John DeLorean, a former General Motors executive, founded the DeLorean Motor Company in Detroit in October 1975 to build an “ethical” sports car. After looking at sites around the world, he chose Dunmurry, on the outskirts of Belfast, where the British government offered substantial grants and loans, around $120 million of the company’s $200 million start-up costs, to create jobs in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
Work on the factory began in October 1978. The DMC-12 had brushed stainless-steel body panels, gull-wing doors and a rear-mounted Peugeot-Renault-Volvo V6 engine, and its chassis was developed with help from Lotus. Engineering delays meant production did not start until early 1981, and quality and sales both disappointed.
About 9,000 cars were built between January 1981 and December 1982. The company went into receivership in 1982, and in October that year, hours before John DeLorean’s arrest in the United States on drugs charges, of which he was later acquitted, the British government announced the closure of the Dunmurry plant. The DMC-12’s starring role as the time machine in Back to the Future in 1985 turned it into a cult classic.
