John Delorean’s Sketch for a Sedan
A few years ago I discovered some of John Delorean’s old sketches on eBay and it sent me off in a direction of JZD study and focus that—as my girlfriend Andrea can attest—has barely lost any momentum even to this day. Every nook and cranny I can find is downloaded either literally or figuratively as I try to make sense of one of the industry’s most polarizing figures. I was never in love with the DMC-12, but the story of the man and his rise and fall has me captivated like any good obsession.
What is great about this recent eBay drop of Delorean’s sketchbooks is that it gives a fan like me an insight into the spaces between. I imagine Delorean taking out a nice drafting pencil and putting thoughts to paper on a Concorde flight to London from New York, or perhaps on a long car ride to his ranch in Pauma Valley. His overstroking of his ideas gives us the feeling that he doodled for hours on a particular idea, restroking the lines of a vehicle or even the words of a particular phrase. He was making it make sense to himself and the pencil seemed to capture it all.
Fascinatingly, you’ll find Delorean’s concept for a sedan (what would have been called the DMC-24) mirrors the shape of the new Honda Insight and Toyota Prius almost like a clone. A five-door shape with a kamm tail (a “duck” tail, essentially) isn’t rocket science, but JZD was clearing spec’ing aerodynamics here. He was a good 25-30 years ahead of the curve. Of course, when Toyota made their Prius they never had the imagination to do gullwing doors.
