dodint's Automotive Evolution

[novicius]

Absolutely!! This is up there with Kenji's NSX, the Saleen, the Porsches, and the alien named Cuda!

[Yw-slayer]

I wholeheartedly agree!

[dodint]

Thanks for the kind words everyone. Money-wise it's not really an unobtainable car by any stretch, I paid a little more than what the starting MSRP is for a 2018 BMW 3-series. The 'cost' of ownership, I think, is the willingness to endure and accept the uniqueness of the car and all that comes with it. As an added bonus the car will not likely depreciate, so it's already ahead of the figurative 3-series on that one.

Everyone has a standing invitation to drive it as our paths cross. It's a car, meant for driving, and I want as many of you to do so if you can and want. Absolutely happy to share this experience with any of you with the hopes of giving you a fun experience and changing (or reinforcing) your impression of the car as a whole.

Ash and I will be at DCS in Chicago in mid-August 2018 if anyone wants to join us for an evening.

We flew down to Atlanta on Saturday morning and rented a car (Chrysler 300) to make the one hour drive up to Monroe, GA to pick up the car. Everything checked out so we gave them the certified check and got on our way; he is using the funds from the DMC sale to build a Cobra replica. The plane was really late taking off in Pittsburgh as it had about 4" of fresh snow on it from sitting overnight and took over an hour to deice. It really put a crunch on us as I wanted to be to my uncles before sunset, but that didn't happen.



Took off right into the Georgia hills after doing some basic checks on systems, tire pressure, etc. It would be a 4hr (199mi) trip through the Appalachian hills.





Scraped the 'Flux' sticker, the NY inspection sticker, and the DeLorean Owners Association stickers off when I got home.

The condition of the mechanicals of the car is quite good. It started every time whether it was 20F at 8am or after a quick fuel fill up. Some DMC owners have hot start issues so it was really reassuring that it fired on first crank every time we wanted to get going.
I only poured gas into the cargo area once when I turned my back while filling. No big deal, it's just full of papers and clothes, right?



A few hours into the hills, about 30 minutes before getting to the Tail of the Dragon, we stopped at a Huddle House because the roadside stand that we planned to stop at was closed for the season. Never been to a Huddle House, it's basically a Denny's that could fit in a gas station (and some do).



For those that may not know the Tail of the Dragon, this is it:



By the time we got there it was dark. I've driven it a few times in an E46 BMW during the day but nothing like this. The DMC has no power steering, ABS, and is RR configuration. I think it actually handled very well. The steering makes it feel MUCH heavier than the car actually is, but at speed that kind of melts away. The car did feel different than anything else I've driven, you can of place the car where you need it to be at apex and then lay into the throttle, but not sooner. The grip was there immediately if you did this but the threat of understeer really keeps you from mashing the throttle too soon, at least for me.
It was a bit of a workout, I didn't push it too much and it was scary when trucks were coming the other direction as you'd lose your night vision and the next turn is only a few meters away. The only real scare we had was when I dropped the rear passenger wheel partially off the crumbling roadway. It was adjacent to a jutting rock wall and we sincerely thought that I had torn a hole in the rear quarter stainless panel. We stopped at the end and there was no visual damage, we think that when I put the wheel off it kicked debris up into the fiberglass pontoon and made an awful impacting *thunk* but left no visual evidence of an impact.
Part of me wishes I had recorded the run; the rest of me is happy to have the memory to myself as I perceived it in time.

My uncle lives about 10 miles from the Tennessee side of the Dragon, and we stayed there for the night. Here it is parked next to his SCCA prepped Saturn, though he hasn't touched it in 8 years:



He actually offered me the Saturn for free and all of the custom parts he had fabricated for it but I'm really working towards the SE46 project and I feel like I'd end up neglecting it as much as he has if I accepted. I'll keep it in the back of my mind for now.

We took off around 9am for the 8 hour (520mi) drive. It was chilly but dry in TN and VA, but by the time we got to WV and PA it was about 15F at mid day and the roads were a mixture of slush, salt, and ice. Car handled fine on the interstate at what I assume was 80mp or so. There is a vibration up front from either the steering column bushing or perhaps a control arm bushing, but it didn't kill the ride. We stopped in Morgantown for dinner:



And we got home, in the dark again, about two hours later.





Last night I hosed it down as best I could, being sure to get as much into the suspension, brakes, frame, and other attachments as I could. Engine bay is pretty easy to clean for obvious reasons. This morning when I woke up I drove it down to the car wash about a half a mile away and had the car cleaned that way which includes and underbody spray and protectant. Then I put it in the garage and hosed it down one more time. I'm not too concerned with salt but wanted to take whatever preventative measure I could. Now the garage has the DMC and the MINI it it, with the 650 in the driveway. Bad timing as it's not forecasted to get about 20F for the foreseeable future. Oh well, the price you pay. I'm either going to take it to my MILs and put it in her spare garage bay, or keep it here and just endure the cold with my daily driver. There are some small projects I can work on until spring comes.

Driving the car is really interesting. I'm sure those of you with MR2s, Fieros, etc have had pretty comparable experiences. I will say that the driving position and pulling the door down right before setting off gives you that fun Le Mans LMP feeling even if the car doesn't have the guts to back it up. It's surprisingly comfortable over 8 hours, Ash said she was comfortable the whole time and I was fine. Once you get on the interestate and drop it into 5th you can just lean back and relax.

Sort of.

One of the things that I anticipated but didn't fully grasp was just how much attention this car gets on the road. I assumed the gas station comments would come, and they did, and that's fine. But the dumb shit people do on the highway is astounding. Lots of people would speed up to catch up to me and then either pace next to me or speed up to get by and then slow down again to get a look. Ash said people were taking pics and shooting video. I drive assertively and defensively but I have a hard time doing so in this car because everyone around me is so unpredictable. I'll just have to drive more cautiously but it's not always in my hands. We were on I-79 and we could see for miles in both directions, a jacked up F150 pulled alongside and literally drove off of the road while gawking at the car. Just, amazing.

Anyway, I've been studying these cars for 21 years and it still hasn't sunk in that I have one downstairs. It probably won't until something expensive breaks.

[GB]

Chasing dreams.

[Rare White Ape]

Looks like a burnout time warp.

[novicius]

Are there floormats? Looks like there are but it's hard to tell -- they certainly look unbranded.

How's the '80s-tastic stereo?

[dodint]

The interior carpet, seats, headliner, and dash are all new. The floor mats have a DMC on them but they're under the seat in that picture, if you look really close you can just make out the top left of the "D" in black under the e-brake at the edge of the seat.

Stereo is a modern Pioneer, we listened to music streaming from my tablet when driving through the mountains and then podcasts the whole way the second day. It also has a retractable antenna that you can see slightly poking out of the rear window vent there.
The speakers have no bass to speak of, but I mostly listen to talk radio and podcasts so that's not a huge deal. You can hear quite clearly if you turn it up. Small cabin helps that I'm sure.
Eventually I want to get a flip up nav monitor head unit but for now this is fine.

The motor is loud. The exhaust is much more open than the factory as it's the Euro spec, not the choked US spec. The motor sounds good at idle (and starts writing checks it can't cash) but it sort of betrays itself as a european econo-motor as soon as you get up to a few thousand RPM. That said at highway cruising speed in 5th gear it's subdued enough that you don't really notice it after a while, kind of like the Cobra was.

I also plan to put in a more modern steering wheel. The aftermarket had one for a while but the supply of adapter rings dried up and it costs a good bit to make a new one so nobody has yet.

The car does smell old. Probably the degrading cardboard in the headliner if they used the same backing. Smells a lot like how my M6 smelled.

[novicius]

Shit, my '02 Mustang smells old.

How did the door pistons handle the cold? Any sagging?

[dodint]

Driver door needs help to get to the top. It will open about 80% (the torsion bar is doing that part) and then you need to nudge it to get it the rest of the way. It was doing it in the 55F weather in GA so I think it's time for a new strut.

The trunk was fine in GA. We were putting gas in somewhere in WV where it was in the teens and those gas struts wouldn't hold the hood up anymore. Ash was holding it open while I filled, thought the struts were going to hold, let go and turned around and dropped the hood onto the gas pump which was in the filler neck at the time. No harm done but she had that same look you get when you drop a baby off your lap.

[novicius]

Well it looks absolute mint.

You should rig your GoPro up to the MINI's windshield and have Ash follow you through some light twisties and hilly sections this Spring for some sweet DMC movies.