And suddenly, we have multiple new DeLoreans coming
Kat DeLorean, daughter of John DeLorean, the GM auto executive who went on to build the DeLorean DMC-12 sports car, posted this self-description on her LinkedIn profile: “Using my years of experience as a technologist and mentor to build the next generation of Security Professionals.” She had a 20-year affiliation with Bank of America, the site says, as a “Security Rockstar,” meaning, if nothing else, that you learn something new every day.
And now comes this: A post on DNGMotors.com this week says that Kat DeLorean is bringing her rockstar security credentials to a new project. “Kat DeLorean, daughter of legendary automotive engineer John DeLorean, is following in her father’s footsteps by building a new sports car,” the post reads. “The car will be named the Model-JZD in honor of John Zachary DeLorean. With DeLorean DNA, there is one place to build the car, the Motor City. DeLorean Next Generation Motors will begin assembly of the Model-JZD in Detroit, Michigan, in January of 2023, with an expected unveiling by the end of the year.”
That’s pretty quick, since only now is DeLorean launching the “DNG Motors logo contest, where you design the logo for our new car and company. We are looking for a logo for the model JZD, a badge for the car for DNG, and a company logo.” No word on prizes, if there are any.
But wait! Isn’t there already a new EV DeLorean sports car coming? The answer is yes, no, and maybe. You’re thinking of the Alpha5 which, if it existed, would go 0-60 mph in 2.99 seconds (estimated), en route to a 155 mph top speed (also estimated). Range is estimated to be 300 miles. You can see it at Delorean.com, along with photos of eyeballs, hands reaching across space, and somebody making a heart symbol with her fingers. It’s a very touchy-feely website, and it—and the Alpha5—has nothing to do with Kat DeLorean.
In fact, she posted this on her Instagram account about the Texas-based DeLorean Motor Company: “Not John DeLorean’s Company. DMC is not 40 years old, and not associated with the DeLorean Family, or my father’s ongoing legacy. Please stop lying and stop speaking about John now, he despised you.” The “you” referred to is likely Stephen Wynne, a Liverpool-born mechanic who came to the U.S. and began specializing in leftover DeLoreans, eventually acquiring the rights to the brand, and becoming the CEO. It is through that path that DMC has the rights to DeLorean, and already has a logo. Current CEO is Joost de Vries, and the chief marketing officer is Troy Beetz, both of whom came from the EV company Karma.
To buy the Alpha5, Newsweek has instructions: “The Alpha5 will be a 2024 model, but order books to purchase one of the 9351 examples opened on September 30. To reserve a production slot, buyers need to join DeLorean’s Alphas Club by purchasing a lifetime membership for $88.” Price of the car has not been revealed. It will be built in Texas. Or Italy. More information can be found in this National Public Radio report.
Bottom line: You have to wonder about the allure of the DeLorean name to spawn not one but two undeniably pretty (and estimated) six-figure EV sports cars. The original DeLorean was not exactly a sales success, and without its appearance in the 1985 movie Back to the Future, it could have faded into the automotive trivia world, along with Bricklin.
Which, apparently, no one wants to revive. Yet.
Not a real DeLorean, so not really interested.
At this point, what is a *real* DeLorean? A car from a defunct company revived and now run by no on affiliated with the original? Or a car designed by the daughter of the originator of the DeLorean Motor Company and DeLorean motor car? On paper, the former has right to call itself a “real” DeLorean, but neither the personal nor automotive DNA is really there. Regardless, if I was in the market for either car, my purchase decision would be least-based on the name and mostly on the viability and capability of the car itself.
My car is being researched and engineered at this moment. We have the support of DAG Automotive run by Fred Dellis of Legend Industries who was the head of Ferrari sales and built the Twin Turbo DMC. My car will be viable, but my company is not about the car it is about helping to bring manufacturing back through an engineering program.
My words will never change your heart so I don’t ask you to believe me yet. I merely ask you to give me a chance to prove you wrong with my actions
Awesome car
You mean not gutless and unreliable enough.
Wow, these comments are as lame as any I’ve ever seen at Hagerty. Never heard the countless Back to the Future takes. Looks like a beautiful car to me.
Why would this not be a real DeLorean when it is made by a real DeLorean. What is the bar of entry to the real DeLorean game?
The new car sounds GREAT!! EV’s are the future as much as I hate to say it ,being an old car guy myself.somebody has to refine and make them viable why shouldn’t it be you keep going foward its the only way to get there !! Your father would be proud I’m sure
They will need a movie, maybe Back to the Future 3, to make the car successful! Admit it, with Back to the Future, a Delorean would be about as popular as a Bricklin…..
BttF 3 already happened. Or are you suggesting that the producers go back in time 😉 and remake it using this new DeLorean?
Great idea Tim! LOL Or Back t the Future 4!
Wanna know how everyone knew BTTF was fiction? There’s NO WAY one of those things could get to 88 mph. Still, it’s a cool looking car and way ahead of its time….
You are very very wrong… mine went 88 and then some. A lot of some actually.
Haven’t you heard? Walt Disney unfroze to erase BTTF4, along with crop field pattern and Bermuda Triangle explanations, in a bid to remake it with this project’s unveiling.
Would it be powered by a Flux Capacitor, too?
We have our engineering team working on it. Doc Brown is on sabbatical promoting the new musical, but when he returns he has promised us something great!
Back to the Past, you mean?
They already did BTTF III. Maybe they can go back and do it again!
Nice styling exercise! I think though, as more EV’s flood the market, and due to their simplified powertrain requirements, smart companies will, or should be focusing on styling since there are fewer impediments raised by the powertrains.
This was designed as an EV when it was created as a tribute to my father two years ago. We have our engineering teams researching multiple powertrains including ICE and hydrogen. JZD was an engineer who left GM and testified before congress regarding automobiles nit being merely stylistic. I came to honor my father, not further his ruin.
Watch me make automotive history, DeLorean Style!
Truly exciting. Wishing you much success!
I think it should be gasoline powered to be the huge success it deserves.
I VERY MUCH ENJOY MY 1982 DMC-12 DeLorean and always like to see what the next generation car might be. Personally, I like the Gull Wing Doors on the iconic car that I own. I always felt that this one feature should be on more cars (as seen on the Mercedes Benz SLS model). As far as power for the original DMC-12 car, it could use more power. But at the time (Late 1970’s into the early 1980’s) engine power was a problem for every other manufacturer due to tightening emission standards.
BTW, I like the fact that they are looking at four seat cars in this new version. I like my 1982 two-seater, but there was a four-seat version on the planning board at DMC years ago.
I wish them good luck in trying to launch the new DeLorean, no matter what they call it.
Bricklin is supposedly making the Visionary Vehicles Bricklin 3EV & 3EVX, which are not my taste at all. I also wonder if it’s much more concept than reality, like the Elio I seemingly wasted money on. It’s a long story as to why I even bothered but it does have to do with retaining a classic & using that as a daily. Failure. Anyway, in the case of Delorean, just make one just like the old one with modern components. Now too difficult I wouldn’t think!
I hope Kat is only lending her name – and not her assets – to this venture. The odds seem pretty slim that any of these DeLorean themed start-ups will ever turn an operating profit.
I am building the car, not letting someone else control my father’s legacy. The name is a name, I came here to represent him. No car may bear his initials if it cannot live up to them.
I welcome your doubts, I ask for your eyes and merely an open mind to let me change your heart. Not with words, but with actions.
Kay, I wish you success. Go for hydrogen and blow pat the EV cloud.
Crowd, not cloud…
Electric cars, they excite me as much as the prospect of watching paint dry or grass grow…
Better get use to it Ernie … it is the FUTURE, and the future is now!
We have multiple powertrains, this was merely designed as EV. No powertrains have been selected, nor announced.
I own a WS6 and a Z06. I am a muscle car girl who married a man possibly half because of his Z28. Don’t believe my words, watch my actions!
Let’s see now, how many EV autos have we been promised and how many have actually shown up? In reality the DeLorean is extremely overrated – it wasn’t a good performance car, it had shoddy workmanship, and without that movie using it, it would be a tiny miniscule footnote in auto history. The actual tribulations of the man himself are sad, and to me this sounds like some nobody who worked for a bank is trying to cash in on her father’s name. Go figure.
I am not going to make any money on this car. This car is going to be made to fund education and help bring manufacturing back to the US.
I plan to partner with other manufacturers to help them ease into Just in time manufacturing without taking a cost hit and create a network of stability for small manufacturing houses and fabricators. I am here to help everyone find a path to success. Sound too good to be true, that’s because words are just words and you have never before seen someone like me, I promise.
Watch my actions, not my words.
As has been verified by the people who were originally working with John, his executive management team, the name of the company was DMC, not “DeLorean”, and the model name of the original car was DeLorean, not “DMC-12”. So Hagerty, instead of referring to it as the “DeLorean DMC-12”, you should be referring to it as the “DMC DeLorean”. DMC-12 was the internal project code, but was never the official model name.
The original name if the car was the DeLorean Safety Vehicle DSV and you can see this in the original magazine articles prior to release.
The company was named the DeLorean Motor Company not DMC and the car was ragged DMC-12 because 12 was supposed to represent the cost my father wanted of $12,000.
The one Kat is doing, I think, is a 2 seater. The other one is the 4 seater. I have no interest in a 4 seater one. I do have an interest in her 2 seater version but realistically it is never going to happen. Certainly not anywhere close to the timeframe she is claiming.
I welcome your doubts, they drive me to work harder to made my father proud.
Watch me, I promise to surprise you. When you are not motivated by money, you can do amazing things with other humans, especially when those humans all loved your father.
I am working with the original Legend Industries and have access to former executives at major manufacturers. My father was well loved and those that do have united to build this car.
Fitting that the sequel to the DMC 12 is already full of mystery and intrigue. Will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Hopefully the newer versions will be better than the original…
A “Technologist” and “Security Rockstar “ ? That’s enough made up BS to scare me off, well I guess it is Halloween. I see no credible relationship of that BS to car building. Not at all like John DeLorean’s relationship with car building. Kat needs only the relationship of being John’s daughter to build a car in his honor.
How about a Red Team penetration tester? When you have enough street cred, you get to make up your own names. Except, I didn’t give myself the name Rockstar, that was given to me by my mentees who didn’t even know I was a DeLorean. I made a successful career for 20 years and no one knew who my dad was at work, it was a liability.
I don’t need you to follow me, but your comment isn’t constructive, nor about the car so what is it that you come to offer this conversation?
Hey Kat. I am a Michigan native. I have drive and passion like you wouldn’t believe. All I would like to know, is how do I apply? I would love to be a part of this project, and I absolutely love the classy replies you are giving! You seem like you are on a mission, and you are going to get it done! I am really happy, and I’m sure your father is proud. Keep up the good work!
So her expertise is in banking, not engineering. She’s a bean counter. The exact type of person John butted head with to build any car he had a hand in. It’ll be like the other company that puts shelby decals on cars. Idiots will buy anything
I engineered multiple engines with my father. I built a data center, then grew up to hack it. I was a defender in the Stuxnet war. I hacked an ATM and made it spit money out at me and they paid me for it.
I may not be an automotive engineer, but I don’t have to be I have some of the best in the business already working with me and a dozen offers a day to help based on the love and goodwill my father put out in the world.
Also, I take particular offense to bean counter as my father clearly states them to be his arch nemesis in his books.
I reject your association of my security rockstar prowess with magical fruits.
Will these new ventures be key-less?
John DeLorean’s name is synonymous with the Pontiac GTO.
I am working to see if we can revive this with GM as of multiple requests this evening :). If Wangers could, who knows?
I want a ‘66 tripower, so maybe a ‘26 tripower 😁