This made made me cry tears of sadness

[derf]

Why?

[Ducati Diva]

[Dave]

that could have been so much worse. i hope hes bagged. lol

[Dave]

you ever see that badass black delorean with the three rotor swap?
[youtube]8LV8cltkBpc[/youtube]

[derf]

Originally Posted by Dave

you ever see that badass black delorean with the three rotor swap?

Yep, and every time I see that video I get one of these

[Homeslice]

What's wrong with it? Looks smooth IMO. It's not like the DeLorean was a real sportscar anyway, so you might as well slam it and make it look pimp.

[Homeslice]

Originally Posted by Dave

you ever see that badass black delorean with the three rotor swap?

Suspension by Lotus? Not unless Lotus was consulted during the original design work 30 years ago.

[derf]

I thought the delorean used lotus suspension parts?

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

Suspension by Lotus? Not unless Lotus was consulted during the original design work 30 years ago.

on the internet, google not fourteen keystrokes away...fuck it

It has been said that if Lotus Founder Colin Chapman had not died he would have gone to prison for his part in the DeLorean debacle. In fact, the then financial director of Lotus, Fred Bushell was jailed and John DeLorean himself was indicted, but remained in the US avoiding extradition to Great Britain. Despite the mystery surrounding the financial dealings, the DeLorean was a major success for Lotus, and in particular the consulting arm of the company, Lotus Engineering.



John Zachary DeLorean was the possibly most publicity-conscious executive at General Motors during the Sixties and early Seventies. In 1973 he resigned from GM to start his own company that was to make a new car of his own design.



DeLorean believed, erroneously, that a rear-engined layout was ideal for a sports car since that was the pattern of the Porsche 911. He dictated the plans for a rear-engined two-seat coupe with gull-wing doors that was to be the basis of his new car company – DeLorean Motor Company (DMC). DeLorean picked Giorgetto Giugiaro and Ital Design to design the car, and the similarity of the wedge shape to Giugiaro’s masterpiece, the Esprit, is clear.



The first prototype was completed in 1976 using a Citroen four-cylinder engine. This was found to be seriously underpowered, and the second prototype was given a Renault V6 engine and transmission, while retaining the basic structure of the initial prototype.




By 1978, DMC’s financial backers were growing restless due to the delays in the car’s development. In order to promote employment in Northern Ireland, the British Government agreed to provide significant financial assistance and a new factory in Dunmurry, just south of Belfast. Even with this financial commitment, DMC still had to produce a car. The DeLorean was to have a stainless steel clad GRP monocoque in the fashion of the Lotus Elite (Type 14), and this was proving difficult to produce. It was clear that DMC were going to need outside engineering help.



Porsche were originally approached but estimated a time-to-production that was longer than DeLorean thought it should take. Lotus claimed they could do it in half the time Porsche quoted, and therefore got the contract. However, when Colin Chapman and Michael Kimberley examined the prototypes, they agreed it was a “abominable” car. Two features in particular did not offer promise – the GRP monocoque and the gull-wing doors.



Only two production cars had ever had gull-wing doors, the Mercedes-Benz 300SL and the Briklin SV-1, but neither car was produced in significant numbers. Interestingly, the original design for the Elise Mk 1 was to feature gull-wing doors, as was the removable hard top designed for the Elise Mk 2. However, problems with production precluded their implementation in both cases. With the DeLorean, the large cut-outs for the gull-wing doors resulted in poor rigidity.



Lotus predicted (based on their own experience) that the DeLorean designed GRP monocoque would not pass crash test requirements. Their suspicion was confirmed when Grumman (the US aerospace concern) used their state-of-the-art computer system and showed that in a 26 mph crash the rear-mounted engine and gearbox would finish in the front footwell, having traveled through the occupants first!



As a consequence of these issues Lotus demanded a free hand in the redesign of the car. The first decision was to switch from a GRP monocoque to the familiar Lotus steel backbone chassis. From there the design continued with many features being similar to the Esprit of the era. The suspension geometry of the DeLorean is similar to that of the Esprit, especially the long semi-trailing arm design for the rear. In addition, both cars use the same VARI molding process, although while the fiberglass body becomes the exterior of the car for the Esprit, in the case of the DeLorean, the “under body” has a decorative stainless steel skin. Both cars have a distinctive ridge along the sides of the car due to two-piece molding of the body.



Lotus were given 18 months to go from a style to a finished car, involving the development of the design, all the engineering development and the building and testing of the prototypes. Ten months into the contract, DeLorean decided to ‘freshen’ the shape of the car, resulting in a delay of seven months. Despite these problems the car was ready for production in record time, especially when one considers that these were the days before computer aided design.



The DeLorean sports coupe was released in 1981, and it was immediately obvious that it would not sell at the expected level of 600 cars per week. At $25,000, the car was too expensive to sell in these volumes. The financial brake-even point was 10,000 units and only 9,200 cars were produced by the time DMC went bankrupt in 1982.



Lotus were paid for most of the work, however, in the decade following, it was shown that fifteen millions of pounds of the British Government’s money had gone ‘walk-about’. That the development money came through a Panama-registered company (General Products Development Services) was a puzzling twist to the financial arrangements. Unfortunately, Colin Chapman died of a heart attack in December 1982, and took the secrets of the DeLorean financial debacle to the grave.



In spite of these issues, the DeLorean was a success as far as Lotus Engineering was concerned. Having been given a dreadful starting design, they had created a practical engineering solution in less time than the industry expected. A significant quantity of subsequent consulting work was obtained as a result of Lotus’ part in the DeLorean. For that we should be grateful since until recent years the consulting wing of the company has financially supported the car manufacturing division. Without Lotus Engineering the Elise would have no been born.

[Homeslice]

Looks like Lotus was indeed involved.......but more like "Lotus-chosen parts" not "Lotus parts". It's not like they simply took the same parts from the Esprit and put them on the DeLorean. From Wikipedia:

The underbody and suspension of the DMC-12 were based largely on the Lotus Esprit, with a four-wheel independent suspension, coil springs, and telescopic shock absorbers. The front suspension used double wishbones, while the rear was a multi-link setup. In its original development stages, the car is said to have handled quite well. Considering that Lotus's reputation was built largely on the handling prowess of the cars the company produced, the DMC-12's smooth ride wasn't a surprise. Unfortunately, changing U.S. government bumper height regulations required modifications to the suspension system and an increase in the vehicle's factory ride height, both of which had adverse effects on the car's handling capabilities. Many owners have subsequently replaced or modified the front springs to return the front height to the original design specification.

Steering was rack and pinion, with an overall steering ratio of 14.9:1, giving 2.65 turns lock-to-lock and a 35 ft (10.67 m) turning circle. DMC-12s were originally fitted with cast alloy wheels, measuring 14 in (356 mm) in diameter by 6 in (152 mm) wide on the front and 15 in (381 mm) in diameter by 8 in (203 mm) wide on the rear. These were fitted with Goodyear NCT steel-belted radial tires; because the engine is mounted in the very rear of the vehicle, the DMC-12 has a 35%/65% front/rear weight distribution.

LOL, that's a horrible weight distribution, I don't think even 911's are that rear-biased.