In late May James Espey Vice President of DeLorean Motor Cars in Texas and curator of The DeLorean Museum asked me to view a collection of documents offered to the Museum by the brother of an ex-employee. The ex-employee was Christopher Bradley, foreman of the experimental work shop in the training building at DMCL. Christopher (Chris) commenced his employment at DeLorean Motor Cars Ltd in the early months of 1979 and was made redundant – as I recall in late 1982. Christopher's work initially related to the first pilot cars and early production cars required for PR, shows, VIPs and general development work. Later he became involved in the RHD cars and the conversion of US specification cars to meet European requirements. His notes and diaries contain significant detail of his activities. His collection is now with The DeLorean Museum in Texas.
Chris was well known to me and Phyllis (employee No 21) and a popular figure in the factory. Chris previously worked for Bristol Cars (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol...y_and_purchase). Regrettably Christopher died ten years ago and it’s only now that his significant compilation of documents has been discovered. Reading his diaries brought back many memories of the major events that took place in the factory and the community. One such event was the visit of the US journalists in March 1980. The journalists’ reports of their visit are documented in DeLorean Gold Portfolio. I can’t be certain but I believe eight journalists made the trip to Dunmurry; they arrived in Belfast on Sunday 15th March 1981.
Preparations for their visit had been in progress for several months – particularly the cars they were to drive on the public roads in Northern Ireland. According to Christopher Bradley’s diaries five cars were prepared for the visit; VINs 554/5/6/7/8 (in includes one back up vehicle). The cars were prepared in the experimental workshop with Chris leading his crew to ensure all aspects of the car were fit for purpose. He records his time sheets over the previous three days, he worked over 60 hours in four days sometimes working through the night, then resting and commencing work again. After the mechanics of the cars were checked the vehicles were cleaned and made ready for the visitors.
Christopher’s diaries remind me that we had one problem, and it was a big problem – we had very little or no lead free gasoline on site at Dunmurry. Not enough to fill the tanks of the press cars and certainly nothing for reserve. At that time lead free gas was not available at filling stations either in Northern Ireland or Great Britain – it was only available at car manufacturers in England – Jaguar, TVR, Rolls Royce and Lotus were the only users. They were at least a day’s travelling distance by road even if a consignment started to travel out on Sunday, which would be unlikely, as there would be no one in the factories to contact over the weekend it would be Tuesday before we could re stock. It was forbidden to carry gasoline by air unless stringent packaging measures were taken and the appropriate Class 3 Dangerous Goods paperwork completed. Miraculously though 4 x 45 gallon drums arrived later that night – divine intervention?
I was asked to assist in a small way early on the Monday morning – I was told that after I completed my task my instructions were to disappear into the background and stay out of sight. My job was to collect three journalist from a hotel the other side of town. Easy enough today as I know every crack and bump on most roads in Belfast, but then it was a major task. I took a wrong turning and got lost, very lost. Embarrassing for me but the journalists thought it to be very funny. Red faced I arrived 30 minutes late – I had no need to be told to go and hide this was done on auto pilot.
The journalists took cars around the test track and then on a journey north eventually stopping overnight at Bushmills. Their stories and views of the car are well documented in DeLorean Gold Portfolio.
One minor co-incidence relating to the Journalist’s visit occurred over the last few days. I was looking through some old documents and came across a purchasing record of the steering wheel specified for the DeLorean. A copy is attached – it shows that a week after the journalists visit we – in purchasing – were asked to immediately add a leather covering to the steering wheel a minor criticism identified by the journalists.
The Christopher Bradley Collection is a gold mine of information and it’ll take a long time to analyse the detail. I’m delighted that the collection is in the good hands at the DeLorean Museum in Texas.
Nick Sutton
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