4.09.2008

“One point twenty-one gigawatts!”


Though known as an exotic car — its body was sheathed in unpainted stainless steel, not unlike a kitchen sink — the DeLorean was a failure as a performance car. Its engine, a 2.8-liter V-6 developed jointly by Peugeot, Renault and Volvo (known as the PRV6) was too flaccid to rival any Ferrari. It went from zero to 60 miles an hour in 8.8 seconds, slower than a Mazda RX-7 at the time. “Back to the Future” definitely helped the car rise above its merits.

Ms. Reilly, a design enthusiast, began the hunt for her DeLorean six years ago — as a birthday present to herself. She spent a year doing research, learning all she could about the DeLorean’s characteristics and quirks. She spent another year looking for the right car — black interior, gas flap (in later models, access to the tank was under the hood), the optional automatic transmission — before settling on one. She bought it on eBay for $13,000 in 2004. Since then, life has been a chain of small adventures. (Full Story)