Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Back To The Future

DeLorean Motor Co. alive and kicking in Florida

autoblog.com
(submitted to steve's blog by Al Cabino)

NAPLES, Fla. - A solid argument could be made for retrofuturism as one of automotive design's defining themes over the past few years... witness offerings like the Chrysler PT Cruiser, Volkswagen New Beetle, MINI Cooper, and more recently, the Chevrolet HHR and Toyota FJ. So could there be a better time to go Back To The Future? That's the question a cadre of Bonita Springs, Florida DeLorean enthusiasts are asking, and apparently they have their answer: a two month wait list.

Eighteen months ago, Naples resident Tony Ierardi opened up a DeLorean remanufacturing operation with the help of Texan Stephen Wynne, who had purchased the rights to the DeLorean name and logo, along with the factory's leftover parts.

The company is now capable of building a "new" be-winged coupes for $42,500-and of course, they're happy to remedy the factory-correct DeLorean's rather sluggish performance for a few dollars more. Ierardi and company are doing so well at the moment that they've already got a wait of upwards of 60 days for their versions of John Z's stainless-steel wonder.

3 comments:

  1. Wow. That's going to be neat even though I can't drive and I don't have the money. I've always been a fan of deloreans as well as the time machine version. If I had one, you probably know what closed retail establishment I'd go back to.

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  2. Billy, go back a little further than 1976 and you would also find yourself not in a mall parking lot, but a farm...just like Michael J Fox.

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  3. Billy: No. I have no idea at all ;-)

    Muddy: It's hard to imaging CCM being a farm, but as fast as Greensboro's grown, I've seen a lot of land turn over into development.

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