Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 23, 1994 TAG: 9405230154
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PATRICK K. LACKEY LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Massey, a Williamsburg internist, drives a 1981 DeLorean sports car. Only about 8,000 of the sleek, stainless-steel machines were made, the last in 1983, so the auto normally stands out like a racehorse among cows.
This weekend, however, more than 50 DeLoreans are parked at Colonial Williamsburg's Woodland Hotel for the DeLorean Owners Association's 12th national gathering.
The cars all look like the one that starred in the three ``Back to the Future'' movies.
They are shiny and unpainted, with gull-wing doors that, when open, make the cars appear to be attempting flight. Even standing still, the low-slung cars look as if they're exceeding the speed limit.
At 2 p.m. Saturday at Colonial Williamsburg's Green Course golf clubhouse, 14 of the cars will compete in a Concours d'Elegance, a kind of beauty contest. The cars will appear to be just off the lot - even the engines sparkling.
DeLoreans sold new for around $25,000, but a pristine one might fetch $60,000 today.
DeLoreans were made from 1980 to 1983 by the DeLorean Motor Co., the brainchild of John DeLorean. An auto engineer with an eight-cylinder ego, he was one rung from the top at General Motors at age 49 when he quit to build what he called an ``ethical car.'' Naturally, he named the company and car after himself.
The company already was in financial trouble in the summer of 1982 when DeLorean was videotaped making a deal for large amounts of cocaine and heroin. He beat the charges when his lawyers convinced jurors the government had entrapped him, but his car company drowned in debt.
DeLorean went on to write a book about finding God, and his 8,000 cars spread around the world.
For many years, the cars were jokingly nicknamed ``coke machines.''
Then came the ``Back to the Future'' movies. Suddenly, children were excited at the sight of a DeLorean, and the cars' value headed north.
Massey, a confessed car nut, has owned two Jaguars, a Rolls-Royce, three MGs, a Sunbeam, a Maserati and a Triumph.
All of them combined, he said, gave him less pleasure than the DeLorean he bought new in 1981.
Parents ask his permission to photograph their children standing by his car. After a trip in it, he said, its body has a thousand fingerprints. ``Everybody wants to touch it,'' he said. ``I have a larger fingerprint collection than the FBI, I think.''
To clean the body, he said, he sprays on the same stuff Anheuser-Busch uses to clean its stainless-steel brewing vats. Then he wipes the car clean.
He has driven his car more than 200,000 miles, he said. He has bought two batteries, a new set of tires and motors for the front windows. The rest of the car is original, he said.
He bought his DeLorean for $22,000 and thinks he could sell it for as much today.
Massey was responsible for bringing the DeLorean gathering, called DeLorean Expo '94, to Williamsburg. This is only the second time the expo has been on the East Coast.
More than 200 DeLorean owners from seven countries traveled here this week. A Swiss visitor owns five DeLoreans back home. An Englishman shipped his DeLorean to Williamsburg.
Two DeLorean owners drove their cars from Los Angeles.
``I had a pretty good run,'' said Robin McNeill, a Los Angeles ad agency owner who drove 2,800 miles. ``I only got one ticket.''
McNeill was born in Belfast, Ireland, a few miles from the plant where the DeLoreans were made.
by CNB