Second-Hand Sense: An e-mail from the US advises me of early booking for the Smoky Shadows hotel in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, around the middle of June.
Pigeon Forge doesn't get many big events but this mid-summer's DeLorean Car Show will be where the final arrangements to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the unveiling of the first DeLorean car in Belfast will be made.
Can it really be that long ago since John DeLorean, politicians, industrial development chiefs and journalists stood on what was a 72-acre boggy site near Dunmurry and beheld what was to be a beacon of light in the North's industrial darkness?
You don't see that many DeLoreans advertised in Motors these days but some 10,000 were built in the short time between opening and ignominious closure. The car was the dream of John DeLorean, a motor industry maverick whose main claim to fame was the design of the famous GM Pontiac GTO. He was, by all accounts, a charming and believable man who managed to convince the British government that his venture could succeed. And this at a time when no sensible investor would even utter the words "Northern Ireland".
DeLorean was keen to establish and run his own part of the hugely profitable motor industry, not someone else's. The car was a stainless steel, gullwing-doored sports car with a V6 engine - if the car in which Michael J Fox disappeared Back to the Future in the movie is coming to mind, it actually was a DeLorean.
The interesting thing is that there was never a problem with the DeLorean order book. In fact, it was very healthy - other factors brought about the company's demise.
Many of the 10,000 cars produced between 1981 and 1983 survive. Remarkably, DeLorean managed to inveigle Giorgetto Guigario of Ital Design into designing the car and Lotus to provide the suspension system. The first engines came from Citroën, the second ones from Ford and the latter 2.8 V6 unit was a hybrid from Renault, Peugeot and Volvo. The car certainly had a good starting base.
There were faults and technical glitches, but overall it wasn't a bad car. Most of the complaints one would have expected as teething problems but with a car like this you were never going to get a 60,000 mile, three-year guarantee anyway! It got mixed reviews but Motor Trend magazine in the US put it up there with at least one Porsche, a Maserati and the Corvette.
As a second-hand buy the DeLorean is a long-term investment. You can pay up to 20,000 for some models and as little as 10,000 for others with a little wear and tear - you may even have to buy a ferry ticket to get to the nearest vendor in Austria, or wherever.
Although its reliability rating (cold starting was a major problem) varies between one star out of five to five out of five, DeLorean fans are legion. "It's cool, 24 years later," said one US owner, "but you need to own a recovery truck and be prepared to become a DeLorean mechanic." Another said:"DeLorean a blunder, but what a car!"
Although it cost $12,000 dollars in 1981, its specification list included air conditioning, AM/FM stereo and cassette, electric windows, central locking, adjustable steering column, electric windows, alloy wheels, rear demister, tachometer and locking petrol cap.
The Belfast company foundered in acrimony about the use of State funding and all sorts of other accusations in 1983, two years after it opened its doors.
John DeLorean? He was arrested for cocaine smuggling in 1982 but escaped on an entrapment defence. Now in his 70s, rumour is that he may be preparing to launch the DMC (DeLorean Motor Company) 2. Maybe it's time to book that hotel room in Pigeon Forge after all. The man himself always promises to turn up at the annual show. ... - DONAL BYRNE