Group photo at QAC?

[Dangermouse]

Anyone know the history of this photo, that I came across on the interwebs.

Obviously it was originally posted by DMCH..

Fashion looks 80s and transporters look American, which is why I'm thinking a QAC

http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=14472&d=1351876891

[louielouie2000]

Are we sure that's at a QAC? All the cars appear to be very early production. I thought the QAC's showed up a little bit later in '81? I wonder if instead this might be some sort of first shipment of cars to arrive at either Wilmington or Long Beach?

[Dangermouse]

Hence the question mark....

The cars are all missing their polystyrene shipping bumpers, though.

[louielouie2000]

Good point. Did the bumpers make it all the way to dealers lots? Or were they removed at the delivery ports of Wilmington & Long Beach? The only pics/vids I've seen of the cars with the bumpers in place were 1) on car carriers in Northern Ireland 2) on the cargo ships. I can't say I've ever seen pics of DeLoreans on American soil clad in the bumpers.

And when it comes to the QACs, I assume later cars were delivered straight to them. But were earlier cars shipped to the QACs from dealer lots/individual owners? Or were their problems fixed at the dealers?

This pic is definitely interesting. The amount of people in it means it was some sort of momentus occasion. Perhaps it was the first delivery of cars to arrive at/depart from one of the QACs? The only thing to make me question this is how early the cars are in this picture. Sorry to nerd out, these sort of little mysteries in the DeLorean saga interest me endlessly.

[Mark D]

My guess (and this is a guess only) is that this was the first batch of cars leaving the QAC's after they were rebuilt to fix all the multiple issues the cars had. That would explain the lack of foam taped to the bumpers. The cars all look to be very early with dark wheels so that would seem to make sense.

I would also assume that later on in production the foam chunks were removed before after they were received in at the dock/QAC and before the cars shipped off to dealers.

[dmc6960]

What are the addresses of the QACs? With those high-tension power lines and direction of shadows it should be relatively easy to determine if it was one of them via aerial images.

[Mark D]

Thats good thinking! I'd be interested to know where the QAC's were anyway

[Rich W]

Anyone know the history of this photo, that I came across on the interwebs.

Obviously it was originally posted by DMCH..

Fashion looks 80s and transporters look American, which is why I'm thinking a QAC

http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=14472&d=1351876891


Photo was taken just before the first shipment left the Irvine QAC. Plenty of POGs in this photo.

Video of before, during and after this photo was part of the POG presentation during DCS 2010.

[Dangermouse]

Care to date it approximately Rich?

Which month in 1981?

[SamHill]

Photo was taken just before the first shipment left the Irvine QAC. Plenty of POGs in this photo.

Video of before, during and after this photo was part of the POG presentation during DCS 2010.

What's a POG?

[Kerichbe]

This link gives a clue to the fate of the Irvine QAC. http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/07/john_delorean_irvine.php. Using Google Earth, I "stood" in the parking lot, The power lines sure look the same !

[dmc6960]

What's a POG?

A POG looks like a Pig while working like a dOG.

I think thats how he put it. It was a very interesting presentation. I must have been too busy listening to remember the photo.

[dmc6960]

This link gives a clue to the fate of the Irvine QAC. http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/07/john_delorean_irvine.php. Using Google Earth, I "stood" in the parking lot, The power lines sure look the same !

Yea, thats it for sure. For those curious the current address of the Home Depot currently residing there is...

3500 West MacArthur Boulevard, Santa Ana, CA

The power lines are to the north. Its easiest to see them from the far east of the parking lot due to a bunch of trees that are now planted between the parking lot and Mac Arthur Blvd.

[Mark D]

Here is a birds eye view from Bing Maps

http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=14692&d=1352216575

[jawn101]

Out of curiosity, is there any record or way to know if your car passed through one of the QACs? I'm pretty sure mine did given the screws in the plastic side sills, and I assume it was Irvine as it was sold just outside San Francisco originally. Just curious if there's any documentation to be had.

[DMCH James]

Out of curiosity, is there any record or way to know if your car passed through one of the QACs? I'm pretty sure mine did given the screws in the plastic side sills, and I assume it was Irvine as it was sold just outside San Francisco originally. Just curious if there's any documentation to be had.

Screws in the sills were actually done at the factory, not the QAC. VIN 2100 did go thru the Santa Ana QAC.

This was at the Santa Ana QAC with the first shipment of cars to dealers. Foam is missing as they would have blown off in the wind on the transporters. Leif Montin (our source of this photo, though there were copies for everyone in the photo, I'm told) and C.R. Brown can be seen at the far left of this photo. Leif is facing away from the camera towards C.R. behind him.

James

[Dangermouse]

Thanks James.

[DMCH James]

Thanks James.

Interesting. The email notification of your replied also had the text "So this would have been May 1981?" while it no longer appears in your post on the site and you rpost doesn't have the "edited" notation.

In any case - I'd date it as late May 1981 or early June 1981 based on the first known validated retail sale date of a DeLorean was 6/17/81 (http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/message/3923). Since that posting from 1999, three other VINs are also verified to have been sold on that date - 1398, 1114, and 1050.

James

[Dangermouse]

You got me :eek5:

I retracted the second line, intending to research the actual date the first cars were sold, before taking a guess at the photo date.

So my guess would have been correct :)

[louielouie2000]

In any case - I'd date it as late May 1981 or early June 1981 based on the first known validated retail sale date of a DeLorean was 6/17/81 (http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/message/3923). Since that posting from 1999, three other VINs are also verified to have been sold on that date - 1398, 1114, and 1050.

James

I had no idea cars weren't sold to customers until mid June. They had been coming off the assembly line for 3 months at that point, and production was starting to really ramp up. I was always under the impression that the cars were available earlier, but in small quantities... hence the initial demand. This changes my entire view of DeLorean saga. The cars were in demand and the company was successful for such a short period. By the end of '81 demand was low and supply was seriously mounting. It seems the only successful timeframe DMCL experienced was perhaps June-October of '81. It makes more sense now why the British government stopped funding DMCL so quickly after the cars entered production... the company as it stood was not viable, & was based on utterly unrealistic numbers.

[DMCH James]

As I understand it, only about 350 cars were shipped on that first boat from Belfast. At best that meant each dealer could only have had one car. Some dealers may have kept their cars on display in the showroom to show to other potential buyers until they knew they had more on the way to them.

Had John not doubled production, both to make stock offering look better and also gambling that adding workers would entice the British to continue supporting DMCL, they probably would have made it through the bad winter of 1982 and high interest rates of 82/83. Slowing production (IMO) would have allowed the factory to further improve quality and address design issues that would have further improved the product. Then, the addition of the twin-turbo would have addressed the performance concerns.

James



I had no idea cars weren't sold to customers until mid June. They had been coming off the assembly line for 3 months at that point, and production was starting to really ramp up. I was always under the impression that the cars were available earlier, but in small quantities... hence the initial demand. This changes my entire view of DeLorean saga. The cars were in demand and the company was successful for such a short period. By the end of '81 demand was low and supply was seriously mounting. It seems the only successful timeframe DMCL experienced was perhaps June-October of '81. It makes more sense now why the British government stopped funding DMCL so quickly after the cars entered production... the company as it stood was not viable, & was based on utterly unrealistic numbers.

[vin6635]

Anyone have an address of the east coast QAC?

[Mark D]

Had John not doubled production, both to make stock offering look better and also gambling that adding workers would entice the British to continue supporting DMCL, they probably would have made it through the bad winter of 1982 and high interest rates of 82/83. Slowing production (IMO) would have allowed the factory to further improve quality and address design issues that would have further improved the product. Then, the addition of the twin-turbo would have addressed the performance concerns.

James

The biggest question on my mind recently is whether or not it was a good thing that John ramped up production...

It was obviously bad for the company back then and played a major role in accelerating the failure...BUT in the grand scheme of things are current owners better off that this was the way in which the company went down?

What I mean is, did they really stand a chance of lasting much longer than they did? Would quality improvements and a turbo engine really have saved the company? It's possible that they would have failed anyway from overextending into other ventures like the ATV, DMC bus, aircraft tug, etc. Those projects all came to an end when the DMC-12 sucked the company's capital dry, but had they slowed things down with the car the company could have still went under from those other projects continuing on. Then we'd be left with 3000 cars and a handful of busses instead of 9000 cars.

Or maybe they would have survived for a few more years and eventually hit the same production numbers?

Either way, if they were in fact on an eventual path to failure I'm glad they at least went out leaving us with a sizeable stockpile of cars that still exist today.

[DMCH James]

Anyone have an address of the east coast QAC?

685 Highway 202-206 N.
Bridgewater, NJ 08807

[DMCH James]

Sizeable stockpile of cars AND parts for it. Had production NOT been ramped up, they wouldn't have bought all these parts and we'd have been left with very little NOS supply.

I think quality improvements, interior and exterior colors, performance improvements and an improved economy (the Reagan years) would have kept the company going.

James


The biggest question on my mind recently is whether or not it was a good thing that John ramped up production...

It was obviously bad for the company back then and played a major role in accelerating the failure...BUT in the grand scheme of things are current owners better off that this was the way in which the company went down?

What I mean is, did they really stand a chance of lasting much longer than they did? Would quality improvements and a turbo engine really have saved the company? It's possible that they would have failed anyway from overextending into other ventures like the ATV, DMC bus, aircraft tug, etc. Those projects all came to an end when the DMC-12 sucked the company's capital dry, but had they slowed things down with the car the company could have still went under from those other projects continuing on. Then we'd be left with 3000 cars and a handful of busses instead of 9000 cars.

Or maybe they would have survived for a few more years and eventually hit the same production numbers?

Either way, if they were in fact on an eventual path to failure I'm glad they at least went out leaving us with a sizeable stockpile of cars that still exist today.

[vin6635]

685 Highway 202-206 N.
Bridgewater, NJ 08807

Thanks, James. Looks like the original QAC building is long gone now...replaced with an office building.

[DMCH James]

Thanks, James. Looks like the original QAC building is long gone now...replaced with an office building.

I seem to recall reading that it was on old (Chrysler?) dealership at one point and was closed when DMC bought it - perhaps JZD bought it and was leasing it to DMC.

James