DeLorean DMC-12 (2017)

Información desde la propia web de DeLorean
Low Volume Production of DeLorean Cars

For nearly five decades, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has not distinguished between a company producing millions of cars and a small business making a few custom cars. NHTSA’s one-size-fits-all approach meant that these small companies were subject to the same regulations and paperwork burdens as the large automakers that mass-produce vehicles.

In December 2015, the language from the «Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act» (H.R. 2675) – which creates a reasonable regulatory structure allowing small companies to produce a limited number of completed replica motor vehicles that resemble the appearance of cars produced 25 years ago or more. – was inserted to the federal highway bill (H.R. 22) and signed into law.

The new law provides common-sense regulatory relief for small businesses that would otherwise be treated as if they were producing millions of cars. The companies are required to register with NHTSA and EPA, and file annual production reports. The replica vehicles will be subject to equipment standards, recalls and remedies.

The vehicles must meet current Clean Air Act standards for the model year in which they are produced. The new law allows the low volume vehicle manufacturer to meet the standards by installing an engine and emissions equipment produced by another automaker (GM, Ford, etc.) for a similar EPA-certified vehicle configuration or a create engine that has been granted a California Air Resources Board (CARB) Executive Order (EO). This reasonable regulatory reform will also spur innovation, including advances in alternative-fuel and green vehicle technologies.

In anticipation of this legislation, DeLorean Motor Company has been working for some time to identify a supplier for engines and other parts that must be reproduced to facilitate this production for 2017. A number of hurdles exist before production can begin, and we’re still early on in this process of determining the feasibility of moving forward. Further updates will be posted here.

http://www.delorean.com/

Novedades, en inglés:

April and May were busy months as we continue with preparations for beginning “Low Volume” production in 2017. Here are the highlights…

DeLorean Chassis Update

In April, we met with another potential supplier for the DeLorean chassis, as shown below. The original DeLorean chassis was made from mild steel and coated with an epoxy to protect against corrosion. In one of those “it seemed like a good idea at the time” things, as the epoxy aged and became more brittle, and as the chassis would twist and flex, the epoxy would crack. This allowed moisture – and road salt in the winters up north – to cause rust. Over the years we have used various methods to prevent rust when doing chassis replacements on DeLorean cars, including:

– Powdercoating
– Galvanizing, followed by powder coating
– Complete stainless chassis
– Electrocoating (cathodic electrodeposition) followed by powder coating

Our present plan for the initial production is to use NOS chassis, electrocoated for corrosion protection and powder coated for cosmetic appearance. For later production it is still planned to use a reproduction chassis with modified front suspension as soon as practical.

Electrical system improvements

In early May, we met with a potential supplier for a new wiring system for the car. The original DeLorean wiring system is plagued with too many connections, using poor sockets/terminals that are not weather-proofed. Even the original DeLorean Motor Company knew this to be true while the car was in production, and before the company closed, plans were well underway to completely redesign the wiring harness and electrical architecture of the car.

Our plan is update the wiring system, completely replacing the main harness with a modern, multiplexed, architecture resulting in less wire (and weight), built-in diagnostics and the ability to add many modern features that would otherwise be impractical. In any instances where are using an NOS sub-harness, all connectors will be replaced with modern, weather-proof components. We have a complete system in-house now from this supplier and are installing it in a test car soon.

Front Fender Update

We have sent the 3D scans of the left front fender to various potential suppliers and have received good feedback from several of them. We have discovered that while the scan looks good, greater detail will be required before the file can be used to create tooling. We have a complete set of engineering drawings for each part of the car, but have discovered the drawing we have for the left front fender is a couple revisions OLDER than what was actually in production. In order to make sure we are using the latest specification, we needed to locate a later drawing.

In May, one of our employees was able to locate the original, pencil on paper drawing for the left front fender in a private collection. Because of the size of the drawing, at 60″ in height and more than 120″ in length, copying the drawing was not practical. Photographs of the drawing were taken of all relevant areas in question, and our CAD file is being tweaked to reflect these, now exact, dimensions to the final factory specification.

Underbody Production

The molds for the underbody were shipped off to our supplier in Ohio, who received them in good condition in early May. An on-site visit is planned for June to layout the timeline and procedures for production. One of the two molds is shown in the foreground and the drilling jig/rotisserie is in the background along with the cutting jigs in the “cages” to it’s left.

Engine/Transaxle Update

We now have narrowed our engine choices to two different suppliers, and have test engines from both of these companies being adapted to our current, five-speed manual, transaxle for further development and testing. Each of the two engines offers more than double the original engine specs of 130hp and 100+ more ft/lb of torque (original spec was 153 ft/lb). We expect be driving and evaluating DeLorean cars fitted with these engines in the next 6-8 weeks.

We have entered into a development program with a company that specializes in modifying the UN1 transaxle as used in the original DeLorean car. The purpose of this program is test and modify the transaxle internally to handle the increased horsepower and torque figures the new engine will deliver. This supplier has received two NOS manual transaxles and work is now underway.

Braking Updates

In April, we also met with another potential supplier of braking systems in suburban Detroit and are continuing talks with them as we focus on improving the ability of the car by taking advantage of the greater space available by the use of larger wheels.This company is one of the best known names in the automobile industry and we are excited about the opportunity to to work with them to dramatically improve the brakes in the DeLorean car.

Wheels and Tires

Also in April we had a very good meeting with a Tier 1 wheel manufacturer and were a preview of some as unreleased designs that could be made available exclusively for the DeLorean car. We also received initial costing for these new wheels in 17″and 18″ sizes (which offer the greatest tire selection). Further updates will come as this supplier relationship progresses.

Regulatory Updates

Regulatory work has been slower than expected, which has caused concern here at DMC. While the legislation mandates that final regulations for Low Volume Manufacturing be completed by the EPA and NHTSA by December of this year, progress is now only starting to be made. In early May, along with other potential low-volume manufacturers, one of our staff met with legislative aides to Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and met personally with Congressman Gene Green in Washington, DC. The purpose of these meetings was to express concern about the glacial pace of the rule-making progress and how it will affect not only planned 2017 production of DeLorean cars but many other manufacturers who are planning on low volume production in 2017, and the associated jobs that will be added.

We are pleased that the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association (SEMA), which was instrumental in getting the Low Volume legislation passed in 2015, has contracted with a regulatory specialist to work closely with the EPA and NHTSA to speed this process along.

http://www.newdelorean.com/aprilmay-2016-update/