The Ulster Transport Museum Cars

[DMCNI]

I managed to view the 50000 mile car at the Ulster Transport Museum in Cultra recently. My visit to this section was fleeting due to time constraints and I didn't get reading the info plaques on the display stands, therefore they could have answered the questions I am about to ask.

Does anyone know how the museum acquired the 50000 mile car, was it on display in the Museum prior to the factory closing and the same question applies to Giugiaro's wooden mock up, how did the museum manage to own it?

[Chris P]

I can only assume that they were given them by the receiver, but I don't know for sure.

The test car is Vin 514.

[ROBLAMROCK]

John Moore, the former Keeper of Transport at the UFTM bought some of the DeLorean items that are currently on display from the Receiver when the factory closed at knock down prices. Other items are held in trust.

Robert Lamrock
DeLorean Owners Association

[Dangermouse]

Is it known what number plate 514 had when it was racing around the province?

[DMCNI]

Thanks for providing this information Robert.

Glad to hear a deal was done with the receivers, to keep an important part of history that could have been so easily destroyed of fallen into a bad state of repair.

[Chris P]

I can only be 50% sure, as there were 2 cars!
One an auto and the other Manual; being driven around for about 18 hours a day.

The one driven by a friend of mine was RIA 7123., but I can't tell from his pictures wether it was the manual (as at the museum) or the auto.

Alister McCann had an RIA reg number on his car (7125 or 6) but I remember that was much lower mileage.

[DMCNI]

Does anyone know where the 50k cars were stored once testing had finished their job? And the same goes for the wooden mock up car? Were they kept in some sort of a backlot at the DeLorean factory or taken elsewhere....

[Chris P]

I dont know anything about the wooden model, but we have pictures of tatty looking cars outside, partially covered by equally tatty sheets.

I suspect these cars duly were sent "through the workshop" by the receivers and were the ones subsequently sold around the uk.

The car in the Lakeland Motor Museum is right "rough pup" and was later changed to RHD. It has not been used since then.

[Domi]

Some great informations, thanks for sharing

[DMCNI]

Thanks for the information Chris it is greatly appreciated, I had wondered if the cars went back to Coventry or Lotus once testing was complete.

[Nick H]

I thought there were two 50000 mile cars but one was crashed. I might be wrong, sure I have read it somewhere.

Nick H

[Chris P]

There was indeed ( at least) 2 cars, having looked at some more pictures RIA 7123 it was a manual, so is almost certainly the UFTM car.

The other car ( they used to drive around together) was an Auto and Brendan tells me it was put on its roof at one stage, by the other driver !

He was unsure what happened next, but remembers it caused a right old stink at the factory and the other driver....drove no more for the company!

[Nick H]

These things happen. I remember at Standard Products Co. a few things happened to development cars.
A MX 5 was completely written off. It was a jig car worth over £100k! The sealing system for the hard top was being
developed. The driver and passenger woke up in hospital with a couple of company directors standing at the bottom of their beds! :oops:

Another one was a Aston DB7 swallowing a valve. Luckly all our mob were blame free on this one as it was found Clarkson had thrashed it. :lol:

Sorry to go off topic

Nick H

[DMCNI]

Nick Sutton posted this on DMCTalk about the 50000 mile cars:

nick sutton;119359 Wrote:The car in the Ulster Museum was the third 50K mile car - only two were required but three were allocated to the programme. Good job really because one caught fire because of incorrect wiring routing. Paul Fricker the engine man from Lotus told me the story how he was frog marched from one side of the Dunmurry site to the other to witness the results of his work. The car is VIN 535 and looks quite sad in the museum. As many have said - no doubt every now and again another part of the car is liberated either for a collector or ends up for sale on ebay.

Nick

Nick got the Vins wrong and corrected his post to say it is Vin514 in the UFATM, Vin 535 was an auto that caught fire at Dunmurry and must have been destroyed.

[Dangermouse]

So, in summary there were three test cars?

Pilot 24 - RIA 7123 - Manual - Location Unknown - possibly crashed
VIN 514 - reg unknown - manual - On display at UFATM
VIN 535 - reg unknown - auto - destroyed in fire in 1981

(Though PJ Grady's site says that Pilots 14 & 15 were also 50k test cars)

Seem right?

I have only ever seen photos of RIA 7123. Anyone got any pictures of the others, or even better, two or more together?