Preproduction usw.

Alles rund um den DeLorean
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Elvis
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Registriert: 30. Jun 2003, 15:37
Wohnort: Black Forest

Preproduction usw.

Beitrag von Elvis »

Supergeile Infos von James Espey über die ersten Autos...

I've extensively researched the history of prototypes and know a fair
amount about them as well as the pre-production cars. Here goes...the
first prototype with the Citroen 4 cylinder engine is in a private
collection in Nevada. It is the subject of a feature article in an
upcoming issue of "deloreans". The owner is proud of the car, but
very protective. I don't expect we will see the car publicly
displayed in the near future. But I'm working on him. :-)

The second prototype was sent off to Lotus for "evaluation". This car
never returned to the states and I went to Lotus last year (at their
invitation on another matter) and spoke to several people about it.
Everyone was in agreement that it was destroyed in the late 1990's.
Photos of that era show it seemingly abandoned and in VERY poor
condition.

Dozens of prototypes were built at built at Lotus (cars with
fiberglass bodies) and destroyed or disassembled according to sources
at Lotus. I believe all the pre-production cars were built at
Dunmurry (in the late months of 1980 as production loomed). They were
numbered, a prefixed with a "D". One would imagine they started
at "D01", but no documentation has surfaced to prove that. There is
documentation (dated 12/31/81) of the existence of cars numbered D19,
D20, D21, and D28. These are referred to on different documents
as "pilot builds" or "engineering mules". Two or three of these pre-
production cars have survived - the one on the DMC-News web site
which I believe is D28 (current whereabouts unknown) and Sascha
Skucek's car (sorry if I spelled your name wrong). I think we
determined that Sascha's car is D20. Based on the dates of that
document, I am inclined to think that only those four pre-production
cars came to the states, the rest having stayed in Dunmurry.

Between late Jan 1981 and April 1981, several hundred (the actual
number is unknown at this time) of what's come to be called
the "black cars" were built. Exactly what became of these cars is
unknown as well.

Regular production started at VIN #500, though the first 60 were not
intended for retail sale, and a document exists saying that there was
to be no warranty coverage on those cars. SSI says production started
in April, but several cars exist with build dates of March.

The earliest documented retail sale VIN is 635, the first known
public sale was June 17, 1981 in Beverly Hills, CA (VIN 910). I doubt
any cars were sold retail prior to that date, as cars didn't arrive
in the US until early June of 1981. We all know there are lower VIN's
in private hands now, though most (if not all) can be established as
having previously been company cars originally, and were only sold
later as company finances deteriorated and they were forced to sell
those cars. Those cars were sold through a company called "Chestnut
Fleet Leasing" and these cars are sometimes referred to as
the "Chestnut Fleet" cars.

James Espey
DMC (Texas)
http://www.delorean.com

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n000g
Beiträge: 141
Registriert: 7. Jul 2003, 17:33
Wohnort: Hessen

Beitrag von n000g »

sehr interessant zu lesen. schade, das es nur noch einen prototyp gibt...hoffentlich kann der herr espey da wenigstens noch ein paar qualitativ hochwertige bilder von machen. die wenigen bilder, die ich kenne, waren meistens von schlechter qualität, ausserdem zeigen sie ja noch lange nicht alles...

Administrator
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Registriert: 30. Jun 2003, 00:26

Beitrag von Administrator »

Ich erinnere mich, dass vor etwa zwei Jahren in den Usa ein prototyp car in einer Auktion vertsiegert wurde.
Man konnte es ganz genau daran erkennen, dass die Fenster, die Außenspiegel, die Felgenund die Front sich von den Serienfahrzeugen stark unterscheideten. Der Wagen wurde für etwa $35.000 versteigert wenn ich mich recht erinnere.

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PeterK_2678
Beiträge: 1337
Registriert: 18. Jul 2006, 19:39
Wohnort: Mainz
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D20 steht zum Verkauf

Beitrag von PeterK_2678 »

Gefunden auf dmctalk.org (auf DML ist ja nichts mehr los):

Pilot car D20 steht in UK zum Verkauf:

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C250868
Immer nen vollen Tank.

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