They just don’t make auto execs like John DeLorean anymore.
“The guy was very switched on,” said Stephen Wynne, chief executive of DeLorean Motor Co. near Houston. “He knew the auto industry inside out because he didn’t come from an accounting background. He came from an engineering background.”
Detroit-born DeLorean created the Pontiac GTO and later rolled out the Pontiac Firebird. He went on to head General Motors Corp.’s Chevrolet division. He was heralded as GM’s next president until 1973, when he resigned to build sleek sports cars with stainless-steel skins and gull-wing doors that would go on to star in the 1985 film “Back to the Future,” with Michael J. Fox.
Wynne, 53, is still building these cars decades after DeLorean’s dream became one of the auto industry’s most spectacular implosions.
A mechanic, Wynne came to Los Angeles in 1980 from Liverpool, England, to work on French and British cars. He began servicing DeLorean DMC-12s shortly after they began rolling off the assembly line in 1981. He never stopped.
Today, his company owns the DeLorean name, its technical manuals and the entire parts inventory of the original company — enough to build up to 500 more DeLoreans. The company, at , has five franchises.
Wynne said he spoke to DeLorean several times before the flamboyant engineer died in 2005 at age 80. DeLorean lamented that the auto industry was run by bean counters.
DeLorean was no bean counter. He dated starlets and supermodels and married four times while he pursued his astonishing career. But he was not above financial failure or even doing it with government money.
DeLorean produced only about 9,300 cars before his plant was shuttered in 1982. Perhaps as many as 8,000 are still around.
Wynne’s company buys them, rips them down to their frames and rebuilds them with 80 percent original parts and quite a few upgrades.
The rebuilt DeLoreans start at a base price of $57,500 (they originally sold for $27,500). And a DeLorean with a stick shift can get up to 28 miles per gallon — putting it way ahead of Detroit’s time.
Buyers often tend to be technology entrepreneurs or financial executives who grew up watching the crackpot scientist in “Back to the Future” turn the car into a time machine with the aid of something called a “flux capacitor.”
“People are so aware of the car, and they are not offended by it,” Wynne said. “It’s not one of the exotics that make people think you’re some rich cat.”
Wynne said he is backlogged with orders. His company can produce only about one handmade car a month. Including his inventory of pre- owned DeLoreans, Wynne sells 20 to 30 a year.
The flux capacitor, which required 1.21 gigawatts of power to enable time travel, has yet to be invented. But Wynne dreams of building DeLoreans with electric motors. And he is not above asking for government help to do it.
“If we can talk to (President Barack) Obama, maybe he’ll give us a shot,” he said. “The brand lends itself to go into the future. That’s for sure.”
Al Lewis: 201-938-5266 or al.lewis@dowjones.com. Read Al’s blog at .
