Everyone knows and loves the DeLorean in Back to the Future. But people rarely know much about the DeLorean itself. Today I'm not going to go into details. But I wanted to celebrate St. Patrick's day by talking about the DeLorean's Irish roots. Only about 9000 DeLoreans are said to have been built. All of which were built in Northern Ireland. Where?
Dunmurry, Northern Ireland to be exact. Dunmurry is located between Belfast and Dublin (closer to Belfast). The town is known for industry and also residential. It is considered a neighborhood of Belfast. Gotta love Wikipedia right? When considering possible locations for the factory DeLorean had debated between Northern Ireland and Puerto Rico. However Northern Ireland's Industrial Development Agency (NIDA) made DeLorean an offer at the last minute. This offer was intended to help bring jobs to Northern Ireland.
In October of 1978 DeLorean broke ground to what would become a 6-building complex over 660,000 square feet in area. The factory opened later in 1981 with over 2,500 employees. Of which many were new to the work force. Due to some issues with new workers, quality control was a major issue. There were reports of ill-fitting body panels being the most common. However several training standards were used to help aid these new workers. Included special black "mule" cars without the stainless steal panels (just fiberglass). These cars were used only for training and were never marketed.
Just as the plant workforce was becoming experienced things took a turn for the worst. Costs of producing the new car were exceeding sales and profit was little or none. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in late 1982. This would be the end of the Northern Ireland plant. An end to the DeLorean production. At least until recent light of the company making a come back. More on that later. Till then stay green my friends may luck be with ya!
References: DeLorean Museum, How Stuff Works
How about something for less than 20 bucks? Stocking stuffer? Every Back to the Future fan should have a Marty McFly replica cap. Athough I'm still waiting on mine. Someone has yet to get me one. lol. Hey isn't 2015 just around the corner? According to the movie this should be in style right? Still waiting on the flying cars. Oh well. There's some other great Amazon - Back to the Future goodies below as well. See ya next time. Remember the future is what you make it. So make it a good one.
I came across this great image through Ghostbusters.net's Facebook page. It's a mashup of 80's movies created by Deviant Art member: mestre-du-temple. I like how he included the Delorean Time Machine with Ferris Bueller and his friends riding in it. You can also see Marty Mcfly hanging from the door-frame on a hover board. Then there's Lisa from Weird Science holding Gizmo. That's just a few of the references. Can you spot them all?
Let's talk about Treehouse of Horror XXIII after Thanksgiving? Yes. I know this is old news. Halloween has long been over. But like Treehouse of Horror this article will not get posted on Halloween! So what's the big deal? Well. How about the fact The Simpsons writers treated their fans to a Back to the Future Parody? Sure ok. That's worth talking about.
It all started with a book. A book with some heavy foreshadowing! Great Scott! Is that a Prius Time Machine? Really Matt Groening? Oh well. I think it's cute. But if you think about it. What modern day vehicle would you have used? The Prius does have a more 80's box shape too it. I guess Doc Brown would have thought it was neat at least. I do think he wouldn't have said " If you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?."
Let's just throw in some science-fictional reasoning in here. "Sure hmm. The hybird setup can generate the 1.21 jigga-watts of electricity needed to make time travel possible..." Ah that'a work. But can a Prius do 88 mph? Ah it's a parody who cares. lol. Anyways the story goes on to tell how Bart messes up the timeline and ends up with all these Homers from other timelines. I thought it was beautifully done. There are some great references in there. I won't spoil it. See ya next time! Remember the future is what you make it. If you do invent time travel. Please don't use a Prius!
You mean to tell me you built a Delorean, out of a hovercraft? I think those would be Marty McFly's words if he saw Matthew Riese's creation. Matt decided that flying cars won't be showing up anytime soon. So he took the plans for a popular hovercraft design and went a step further. The end result is a Delorean Hovercraft that carries two people on water (for now). A product of science fiction crashing into cold reality. By the way I think no actual Deloreans were destroyed during this production (in-case you were feeling a little uneasy).
According to Matt's Kickstarter project page the madness all started two years ago. He built a quick prototype then decided to move forward with the real deal. He would like to be able to use his creation on any surface. When completed it will be able to travel 45 miles an hour. Sorry no plans for a Flux Capacitor since the required speed cannot be meet. Looks like he met his goal of 5k for the project. For a $250 donation you would not only get a 30 minute ride, but a chance to drive!
The video above shows Matt in the water at McCovey Cove just outside baseball game at AT&T Park. Note the appropriate Marty McFly apparel (multicolor hat, jeans, etc). Not to mention that life preserver is required. It's a registered boat! I believe the video was recorded during a live game on TV. Note the game scores. That's all for now. Remember the future is what you make it. So make it a good one!
January 2021 Update
Matt did in fact get enough money from the Kickstarter to finish the project. A full scale working hovercraft can be seen in the clip below. The craft was later auctioned off in November of 2019 with a winning bid of $44,088. Just goes to show, dreams do come true.
Everyone knows and loves the DeLorean in Back to the Future. But people rarely know much about the DeLorean itself. Today I'm not going to go into details. But I wanted to celebrate St. Patrick's day by talking about the DeLorean's Irish roots. Only about 9000 DeLoreans are said to have been built. All of which were built in Northern Ireland. Where?
Dunmurry, Northern Ireland to be exact. Dunmurry is located between Belfast and Dublin (closer to Belfast). The town is known for industry and also residential. It is considered a neighborhood of Belfast. Gotta love Wikipedia right? When considering possible locations for the factory DeLorean had debated between Northern Ireland and Puerto Rico. However Northern Ireland's Industrial Development Agency (NIDA) made DeLorean an offer at the last minute. This offer was intended to help bring jobs to Northern Ireland.
In October of 1978 DeLorean broke ground to what would become a 6-building complex over 660,000 square feet in area. The factory opened later in 1981 with over 2,500 employees. Of which many were new to the work force. Due to some issues with new workers, quality control was a major issue. There were reports of ill-fitting body panels being the most common. However several training standards were used to help aid these new workers. Included special black "mule" cars without the stainless steal panels (just fiberglass). These cars were used only for training and were never marketed.
Just as the plant workforce was becoming experienced things took a turn for the worst. Costs of producing the new car were exceeding sales and profit was little or none. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in late 1982. This would be the end of the Northern Ireland plant. An end to the DeLorean production. At least until recent light of the company making a come back. More on that later. Till then stay green my friends may luck be with ya!
References: DeLorean Museum, How Stuff Works
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