Swingle.