new guy with a few silly questions

[Rich W]

Unfortunately, not everyone can drive a DeLorean all-year-round, primarily due to three things: location, location, location.

Although Bryan Pearce drove his stainless steel framed DeLorean through every season in the Chicago area for over 15 years, the Winters
(especially the road salt) took its toll on the other non-stainless chassis parts over that time and he has had to replace many chassis parts.

Living in the "Rust Belt" limits most regular DeLorean driving to April through November (or less) depending upon the year. Even though I know
my Grand National DeLorean would have been almost "running cool" when it was -20 degrees two weeks ago. Between the severe cold, snow,
ice, sleet and road salt, it's not a great combination of weather to be driving a High HP DeLorean (at least not during four months of the year).
Even though I limit most of my DeLorean driving to 6-8 months a year, due to location, maybe "toy" was not the right word for the limited use.

I envy those DeLorean owners living/driving in the Sun Belt. On the other hand, it is only two more months until the first full day of Spring.

[DeLorean03]

I'll know a thing or two about that soon with the turbo VR6 being here in Dayton. Still doesn't explain to me why engine swaps aren't prominent more all over the web. I can get on Youtube, sneeze, and there's 20+ videos of DeLoreans breaking down. Let's reverse the trend - let's get some awesome videos of engine swapped DeLoreans running the streets.

Good example: that Grand Buick V6 was in California - hardly a state known for its "brutal winters" - and it just sat for months. That was a horribly missed opportunity to make the DeLorean shine, and what we got out of it was one of the worst bait-and-switch videos; the "world's fastest DeLorean" breaking down on the side of the road.

[DMCMW Dave]

Living in the "Rust Belt" limits most regular DeLorean driving to April through November (or less) depending upon the year. .

I had a Chicago-based owner drive his car home last night. His comment seeing all the cars in the shop was "I can't believe all these people don't drive the cars in the winter". To each his own. I know of at least two owners in the area currently driving the cars.

His car is a very good study in the effects of road salt on DeLorean parts though.

[vwdmc16]

Agreed about the performance, The D will never be as quick and solid as a new BMW like the E92 the Op talked about, (and this is coming from me, a BMW mechanic that has driven alot of those cars) without a huge amount of custom fabrication and redesign of drive train and suspension. However if you lower your expectations after driving a nicely tuned stock D, Its possible to make a good compromise with a moderate build up (EFI and turbo or similar) that will do just about all you would ever want and be the funnest car you own.


If you want a wicked fast car to blow the doors off other fast cars at the lights or the track, get a souped up Corvette/Mustang/Mopar thing. If you really want a Delorean to do the exact same thing and still look something like a Delorean, go buy one and take it to a very capable Hot Rodding shop and tell them how fast you want to go but DO NOT even think of complaining when they hand you a $50,000-100,000 bill.

[movieman1026]

Have you driven one yet? I find it amusing when people criticize the performance but have never been in one. A stock DMC will still blow the doors off a Prius .

alas not yet, DMC CA didnt have any vehicles available to test drive (they were all client cars).

[movieman1026]

Not sure about the Rotary (3-rotor) and the NorthStar, but there are at least a few Grand National swaps (Buick 3.8L Turbo V6) including mine.
I believe there are two or three "single turbo" (like the Grand National) and at least one "twin turbo" (never offered as a twin turbo in the GN).

Like any DeLorean, these engine swap cars need to be driven and maintained to be reliable, but many of these engine swap cars are just "toys"
that are not driven as much as they should be or could be driven (I admit I am guilty of not driving my Grand National powered car enough too).

My personal recommendation would be to test drive a Stage II with an automatic. A friend of mine has been running this setup since May 2012
and he has been very happy with the results, especially when stuck in traffic, and he is used to daily driving a few Mercedes with 250-350 HP.

I have driven this DeLorean, before and after the swap, and it certainly did "wake up" the performance, while keeping it fairly stock appearing.

Im definitely not looking for a toy or garage queen. I'll happily buy an owner lunch and/or a spin behind the wheel of my humvee in trade for a quick spin in an auto d!

[LordFly]

His car is a very good study in the effects of road salt on DeLorean parts though.

And how is that study going?

[DMCMW Dave]

And how is that study going?

Entropy works.


Sent from phone

[dmruschell]

My DD is one of those suped up Corvettes someone mentioned (a 1979), and my manual DPI SPEC II is peppy enough for me. My girlfriend's SPEC II automatic is no slouch either. Just cams and exhaust made a very noticeable difference over stock. DPI also makes a twin turbo setup that is available with the automatic. DMC has their Stage 2 which puts out very similar HP numbers as the SPEC II. DMC-CA used to have their own cams as well (I don't know if they still do though) that you could (I'm assuming) pair with a Stage 1 exhaust if you didn't want to do a full Stage 2 setup.

There are options out there that will give you a good HP boost without breaking the bank or requiring major modifications or an engine swap. It just depends on what your goals are.

[Lightning]

My DD is one of those suped up Corvettes someone mentioned (a 1979), and my manual DPI SPEC II is peppy enough for me. My girlfriend's SPEC II automatic is no slouch either. Just cams and exhaust made a very noticeable difference over stock. DPI also makes a twin turbo setup that is available with the automatic. DMC has their Stage 2 which puts out very similar HP numbers as the SPEC II. DMC-CA used to have their own cams as well (I don't know if they still do though) that you could (I'm assuming) pair with a Stage 1 exhaust if you didn't want to do a full Stage 2 setup.

There are options out there that will give you a good HP boost without breaking the bank or requiring major modifications or an engine swap. It just depends on what your goals are.

Then of course you have me doing a turbo with EFI to the original engine. EFI alone changes the way the car drives.