Texas shop to revive DeLorean cars

In a nondescript warehouse north of Houston, mechanic and entrepreneur Stephen Wynne is bringing a rare sports car back to life. If he succeeds, he almost certainly has Michael J. Fox to thank.

A quarter century after DeLorean Motor Co. began making its glitzy, $25,000 two-seater — an operation that collapsed after two years — Wynne's small automotive outfit plans to bring the vehicle back into limited production at a 40,000-square-foot factory.

In his factory outside Houston, Stephen Wynne plans to produce new DeLoreans for the first time in decades. Wynne repairs the cars and bought the remaining parts from the company that once provided them to him. Now, he's president of the new version of the DeLorean Motor Co.

Already, the Humble operation will take a DeLorean, strip it to the frame and rebuild it for a base price of $42,500. Wynne's staff can rebuild one every couple of months.

The company also handles routine maintenance, such as oil changes and tune-ups, and ships 20 to 50 parts orders a day to mechanics and owners worldwide.

But because the original models are roughly 25 years old, finding suitable candidates to refurbish has become increasingly difficult.

So Wynne figured: Why not use the thousands of parts and hundreds of engines sitting in his massive warehouse to build the cars from scratch?

"Everything seems to evolve around here, and that seemed to be the next logical step," said Wynne, a Briton who began working on DeLoreans in the 1980s in Los Angeles, becoming an expert in their mechanics and equipment. He eventually expanded to suburban Houston and opted to make his base there, in part because of the lower cost of living.

"After working on these cars practically every day for 25 years, we've identified most of the issues and replaced them," Wynne said.

"If there's a better part available, we'll use it. If there's a better way to install it, we'll do it."

The base price of a new DeLorean is expected to be $57,500, roughly the same price a 1981 DeLorean would have cost in today's dollars. The company will sell the cars from its shop in Humble and affiliate shops in Bonita Springs, Fla.; Crystal Lake, Ill.; Bellevue, Wash.; and Orange County, Calif. DMC also has a shop in the Netherlands for European owners.

"It's taken years to get the wheels moving, and they're moving slowly, but we've got motion," Wynne said. AP Article