At what point is a DeLorean no longer a DeLorean?

[Rich_NYS]

Do I still have a DeLorean???

Yours is totally not a DeLorean anymore. If you put the stock wheels back on, you'll have a DeLorean again.

[sdg3205]

I don't see why some people get so upset about other people's car mods.

Let me be perfectly clear. I am not anti-mod. I am not anti-engine swap. Did you read the first post where I said they were "rad" and a "better realization of JZD's dream?"

I can't begin to fathom the amount of time, energy and money guys like Nick and Josh have put into their swaps. I respect the hell out of them.

This is not a bash-a-mod thread, it's simply a philosophical discussion. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Rich_NYS]

Yours is totally not a DeLorean anymore. If you put the stock wheels back on, you'll have a DeLorean again.

Joking, BTW...

[Jonathan]

Joking, BTW...

Pffff... only automatics are considered real DeLoreans.

[davidc89]

What's a DeLorean?

I get that question a lot regardless of its unique features. I like some of the painted cars out there, but I feel as though it takes away from "being a DeLorean."

A friend of mine asked me the other day:
If your car wasn't stainless steel would you have bought it?
Yes.
If your car didn't have gull wing doors would you have bought it?
No.

+1 on the gull wing doors

[Farrar]

Does it have stainless steel body panels and gullwing doors? It's a DeLorean.

John DeLorean was adamant about stainless steel body panels and gullwing doors. Everything else about the car was negotiable, and ultimately ended up a compromise compared to what might have been produced given more time and/or money.

PRV engine? Not the original choice. That would have been a mid-mounted turbocharged flat 4.
Epoxy-coated steel frame? Not the original choice. That would have been stainless steel sub-frames attached to the body.
Fiberglass body? Not the original choice. That would have been a VARI body.

One could argue that the "real" DeLorean would have been Proto 1 plus air conditioning and a turbocharger. But that vehicle, for many reasons, could not be mass-produced.

It doesn't really matter, though. It's like saying that the only "true" episode of Star Trek is the unaired pilot "The Cage," because it was the only episode made 100% as Gene Roddenberry wanted it. NBC rightly said it wouldn't appeal to the masses. Compromises were made in order to get the show on the air, and then changes were made over the years that it was on to make it more to Roddenberry's liking. What we ended up with in the case of Star Trek was a profit-making franchise which will, it seems, go on forever. And what we ended up with in the case of the DMC-12 was the first car to be produced by a company which needed to produce something quickly in order to start paying back its loans. No doubt if the company had continued the DeLorean would have, like Star Trek, morphed into something better than the first few examples. Nonetheless, because of the choices made, we have thousands of the cars around, instead of two or three one-offs too rare and expensive for most of us to enjoy, made by a company that never got off the ground. The DMC-12 isn't perfect, but it's what we got, and considering its origin, it's pretty remarkable.

[Jimmyvonviggle]

I even think will.i.am's car is a Delorean. If they have a Delorean VIN they are a DeLorean.

Can the opposite be true as well? Can all those Fieros modded up to look like Dino's and every other Ferrari be considered a Ferrari?

[Totally 80s]

Everyone knows that any car built after 1982 is not a "real" Delorean.

[Jonathan]

It doesn't really matter, though. It's like saying that the only "true" episode of Star Trek is the unaired pilot "The Cage,"...

C'mon, the only real sci-fi franchise worth watching was/is Star Wars.

Everyone knows that any car built after 1982 is not a "real" Delorean.

Haha, nice.

I believe the line I heard when asking your buddies while in perverts row at the nudio "you think those are real?" is... "they're real if you can touch 'em"

So... it is a real DeLorean if you can touch it. If you can't touch it, it is imaginary. Pretty simple.

[mr_maxime]

Let me be perfectly clear. I am not anti-mod. I am not anti-engine swap. Did you read the first post where I said they were "rad" and a "better realization of JZD's dream?"

I can't begin to fathom the amount of time, energy and money guys like Nick and Josh have put into their swaps. I respect the hell out of them.

This is not a bash-a-mod thread, it's simply a philosophical discussion. Nothing more, nothing less.

That wasn't directed at you. I've seen some references about certain deloreans being ruined by mods every now and then. I specifically remember seeing some on the protodelorean youtube video. Having a painted car, I often get comments about it taking away from the delorean aspect, but 99% of the time those people don't even own one. I enjoy mods since seeing a car done the same way over and over tends to get boring.

I would say it's a delorean as long as people see it and ask if it has a flux capacitor though.