81 Stainless Steel DeLorean LK 1:18 SunStar Die Cast Mint in Box (Very Rare)

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This auction is for a very hard to find 1981 Stainless Steel DeLorean DMC-12 LK Sport Coupe (Actual Stainless Steel) w/Gray Interior Model 1:18 scale Die Cast SuperCar This 1981 Stainless Steel Delorean DMC-12 LK Sports Coupe is superb in actual Stainless Steelwith Gray interior. Attention to detail inside and out is very high. See photos above. The DMC-12 DeLorean LK Sport Coupe Story: In October 1976, the first prototype DeLorean DMC-12 was completed by William T. Collins, chief engineer and designer (formerly chief engineer at Pontiac ). Originally, the car was intended to have a Citroen/NSU Comotor Wankel rotary engine , mounted amid-ship. The engine selection was reconsidered when Comotor production ended, and the favored engine became Ford's "Cologne V6." Eventually the French/Swedish PRV ( Peugeot -Renault -Volvo ) fuel injected V6 , was selected. Also the engine location moved from the mid-engined location in the prototype to a rear-engined installation in the production car. The chassis was initially planned to be produced from a new and untested manufacturing technology known as Elastic Reservoir Moulding (ERM), which would lighten the car while presumably lowering its production costs. This new technology, for which DeLorean had purchased patent rights, was eventually found to be unsuitable.These and other changes to the original concept led to considerable schedule pressures. The entire car was deemed to require almost complete re-engineering, which was turned over to engineer Colin Chapman , founder and owner of Lotus . Chapman replaced most of the unproven material and manufacturing techniques with those then employed by Lotus. The backbone chassis is very similar to that of the Lotus Esprit . The original Giorgetto Giugiaro body design was left mostly intact, as were the distinctive stainless steel outer skin panels and gull-wing doors .In an interview with James Espey of the new incarnation of the DeLorean Motor Company of Texas, a drawing surfaced showing that the car was potentially to be called Z Tavio. John DeLorean's middle name and his son's first name were both Zachary while Tavio was his father's name and his son's middle name. Due to only sporadic documentation, there is little more that is currently known about the Z Tavio name and why it was ultimately rejected in favor of the DMC-12. DeLorean required $175 million to develop and build the motor company. Convincing Hollywood celebrities such as Johnny Carson and Sammy Davis Jr to invest in the firm, DeLorean eventually built the DMC-12 in a factory in Dunmurry , Northern Ireland , a neighborhood a few miles from Belfast city centre.The company had originally intended to build the factory in Puerto Rico but changed their plans when the Northern Ireland Development Agency offered £100 million towards it, despite an assessment by consultants hired by the NIDA that the business had only a 1-in-10 chance of success. Construction on the factory began in October 1978, and although production of the DMC-12 was scheduled to start in 1979, engineering problems and budget overruns delayed production until early 1981.By that time, the unemployment rate was high in Northern Ireland and local residents lined up to apply for jobs at the factory. The workers were largely inexperienced, but were paid premium wages and supplied with the best equipment available. Most quality issues were solved by 1982 and the cars were sold from dealers with a 12 month, 12,000-mile (19,300 km) warranty and an available five-year, 50,000-mile (80,000 km) service contract.The DeLorean Motor Company went bankrupt in late 1982 following John DeLorean 's arrest in October of that year on drug trafficking charges. He was later found not guilty, but it was too late for the DMC-12 to remain in production. Approximately 100 partially assembled DMCs on the production line were completed by Consolidated International (now known as Big Lots ). The remaining parts from the factory stock, the parts from the US Wa... read more

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