What do you know about your PO?

[sdg3205]

I find the ownership lineage of cars interesting. It's a story really; who has driven my car? What possessed them to buy it? Where did they drive it? What are their fondest and worst memories of it?

3205 was originally sold to Virgil Schafer of Omaha Nebraska in 1981 from H&H Chevrolet. He was a war vet, and died in Lincoln before I had the chance to let him know his long lost car was alive and well in Canada.

He sold it to a a gentlemen in steamboat spring Colorado. I'm not sure who this was, but it was then sold again to someone else in steamboat named gene. Gene was a car collector, but seemed to have bought and sold a lot of cars as well. From what I gather, space was limited and he shipped 3205 (in rough shape at this point) down to Gilbert Arizona to live in the desert behind a friends barn.

I found 3205 on craiglist in 2009 and watched it come and go on CL and eBay for a long time, with the price dropping as time went on.

While down at my folks place in Scottsdale in 2010, it popped back up. I asked my wife if we could make the 1 hour journey to go look at it. She agreed. It was in terrible shape - the windshield was caved it, power windows dropped into the door, door handles missing, wouldn't start, brakes went to the floor etc etc etc. didn't matter - the stage was set. It had been 25 years of "dreaming" and this was actually the first time I had even sat in one.

I'm the 4th owner of 3205 and it ain't goin anywhere.

[Rad Dad]

Your reference to Steamboat Springs, CO caught my eye. I moved to Stmbt (local abbreviation) in 1989. At that time I had, or so I thought, the only DeLorean in that town with a population of 8,000. I kept hearing references to "another one of those cars", but never saw it nor could I discover who owned it. It obviously wasn't driven. In 1997 I traded 6530 (which I had purchased new) on 16867 (which I still own). I lived in Steamboat Springs until 2011 and still had never seen another DeLorean owned by anyone else in Stmbt. Towards the end of my stay there was a sighting or two, but not by me. Of course, by then the town had grown to a whopping 12,000 people so you can understand that a DeLorean wouldn't stand out :head scratch:.

FWIW, I did once meet a 16 year old boy in Stmbt who claimed that his Dad had bought a"fixer-upper" and that he had it stored at their trailer home on the edge of town. He was not anxious to share any info so I didn't follow-up. I did mention that meeting to another car guy in town and he said he had seen the car in question and that it was pretty badly beat up - especially the windshield. I guess that could well have been the car you ultimately purchased.

Dick Ryan

[sdg3205]

That's pretty interesting. It wouldn't surprise me. The Delorean degrees of separation becomes pretty small sometimes!

[BABIS]

I know only the name of the first owner, she is/was a woman

[Jonathan]

My previous owner(s) was a strange sort.

He (or she) was fond of parking the car for long periods of time in damp areas, perhaps on top of some dirt or grass. He was an avid pet mice collector and used to give his little furry friends free rain on building little homes in the car. At one point he also must have enjoyed the company of wasps of one kind or another as they took up shop in the left rear vent.

He was concerned with vehicle security and installed an astonishingly loud mechanical siren, complete with a variety of wiring here and there and various fasteners strew all about. He was an avid 1981 penny collector as at least seven separate pieces from his private collection were later found under the carpets. Not much of a radio or stereo listener apparently, as you can't do much of that when none of it is working.

For driving skills, he must have been clever with sensing someone was coming as this is the only explanation how someone could safely navigate a car with brakes that bad. He also must have enjoyed driving in 1st gear as that was all the auto trans ever did when I first got the car. He didn't care much for how fast he was going I guess as the speedo wasn't about to tell you anything.

I think he might have also held local scavenger hunts right there on the car considering all the pieces missing.

.... all joking aside, I don't know anything about my PO. If I got to meet him one day though... hehe

[Domi]

The previous owner of my car was a French guy who only kept it a year and a half.
He bought the car when he was in the USA to a lady in Missouri.
Her husband was the original owner, but, unfortunately I don't know more about it.
I'd like to be able to find out more about the history of 16951 but now it is quite a difficult mission.
I don't even know the name of her and I bought the car 19 years ago, so...

[refugeefromcalif]

My PO was DMCF. There was a thread a while back where we could get a Free CarFax type report. (bug in their system since fixed).
From that I found that my car came from NJ to Florida. Before that is was registered and titled in WI? If I remember right.
I saved a text file and screenshot of the report but can't find it now. The report showed that my car was first Titled in 1983.?
I'd also Love to find out more about the owner(s), that put its first 4,300 +/- miles on its clock.

George

[Gfrank]

Affriad I know vary little regarding my 81. How ever the girlfriends 82 is somewhat neat, was raffled off in michigan, and was won by a friend of the dealer giving it away (she had no intrest in the car just helping out buying a ticket) I've got the newpaper article after she won, then another saying she may not be able to keep it due to having to pay for the taxes. Was later sold to another fellow, not sure who, damaged, and never ran again untill last week

[Rich_NYS]

I met my car's PO when I bought the car off him. Nice, fairly honest guy. The car was 11 years in storage, he said he started it no less then every few weeks during that time....the condition of the fuel & tank seems to support that.

Not sure about the previous PO, but included with the car was the shop manuals with notes from/about PJ Grady's. (This car is from that area.)

[Kenny_Z]

Mine was purchased from an Illinois DMC dealer (red paint by them) by an older lady. When she passed away it sold to the owner before me in 2001. He started it every once in awhile and rarely drove it. When he passed away in 2011 his daughters wanted nothing to do with it and sent it to a cosigner where I bought it. I heard my PO loved the car and would drive it around the block as much as he could with his failing health. I met the neighbor who was able to tell the widow that the car wasn't red anymore and was being taken good care of. She wanted to see it again but unfortunately she passed away before I got the car back on the road after the paint was stripped. I've promised the neighbor that I'll bring it out there eventually because the entire neighborhood knew of the red DeLorean.