The DeLorean is coming back! Whaaat?

[ub3rman123]

Woah, I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more of those on the streets than the PT Cruisers. Any ideas on if it'll keep the original design or will it be a hideous monstrosity designed by a committee?

[Thor.]

Meh The Smart Car worst design yet, Meh comparing the 2, wich is worse. Or the cube.Lately bad designes seems to be a trend, not a good trend either.:wallbash: Edited March 22, 2012 by Thor.

[Dazaster]

You're gonna need a turbo bolted on as well if you're gonna reach 88 miles an hour in that thing, lol.

[Grizzly696]

I they should of brought it back out when time travel was possible, there I said it! :rolleyes:

[Fonger]

I they should of brought it back out when time travel was possible, there I said it! :rolleyes:

so tomorrow when we wake up

 

Windows Vista will never have been

 

and even this post will never have happened

[Vindekarr]

In the words of Jeremy Clarkson

 

"The real problem was the wheezing 120 horsepower Renault engine falling off the back, which meant the car had no performance whatsoever..."

 

The DeLorean WAS a joke, but it was originaly intended to have a much beefier powerplant-John DeLorean originaly intended to use a rotary engine, a la RX7, of Renault origin. In this form the car would have been high-revving and have about 220 horsepower, which is pretty good for a naturaly aspirated engine back then. Had it lived to it's potential, the DeLorean really could have been something, maybe it will be again.

[HeyYou]

In the words of Jeremy Clarkson

 

"The real problem was the wheezing 120 horsepower Renault engine falling off the back, which meant the car had no performance whatsoever..."

 

The DeLorean WAS a joke, but it was originaly intended to have a much beefier powerplant-John DeLorean originaly intended to use a rotary engine, a la RX7, of Renault origin. In this form the car would have been high-revving and have about 220 horsepower, which is pretty good for a naturaly aspirated engine back then. Had it lived to it's potential, the DeLorean really could have been something, maybe it will be again.

 

I am sure someone will come up with a V-8 conversion for it...... The Pontiac Fiero suffered from the same woeful performance problem. Lack of horsepower. The aftermarket stepped up to the plate, and came up with conversions to drop small block chevy's into them... Once company even had a kit to put a big block in there....... Yet another company marketed a kit to put the drivetrain from an Olds Tornado in there. (front wheel drive originally, 455 cubic inch HUGE block.... THAT would wake up your fiero......)

[Vindekarr]

It would wake it up, but the problem is what would it do to the handling?

 

The problem with rear engined cars like the Fiero, DeLorean, Bug and Porsche 911 is the weight-shift. When you come into a corner, the huge mass of the block shifts around, which makes the car unstable and hard to control going into a corner. Once you're actualy in the corner, you've got huge oversteer because centrifugal force pushes the heavy rear out, pivoting on the steering axle. This is why rear-engined rear-drive cars usualy have small engines, a big engines over the rear wheels is very detrimental to handling.

 

With the new DeLorean the best thing they can do is move the engine mounts forward about a foot and lower it to chassis height. This one small but fundamental tweak would vastly alter the vehicle's character for the better. Weight distribution is one of the critical factors for a vehicle's "character"(the way it responds to your driving, and handles) Idealy you want the engine dead-centre and an inch above the road, this makes the car balanced, and the more even the weight distribution, the more poised and graceful the car becomes. The less balanced, the more ungainly and slovenly it becomes.

 

A low-slung Porsche Boxster, with it's roughly 45-55 weight balance(front-rear) handles corners with the grace of a lynx. A DeLorean, with it's high-set, rear engine and ultra-soft suspension, wobbles around like a morbidly obese man in a steeplechase.

 

Does anyone know what sort of electric? there's a few ways to do electric now, from the tokenistic, style-over-substance hybrids, to the eco-conscious but slightly impractical plug-ins, to the pragmatic but unpopular petroelectrics, I'm curious as to what sort this will be. The DeLorean was infamous for it's faulty electrics, which caused woeful unreliability, and also caused a number of owners to become trapped in their cars. Lets hope this one is less farcical, or DMC really is stuffed.

 

Idealy I'd like to see this built as a petroelectric car. Petroelectric vehicles, also known as "reverse hybrids" are extremely powerful vehicles powered by a small petrol engine. This engine powers the wheels indirectly. The combustion engine creates energy and transmits it as Torque through a shaft to a generator, which converts torque to electricity, the electricity is then pumped to a pair of massive electric motors. In the Fisker Karma, this allows a 1.0 litre four cylender gasoline engine to produce morethan 1000 foot pounds of torque, which is more than a Bugatti Veyron, which has an eight litre, sixteen cylender, quad turbocharged gasoline engine.

 

The advantage of this setup is continent-shoving torque far beyond anything a gasoline engine is capable of on it's own(unless it's tremendously large, negating the requirement of light weight) Torque is raw thrust-and the more you have, the better you accelerate and the less weight effects the car. A two ton Fisker Karma accelerates from 0-62 in 6 seconds flat, putting it in the territory of cars half the weight and twice the power. The only problem is overall speed-in the FIsker, that's about equal to a Ford Focus ST or Chevy Cobalt.

[Vindekarr]

It would wake it up, but the problem is what would it do to the handling?

 

The problem with rear engined cars like the Fiero, DeLorean, Bug and Porsche 911 is the weight-shift. When you come into a corner, the huge mass of the block shifts around, which makes the car unstable and hard to control going into a corner. Once you're actualy in the corner, you've got huge oversteer because centrifugal force pushes the heavy rear out, pivoting on the steering axle. This is why rear-engined rear-drive cars usualy have small engines, a big engines over the rear wheels is very detrimental to handling.

 

With the new DeLorean the best thing they can do is move the engine mounts forward about a foot and lower it to chassis height. This one small but fundamental tweak would vastly alter the vehicle's character for the better. Weight distribution is one of the critical factors for a vehicle's "character"(the way it responds to your driving, and handles) Idealy you want the engine dead-centre and an inch above the road, this makes the car balanced, and the more even the weight distribution, the more poised and graceful the car becomes. The less balanced, the more ungainly and slovenly it becomes.

 

A low-slung Porsche Boxster, with it's roughly 45-55 weight balance(front-rear) handles corners with the grace of a lynx. A Fiero, with it's high-set, rear engine and ultra-soft suspension, wobbles around like a morbidly obese man in a steeplechase. Replace that fairly light four-banger engine with an Olds 455, and I can't imagine just how aweful the handling would be.

 

Does anyone know what sort of electric? there's a few ways to do electric now, from the tokenistic, style-over-substance hybrids, to the exceptionaly eco-friendly but slightly impractical plug-ins, to the pragmatic but unpopular petroelectrics, I'm curious as to what sort this will be. The DeLorean was infamous for it's faulty electrics, which caused woeful unreliability, and also caused a number of owners to become trapped in their cars. Lets hope this one is less farcical, or DMC really is stuffed.

 

Idealy I'd like to see this built as a petroelectric car. Petroelectric vehicles, also known as "reverse hybrids" are extremely powerful vehicles powered by a small petrol engine. This engine powers the wheels indirectly. The combustion engine creates energy and transmits it as Torque through a shaft to a generator, which converts torque to electricity, the electricity is then pumped to a pair of massive electric motors. In the Fisker Karma, this allows a 1.0 litre four cylender gasoline engine to produce morethan 1000 foot pounds of torque, which is more than a Bugatti Veyron, which has an eight litre, sixteen cylender, quad turbocharged gasoline engine.

 

The advantage of this setup is continent-shoving torque far beyond anything a gasoline engine is capable of on it's own(unless it's tremendously large, negating the requirement of light weight) Torque is raw thrust-and the more you have, the better you accelerate and the less weight effects the car. A two ton Fisker Karma accelerates from 0-62 in 6 seconds flat, putting it in the territory of cars half the weight and twice the power. The only problem is overall speed-in the FIsker, that's about equal to a Ford Focus ST or Chevy Cobalt.

Edited March 24, 2012 by Vindekarr

[HeyYou]

True, it is an inherent problem with rear engined cars....... and starting with a 35/65 weight distribution, adding yet more weight to the rear certainly wouldn't help. Perhaps an aluminum block engine? Something from the LS series from GM?