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From the Seattle Times, June 20th 2010.
By: Cody Ellerd Bay
The story was almost about a refrigerator.
Next month marks the 25th anniversary of the release of "Back to the Future" - a star vehicle for Michael J. Fox as the time-traveling teenager Marty McFly.
But it was the literal vehicle that stole the show: the gull-winged DeLorean DMC-12, which transported Marty from one decade to another with the help of a flux capacitor and 1.21 gigawatts of power.
Arnie Brandon, founder of the Pacific Northwest DeLorean Club, remembers driving his DeLorean to the theatre to see the movie - several times - with other members of the club.
"Going in, nobody thought anything of us sitting there in the parking lot," he says. "But on the way out - well, that was a different story. People kinda went nuts."
The film's producers had originally cast a refrigerator as the time machine, says James Espy, vice president of the DeLorean Motor Company. "They ultimately thought better of it," he says, fearing that kids might climb into refrigerators and get trapped while attempting their own voyage through time.
OK, so maybe if that refrigerator had been cast, this wouldn't be a story at all. And Espy is quite sure that his company wouldn't have the legendary status that it does.
"I don't think we'd be any more remembered than Bricklin," he says, referring to another short-lived sports car with gull-winged doors, manufactured in Canada in the 1970's (and ranked by Time magazine as one of the 50 Worst Cars of All Time").
The DeLorean could have met the same inglorious fate. Production lasted less than a year, from 1981 until 1982, when the company's founder, the notorious playboy John DeLorean, was arrested on drug-trafficking charges. And the initial workmanship by unskilled assembly workers in Northern Ireland left much to be desired.
Despite this, Espy's Texas-based company, which bought up all the surplus parts and now restores old cars and custom-builds new ones, can hardly keep up with demand. The waiting list for a DeLorean, which can cost anywhere from $25,000 used to more than $57,000 for a custom version, is typically six months.
And yes, some people do ask for custom time machines, which the company can replicate. "It's a little subculture within our subculture," Espy says.
As for Brandon, a retired sales manager who lives in Bellevue, he bought his car fresh off the lot in 1982. He was on his way to a Corvette dealership when he pulled up next to a DeLorean at a stoplight.
"I made up my mind then and there, that's the car I wanted," he says. "I never got to the Corvette dealer."
When the Irish factory stopped production and the U.S. DeLorean dealerships were disbanding, Brandon sought out other owners. He started the Pacific Northwest DeLorean Club in 1983 and now counts about 100 members - more than half of the known DeLoreans in the area. A DeLorean Motor COmpany affiliate in Bellevue, DMC (Northwest), provides all the parts and service they need.
Brandon says that with the original bugs fixed, DeLoreans are a model of dependability and, he adds mischievously, "all the trouble you'd want to get into."
His DMC has been with him for 27 years and counting, and Brandon says that's al the time travel he needs. "It's been a helluva ride," he says. "I've loved every minute of it."
