[13] Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the DeLorean is noted for its gull-wing doors and brushed stainless-steel outer body panels, as well as its lack of power and performance compatible with its looks and price.

[24] The chassis was initially planned to use elastic reservoir moulding (ERM), which would lighten the car and lower its production costs.

A black steering wheel with a fat center was intended to hold an airbag and the driver had a full set of Stewart-Warner gauges.

The design was deemed to require almost complete re-engineering, which was turned over to English engineer Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus Cars.

Chapman replaced most of the unproven material and manufacturing techniques with those then employed by Lotus, including a steel backbone chassis.

[27] In order to train the workforce, a small number of pre-production DeLoreans were produced with fiberglass bodies and are referred to as "black cars" or mules.

[28] After several delays and cost overruns, production at the Dunmurry factory, located a few miles from Belfast City Centre, finally began in late 1980.

In March, telegrams were sent to all 343 dealerships requesting each buy six cars to help save the company; none of the dealers responded with a sales order.

[2] The DeLorean features a number of unusual construction details, including gull-wing doors, unpainted stainless-steel body panels, and a rear-mounted engine.

[4] The body is paneled in brushed SS304 austenitic stainless steel,[37] and except for three cars plated in 24-karat gold, all DeLoreans left the factory uncovered by paint or clearcoat.

The underbody is affixed to an epoxy-coated[39] steel backbone chassis with Y-frames at either end, derived from the Lotus Esprit platform.

The DeLorean features heavy doors supported by cryogenically-preset torsion bars and nitrogen-charged struts[40][41] that were developed by Grumman Aerospace.

[46] Some people have cited a last-minute change in US bumper height requirements led DMC to raise the vehicle just prior to delivery; however, this is not true.

Early-production cars needed as much as 200 hours of work at DMC Quality Assurance Centers prior to being shipped to dealerships for delivery.

[57] Other quality issues included additional problems surrounding the front suspension, clutch pedal adjustment (or lack thereof), brake rotors, instruments, in particular the speedometer, power door locks and weak alternators.

Many early DeLoreans were delivered poorly aligned, with the toe-in incorrectly set, leading to premature tire wear.

The lack of quality service at dealerships was a point of frustration for many DeLorean owners at the time, particularly those who paid over sticker price to purchase one of the first cars.

[61] The standard feature list included stainless-steel body panels, gull-wing doors with cryogenically-treated torsion bars, 5-speed manual transmission, Bridge of Weir leather seats,[62] air conditioning, AM/FM cassette stereo system, power windows, locks and mirrors, a tilt and telescopic steering wheel, tinted glass, body side moldings, intermittent windshield wipers, and electric rear-window defogger.

[63] Several dealer options were available, including a car cover, sheepskin seat covers, floor mats, car care cleaning kit, black textured accent stripes, grey scotch-cal accent stripes, a luggage rack and a ski-rack adapter.

This resulted in no clear distinction between the 1981, 1982, and 1983 model years, but with subtle changes taking place almost continuously throughout the production run.

Beginning with late-model 1981 cars, DMC revised the location of the leather pull strap to be centrally mounted and integrated into the lower door panel.

In late 1981, this was resolved by having the armrest extension integrated into the rear trim panel, the assembly wrapped in vacuum-formed vinyl.

[73] There were other minor changes throughout the production run that saw revisions in carpeting, automatic transmission shift knobs, exhaust tips and many more.

John DeLorean and Bill Collins approved one of the many designs, and the styling mock-up that was made from "epo-wood" (wooden framework with a special epoxy plaster[75]) was shipped to the DMC office in Michigan on July 31, 1975.

The original full-size epo-wood DeLorean styling model was modified in the first quarter 1979 to reflect the refreshed design used in production.

Earlier, in summer 1979, the revised Giugiaro styling mock-up was shipped to Visioneering, a Detroit-based company, to create data needed to make the stamping dies for the stainless panels.

DMC was aware as early as April 1981 of the need to produce a right-hand-drive (RHD) version to supply to world markets, specifically the United Kingdom.

[88] The first gold-plated American Express DeLorean was purchased by Sherwood Marshall, an entrepreneur and former Royal Canadian Naval Officer.

This car, VIN 4301, equipped with an automatic transmission and black interior, sat in the bank lobby for over 20 years before being loaned to the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

[93] Two of the cars used in Back to the Future Part III were equipped with Volkswagen engines and dune buggy chassis for filming the scenes in the Western terrain.