The original DMC-12

I'm sure we're all very familiar with the DeLorean DMC-12. Former GM executive John DeLorean started his own car company to build a stainless-steel gull-winged sports car, manufactured in Northern Ireland. We all remember seeing him on hidden camera apparently selling cocaine to help finance his troubled company, charges he was later aquitted of. And of course there is the time machine built by Doc Brown from the Back To The Future movies which introduced 88 MPH, flux capacitors and 1.21 "jigowatts" into the pop culture vernacular.

Pontiac Soltice Coupe

Many years later, Pontiac showed a lovely little sports car concept called the Solstice. GM gave it the green light, and the car entered production in 2005 as a 2006 model. The car was built on its own dedicated platform. Codenamed Kappa, the platform was small, light, and rear-wheel-drive, just like enthusiasts demand. To spread the cost out among several different brands, the Kappa roadster was shared between the Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky, Opel GT and Daewoo G2X. In its last year, it was also available as a coupe in addition to the convertible.

Saturn Sky

Sadly, with the implosion of the auto industry in 2008, things turned bad for the Solstice and its sisters. GM sold Opel and Daewoo, and closed Pontiac and Saturn. The Delaware plant that built the Kappa sports cars was closed in July 2009. Normally, that would have been the end of the story. But it's hard to kill a good car. Unbeknownst to most people, including many car enthusiasts, there's still a DeLorean Motor Company. It's completely unrelated to John Z. DeLorean's company. It was started by an enthusiast from Houston, Texas who bought up all the spares and purchased the rights to the name. His company supplies spares and parts for existing cars, and even makes complete new cars (in very limited numbers.)

Opel GT

The current DeLorean Motor Company is actively looking at reviving the Solstice. There's a strong connection here: John DeLorean was president of Pontiac in the 1960s and oversaw such iconic cars as the Pontiac Firebird and the original 1964 Pontiac Tempest LeMans GTO, considered by most to be the first true "muscle car." So it's no wonder DMC is looking at buying the factory and car and putting it back into production. It's a gutsy move. On the one hand, DMC is a car company without a car to sell, and the Solstice factory is a car without a company. But would anyone want a new DeLorean? Especially when auto sales are at a peacetime low not seen since the Great Depression. Word has it that GM lost money on every Kappa-based car they sold because they are very labor-intensive cars to build. If that's true, then DMC would have to raise the price considerably, to the point where it might not sell at all. Like I said, it's a gutsy move. But the people at DMC seem serious about this. They've even registered www.newdelorean.com and have commissioned artwork of what a DeLorean Solstice would look like. Or course a web domain and pretty artwork are relatively cheap. But I'm rooting for them. Anyone who wants to put a great, fun car back into production has my support. Let's hope for the best.