Quote Originally Posted by Michael View Post
If anyone ever approaches me and asks for my vin I will assume it's just a crazy psycho who is obsessed with meaningless pursuits. I imagine Video Bob has a similar concern.
I suppose the “crazy psycho” comment was meant for me. No worries though, I am believing/hoping that was an exaggeration, and no one really believes I (and others) are psychos.

In response however, I would to point out the VIN counters actually provide a service of sort; in that collecting this information affords us the ability to know way more about these cars than we did before, form their births in Ireland, to their lives and deaths around the globe. This is interesting information for DeLorean specific car enthusiasts who are also history buffs. The information is free to those interested, and easily ignored by those who say it’s a “meaningless pursuit”. Here are some points of interest about the DeLorean automobile.

A. We know MUCH more about their ORIGINS, for example.
  1. Over the years folks have thrown out production numbers from 6-10 thousand cars. But now you can accurately spread the true number at car shows and street-meets, etc., which is 8799.
  2. Of those, 33% had automatic transmissions, 66% manual.
  3. Of the total, 57% had gray interiors, 42% had black.
  4. Of the total, 73% had grooved hoods.
  5. Of the total, 29% had gas flapped hoods.

B. And We know MUCH more about WHERE-THEY-ARE-NOW. For example:
  1. There are over 90 Back-To-The-Future builds world wide, with 68 being in the United States, 10 in the United Kingdom, and even 2 in Australia.
  2. There are (or were) at least 92 painted cars.
  3. There are at least 30 engine swaps, and another 33+ Eagle or Turbo engines, and another 56 Stage I, II, III. If you are considering an engine mod or swap, wouldn’t you want to know the VIN of some over 110 others who have blazed the trail ahead of you?
  4. California wins the count prize hands-down, with over 1100 cars last reported there, more than twice the next closest state.
  5. There are over 770 registered owners in the DeLorean Owners Directory (DOD), with active, verified email addresses, each who have voluntarily provided contact information for the benefit of other owners. My hat is off to these people, because any one of them may be the one that helps you one day, when you are stuck out on the road far away from home.

C. And, we know the specific VINs of:
  1. At least 12 cars that have been signed by John DeLorean himself.
  2. At least 88 cars that have more than 100k miles clocked.
  3. At least 68 that are in museums around the world (thank you Dermot-Dangermouse )
  4. 5 gold cars, 7 electric and 33 Right-Hand-Drive cars.

D. Also, did you know?
  1. The number one (highest sales) DeLorean Dealership was not in California? Nope, California can only boast having the 5th highest sales dealership in the United States. Guess which state has the #1 highest selling dealership?
  2. The VIN (that we know of) is 4915, with a whopping 365k miles. Impressive to say the least!
  3. The most research VIN is 16125 with some 1390 clicks, beating out pilots 19 and 20?
  4. Approximately 772 owners are currently listed in the DOD, with active, verified (within the last 12 months) email addresses.

All the above information and more can be found HERE.

SO, if VIN counters didn’t count VINs, then VINs wouldn’t get counted, …uh, …um, …well all of the above would probably be unknown.

And finally, all of this is in fun (for me), so there is no offense taken or intended. I like dealing with data, and I have enjoyed working with the likes of Shannon, James, Sarah, Demot and many others who have contributed VIN information regarding DeLoreans. Hey, some people like to collect baseball cards, or like to watch birds. I like to count DeLoreans.

: )

Thomas

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In Search of VideoBob BTTF Build #22