DeLorean Tyres

The first prototype DeLorean DMC-12 was constructed in October 1976 by American engineer William T. Collins, previously of Pontiac. Originally, the automobile was supposed to feature a Wankel rotary engine situated in the centre. When Comotor manufacture ended, the engine decision was revisited, and the preferred engine became Ford's "Cologne V6." The French/Swedish PRV (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo) fuel-injected V6 was eventually chosen. The engine was relocated from the prototype's mid-engined configuration to the production car's rear-engined location. The chassis was originally intended to be built using a novel and unproven manufacturing technique known as elastic reservoir moulding (ERM), which would lighten the automobile while cutting production costs. This new technology, for which DeLorean had acquired patent rights, was subsequently shown to be unsuitable.

These and other alterations to the original design imposed significant time constraints. The entire automobile was assessed to require nearly total re-engineering, which was turned over to Lotus Cars founder and owner Colin Chapman. Chapman replaced the majority of the untested materials and production procedures with those used by Lotus at the time, such as the steel backbone chassis.

In 1982, DeLorean was placed in receivership and declared bankrupt. In October 1982, John DeLorean was recorded agreeing to fund narcotics trafficking in a sting operation, but he was acquitted on the grounds of entrapment. The DeLorean was immortalised in the Back to the Future film trilogy as the type of automobile transformed into a time machine by eccentric scientist Doc Brown, despite the fact that the firm had gone bankrupt before the first film was shot. Stephen Wynne, a Liverpool-born mechanic, formed the new DeLorean Motor Company in Humble, Texas, in 1995, and shortly after purchased the remaining parts inventory and the stylised "DMC" logo trademark of DeLorean Motor Company.