Delorean rear lights

[dmcpom]

In a book I was reading it had two styles of rear lights for the delorean normal and euro?? what was the go with this ???
cheers
Andy

[PlutonimicX]

The "Euro/UK" spec tail lights were Rubbolite units for trailers if I remember correctly. The entire back panel of the car was redesigned to allow a UK plate and the tail lights had fog lights incorporated. It was a required to have fog lights. I hope I'm right with this story

[Sidaries]

In a book I was reading it had two styles of rear lights for the delorean normal and euro?? what was the go with this ???
cheers
Andy

I only know about this car, which has different tail lights:
http://www.entermyworld.com/gallery/dmc-rhd

[Michael]

http://www.entermyworld.com/cat/rare/rhd/rhdcarb1x1.jpg

I really like those! Although they came from a bus, they resemble Countach lights. I of course like the stock tail lights better, after all that's one of the best things about the design is the tail. I think what attracts me to these lights is they are narrow and wide, with a trim panel filling in the dead space, whereas the lenses filled in all the space on the production models.

Take the production lights, shave about 3" off the height and use that trim panel and the more recessed rear fascia and tag bracket from proto one, wow that would look mean.

[Dangermouse]

I think it may be a little misleading of the book to say that two styles were "available".

I think that those "eurospec" lights were almost prototypes. Probably less than 10 cars have them (maybe as few as 3). I think the RHD Wooler Hodec cars have "standard" lights.

[skynet]

I'm so confused right now.

I bought my car #5930 as an "euro spec" car.

As I can recognise,
- the seat belts are no different,
- the tail lights have a standard look
- the front turn signal lenses are standard
- the rear side marker lenses are red.

However,
- there is a fog light switch on the steering wheel column and
- the tail fog lights do work.
- Also there is no catalyst in the car (but there is a sticker on the left door indicating there is one), and
- the speedo is scaled up to 140 mph.

So is this a "euro spec" D or what?

[David T]

I would doubt the car is "Euro Spec". If it isn't metric or RHD, it was built for the US market. All of the "differences" you found could have been done by previous owners. If it has a catalyst sticker, the car had a catalytic converter when it was built.
David Teitelbaum

[jawn101]

The VIN list shows your VIN as a UK car (one list I checked said England, the other said Ireland) but I'm not sure how accurate that is, considering all the other nearby VINs were US cars. I think those VIN lists might indicate the current location rather than the original delivery location, actually.

I unfortunately don't know if there would be any obvious differences in markings/placards to indicate a UK vs US car. But what David said... all those mods are easily done later, and the Catalyst sticker is a very good indicator that you had a cat at one point. Of course, as we all know consistency was not a strong point of this factory, so the car may never have actually had a cat if the sticker was installed first :)

[dmc6960]

Skynet, we've already been over this once before with your car...
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?2509-Euro-Spec-Delorean-things-missing-from-the-engine

You have a car that very likely started off in the US, then made its way back over the pond. It has been modified by previous owners, nothing more.

[Totally 80s]

But it has a different engine.

[DMCVegas]

Just to throw another 2¢ in...

There really aren't any "euro spec" cars that were created AFAIK or have ever seen in the sense that there were exact specifications. There were plenty of conceptual accessories and concepts that were utilized in order to test designs, but no solid specifications were ever actually drafted by DMC or DMCL. And that's still not taking pre-EU variances into account.

[DMCVegas]

But it has a different engine.

Just looked at these photos.

It *is* possible that your 2.7L engine is not original. KAPAC at one point had a lot of 2.7L PRVs available and advertised them to DeLorean owners in the 1980's as a replacement for overheated engines. At the sale price the engine was cheaper than 2 cylinder heads. I've only heard about these engines, and never seen one installed. So I've no idea what emissions configurations they came with. Typically the 2.7L should at least have a tube that connects between the two ports of the "W" pipe. The pics of the engine are not even plumbed for this. The 2.7 NA engine also used an electronic idle speed controller as well but it was an entirely different slide valve instead of the stock rotary.

There is also the possibility as well that it could have been another Volvo engine that was pulled out of a wrecking yard and installed and then had the top-end swapped over.

But the real question is exactly how do you know that this is a 2.7? What are the serial numbers on the block and the heads? Because the top end of this unit is definitely from a 2.8L.

Fast forward ahead to about 12:20, set the video to HD-Fullscreen and take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Jpr5KCA7yyo#!

[skynet]

Skynet, we've already been over this once before with your car...
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?2509-Euro-Spec-Delorean-things-missing-from-the-engine

You have a car that very likely started off in the US, then made its way back over the pond. It has been modified by previous owners, nothing more.

now I also beleive this is the case. sorry for bringing it up again!


But it has a different engine.

According to the registration, yes.


Now I imagine the story as: the car was sold to the US, came back, and then converted to UK usage in 1995 (first registration in the UK). A tail headlight switch was installed (a quite ugly one), which uses the two of the four brake lights, and also UK headlights (beaming to the left, already replaced to ones beaming to the right). The cat was removed (this was a neat job according to my mechanic, he said it is like it has never been fitted), also the EVAP system. The latter I have already had put back and is working good.

The registration says 2664 ccm, but I believe the guys were looking for the size of the PRV6 V6 engine, which they found out the car has. They found 2664 ccm in some book (there was no good Internet in that time) and were happy. The engine number in the registration is also something silly, but the engine has a real Delorean-style engine number (154 741 00000xxxx). I'll check the serial numbers on the block also and will post it here. Thanks for the vid, now I know what to look for!

[skynet]

EVAP installed back: http://cyberdyne.hu/tmp/2.7_or_2.8/1.jpg

engine: http://cyberdyne.hu/tmp/2.7_or_2.8/2.jpg

"W" with a serial number, there is no connecting hoses (as opposed to the Volvo's engine): http://cyberdyne.hu/tmp/2.7_or_2.8/3.jpg

the same serial number again - 740026... - the number beginning with R127 is the engine number as stated in the car registration, I fixed it with a double side adhesive tape and will remove: http://cyberdyne.hu/tmp/2.7_or_2.8/6.jpg

So I think it's a 2.8L with a typo in the registration.

[Phil Peters]

I think it may be a little misleading of the book to say that two styles were "available".

I think that those "eurospec" lights were almost prototypes. Probably less than 10 cars have them (maybe as few as 3). I think the RHD Wooler Hodec cars have "standard" lights.

Dermot is pretty much spot on here. The so-called "Euro" Rubbolite tail lights were never a factory option. The Rubbolite lights and the different tail light / number plate (licence plate for those across the pond) surrounds were developed while the DeLorean factory was in receivership in 1982 and more attention was being placed on non-federal markets in order to make DMCL financially viable. A DeLorean was trailered down to Bill Towns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Towns) where he designed the rear panel at his studio.

The factory had part numbers assigned for right-hand drive parts such as the instrument cluster, steering rack, head lights, carpets, brake servos, fuel filler neck etc. I have not seen a documented part number for different tail lights so this might suggest that the choice of tail lights (for the UK market at least) was never formalised to the same extent as some of the other components.

Some of the right-hand drive cars were fitted with the Bill Towns rear surround and Rubbolites after they were sold at auction but the cars left Wooler-Hodec with standard federal tail lights.

[dmcnorway]

And... you can still get the Rubbolite Euro-lights! They're still selling them! :-)

Stian B.
Norway

VIN # 06759

[Pool5743]

And... you can still get the Rubbolite Euro-lights! They're still selling them! :-)

Stian B.
Norway

VIN # 06759

Do you have a web link for these taillights?

[Farrar]

Do you have a web link for these taillights?

Maybe here (http://www.hgvdirect.co.uk/catalog/top_products_from_rubbolite-mi-13.html)...