The DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) is reportedly considering taking over production of the Pontiac Solstice.
The Pontiac brand has been ditched by General Motors as part of its restructuring process. DMC has released renderings showing its interpretation of how its production version of the Solstice would look.
DMC's vice president, James Espey, said: “JZD [John Zachary DeLorean] always said that the best memories of his automotive career were at Pontiac, and that connection between JZD and Pontiac is probably one of the better known associations among car enthusiasts.
Espey also said the firm was excited at the prospect of “putting several hundred people back to work” at the Wilmington, Delaware factory where the Pontiac Solstice/Saturn Sky was built.
DMC was most famous for producing the gullwinged DeLorean DMC-12, which appeared in the Back to the Future trilogy of films.
DMC is still operational and repairs DMC-12s, as well as producing a limited number of second-generation models.
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Re: DeLorean set for return
Mr Piquet's new job?
Re: DeLorean set for return
You've hit two of the three nails on the head there. The interior was cramped, I got neck pain after 10 minutes (I'm 6' 1"), I have no doubt just a bit of intelligence with the chair runners or platform - a minor change - could have sorted that out.
"Refined" - the car was 90% there. It had all the makings of a great car - a lovely engine, fully independent suspension, weight wasn't too bad. Yet they could have done with some Lotus input on refining the suspension as well, the back would break away far more quickly and with less warning than even an early S2000! It was under-damped and something else made it quite skittish.
The third nail... It had no class, no design, nothing. Appalling.
Apparently reliability wasn't great, but I have no doubt that any company other than DMC taking this over could make a reasonable go at improving the weak areas (cooling seems to be a sticky thermostat issue, the differential was unreliable as well) and re-release this as a decent car. Then again - some of us thought it would happen with the Smart Roadster! (I still maintain it was a shame it didn't)
Re: DeLorean set for return
I test drove the ragtop Solstice GXP, the direct injected turbo Ecotec 4 had plenty of power, the car handled well enough(had fully independent suspension with Bilstein coil-overs standard), but it was very cramped for anyone over 6 feet (same as the MX5). The car could have done well if they refined it, but I guess we will never know, I doubt DMC has the capital for this venture.
Your right about the interior theonlydt, it was pretty horrific. It was a decent car for the money but as usual GM took shortcuts on the cabin.