A quick hello and a question

[Manxmann]

Hi Folks,

I'm new to the forum, sadly not a Delorean owner yet, although I'm a confirmed petrol head and am I'm trying to rectify that small deficiency of not having one

I've been looking around the net, talking to DMCH etc and I stumbled across a tantalising note on www.delorean.co.uk that vin #17152 is shortly going to be for sale, with a tasty engine mod to boot.

Does anyone know anything about this car? Reading the limited info on the site the car seems to have undergone an extensive restoration is anyone aware of exactly how far?

What about the seller does anyone have any experience dealing with this company? What about the quality of the work?

What do you think the asking price?

On a different tack entirely what are your opinions on the 'New Build' cars on offer from DMCH? Has any club owner purchased a new build car?

Many thanks for your help.

Simon

[Chris Williams]

Welcome to the forum and to the DeLorean car, The car you are looking talking about I do not know the history off other than what Martin has out about it. Martin is often on this forum under the name of stunned-monkey so he would be your best port of call for any questions. Although he has been around DeLorean cars for a long time.
As far as I know there are none of the new build cars in the UK (or Europe) at the moment. So can not comment on these either I'm afraid. But they are a serious amount of money so I dont expect to see one for a while!
Hope this helps a bit. Try taking a look at www.deloreans.co.uk as this gives a bit more info about the club, always worth joining the club for a particular vehicle .

Chris

[Manxmann]

Chris Williams Wrote:always worth joining the club for a particular vehicle .

Chris

Totally agree, my 'other car' is an MG ZT V8 and they only made 883 of those including test mules! Without the owners club the car and my wits would be in a sorry state :lol:

Yes the new cars are serious money, bit of a pipe dream that one, your only 40 once mind you

I asked if anyone in the owners club had one as one of the question I asked DMCH was how a 'new' 30 year old car handles a modern SVA test. They said they'd already sent 'some' to the UK and SVA'ing wasn't an issue, perhaps they meant original cars.

I'll have a dig round the forum now.

[stunned_monkey]

Houston have been doing "new build" cars for years but as I understand it they got around the need to have a donor vehicle to begin with. As long as a DeLorean has a 1981 identity, even if the only things on it that are original are the vin plates, then it only needs an MOT to be registered in the UK.

On the other hand, a car with a 2010 build date would be a headache to register here, as well as costing a lot more on import.

Some "new build" cars have been offered for sale in the past year in the states and rarely get even half what they cost.

Thanks for your interest BTW, and in addition to what I wrote in our email exchange, in general terms what I've been working towards is making the Delorean *as good as it can be* with modern components, and improving the original design (Lotus didn't do all they could have).

We now have adjustable shocks (thanks to Chris), polyurethane bushes, stiffer, lower front springs, 4-pot and vented brake systems, a rear anti-roll bar (I'm increasingly convinced it was designed to have one in the first place), and of course much more powerful engines.

The last thing we're working on at the moment is a power steering unit - but that's some way off yet.

As an aside, while very fast, our turbo engine conversion would probably struggle to keep up with an MG V8

[Manxmann]

"As an aside, while very fast, our turbo engine conversion would probably struggle to keep up with an MG V8"

I don't know towing the not so optional fuel tanker around with you certainly slows you down a bit

Thanks for the reply Martin, I've sent an e-mail back to you regarding 17152

[Guinney1971]

lol, "DeLorean Fuel Economy" - an oxymoron if ever there was one! lol

Welcome to the forum, your MG sounds a beast - I had a MG ZT-T 190 (the diesel) for a bit
as a company car - heaps of problems, but lovely to drive, and I did like it

I've already planned how I'm going to fit PAS to my DeLorean, I sustained a shoulder injury
in a car accident in 2007, so once I get my insurance payout (hopefully anytime soon), I'll
be getting the bits I need to do it

[Rich Hanlon]

PS - I've seen power steering done on a Delorean in Ireland, used a Vauxhall Corsa unit I think - all electric, so no pump/ drive needed off the engine. Worked a dream but I think he said it meant you lost the air flow to the vents in the driver's side door, and (obviously) he had to modify the steering column. Was great though, and could be steered with one finger virtually, even at rest.

[JamesRGUK]

Rich Hanlon Wrote:PS - I've seen power steering done on a Delorean in Ireland, used a Vauxhall Corsa unit I think - all electric....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/corsa-b-power-stee...35a65c53a7

The Corsa Electric PAS kits come up on eBay quite often from £100-£500 I assume that is what the chap in Ireland retrofitted to his DeLorean

J

[Guinney1971]

I was talking to Keith McCracken about this a year or so ago, and he said that Corsa-C
EPAS is better to use then the unit fitted in the Punto (remember the 'girly button' ads?).

A Vauxhall breaker round here will sell me a complete system for £70

[stunned_monkey]

I looked into those units and they are apparently fairly well known for being unreliable. The Delorean steering gets chuffing heavy so there's a question as to the longevity.

Also while it would be fairly simple to do an under-dash installation, that would then render the steering adjustment and crumple tube ineffective.

[Guinney1971]

Maybe other units are more suitable then? Would one (if available) from a Vectra or Omega be more
heavy duty and therefore more suitable?

I want to fit EPAS to my 1989 Cavalier too, as her old 1.6 engine is not able to be upgraded
to mechanical PAS - if the Corsa unit is apparantly not up to the job, then I'll have to look
into alternatives for this conversion too.

Cheers for the info Martin, time to grill my mates in the VODC!

[stunned_monkey]

My info comes from the manufacturer of the unit we're using - Pajoe engineering. He was very scathing about the corsa units, but the cynical among us would suggest that he would be...

The main problem as I see it is losing the adjustability and safety of the original column. We're working on putting the Pajoe unit under the front, but with a right hand conversion, we have the luxury of the boot floor not being in the way!

[Guinney1971]

lol to the 'cynical' Martin - Like you say, the bloke would say that :wink:

Ah well, all interesting stuff - be interesting to see how it pans out.

[Manxmann]

Hi,

Just thought I'd post an update to my original greeting. Well I took the plunge and bought VIN 17152 from Martin/Rob, yes the Delorean.co.uk Turbo car.

I took her to a recent meeting of a local American Car Club, here are a few pics from the meeting, the car is still wearing UK plates at the moment as she's got to go through an import test before she can be registered locally.

[Rich Hanlon]

Fantastic! Congratulations on your new purchase! Looks like you'll be in good company.

I last saw that car at Harpenden in about 2006/7 when it had a very large rear number plate filling the whole area between the rear lights. Obviously a new number plate surround has been sourced since then!

Great stuff, and welcome!