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**The Pinnacle of Opulence: The Rise and Fall of DeLorean**

The Fyre Festival was supposed to be the pinnacle of opulence, decadence, and hedonism, but everything imploded and it became a big fat joke. And that's kind of what happened with DeLorean as a company.

**A Legacy of Failure**

This car in particular, the 24-karat gold-plated DeLorean DMC-12, was designed to be the ultimate 80s symbol of luxury, wealth, and success, but it is actually the biggest failure in the history of DeLorean. Today, we are going bumper to bumper on this factory 24-karat gold-plated DeLorean DMC-12.

**A Rarest Car in the World**

We've had some amazing cars on this show, but this, this is the rarest car that we've ever featured. It is a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12. Now, they only made like 9,000 DMC-12s, but this one is very special. It's one of only three in the world that's covered in genuine 24-karat gold-plating straight from the factory.

**A Metaphor for John DeLorean**

It's the perfect metaphor to describe John DeLorean and how he ran his business. On the outside, it's a shiny attention-grabbing future car, but on the inside, it's underpowered and ready to break down at any moment.

**The Birth of DeLorean Motor Company**

Everythings should've worked out for DeLorean. He knew how to run a company. He knew how to make a great car. He had a great idea to build the world's first ethical sports car, a safe, fuel-efficient, and long-lasting alternative to the gas-guzzling sports cars of the time.

**John DeLorean's Career in Detroit**

When John DeLorean worked at GM, he was a dynamo. DeLorean designed the Pontiac GTO, the Firebird, and the Grand Prix as well as the Chevy Cosworth Vega. DeLorean commissioned famous Italian designer, Giorgetto Giugiaro to draw up the plans in the 70s.

**The American Express Gold Card Connection**

This car was tailor-made for coked-up yuppies. It was a cross-promotion for the American Express Gold Card and it was featured in their 1980 Christmas catalog. Available exclusively to Gold Card Members, this car was truly one of a kind.

**A Legacy of Failure Continued**

Despite some small victories, the DMC-12 was still a huge failure, whether it's covered in gold or not. To understand how broken DeLorean's system was, you have to understand the circumstances in which it was built. The original DMC-12s were made in a factory in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, a suburb of Belfast.

**The Troubles**

If you don't know, Northern Ireland in the early 80s was at the epicenter of a bloody conflict between Loyalists, who wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK, and Nationalists aka the IRA, who wanted it to be part of Ireland proper.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Fyre Festival.It was supposed to bethe pinnacle of opulence,decadence, and hedonismbut everything implodedand it became a big fat joke.And that's kind of what happenedwith DeLorean as a company.This car in particular,this 24 karat gold-plated DeLorean,which was designed asthe ultimate 80s symbolof luxury, wealth, and success,is the biggest failure inthe history of DeLorean.Today, we are going bumper to bumperon this factory 24-karategold-plated DeLorean DMC-12.(rock music)We've had some amazing cars on this showbut this, this is the rarestcar that we've ever featured.It is a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12.Now, they only made like 9,000 DMC-12sbut this one is very special.It's one of only three in the worldthat's covered in genuine24 karat gold-platingstraight from the factory.It's the perfect metaphorto describe John DeLoreanand how he ran his business.On the outside, it's a shinyattention-grabbing future car,but on the inside, it's underpoweredand ready to break down at any moment.The thing is, everythingshould've worked out for DeLorean.He knew how to run a company.He knew how to make a great car.He had a great idea to buildthe world's first ethical sports car.A safe, fuel efficient, andlong-lasting alternativeto the gas-guzzlingsports cars of the time.So how did we end up with this?(electronic music)When John DeLorean workedat GM, he was a dynamo.DeLorean designed thePontiac GTO, the Firebird,and the Grand Prix as wellas the Chevy Cosworth Vega.DeLorean commissionedfamous Italian designer,Giorgetto Giugiaro to drawup the plans in the 70s.This dude designed everythingfrom Fiats to Saabs tomy favorite, Volkswagen.Literally hundreds of cars.He designed the MK1 Golfand the MK1 Sciroccoso naturally, I wish he was my grandpa.Si Papa.John DeLorean built his careerin Detroit as a young man.When he left Pontiac in 1973 to startDeLorean Motor Company, hewas the youngest division headin GM's history.He did what any fast trackexec having a mid-life crisiswould do, he divorced hiswife, got plastic surgeryto enhance his jawline,and started dating models.Hell yeah.This car was tailor-madefor coked up yuppies.It was a cross-promotion forthe American Express Gold Cardand it was featured in their1980 Christmas catalog.Available exclusivelyto Gold Card Members.This thing could be bought for $85,000.Which is about $250,000 todayTo put that in context, in1980, you could buy a brand newFerrari 305 that performed way betterthan this for around $55,000.American Express had plannedon selling a hundred of these.Seven were ordered but onlythree were finished beforethe plant shut down.There's this one, which sat ina bank in Texas for 20 years.It has nine and a halfmiles on the odometer.And it's never been driven.There's another one thatwas bought by a dudeup in Northern Californiawho decided that he was gonnadrive his but he dentedthe door the first timehe took it out.His insurance had to pay$14,000 to replace itbecause it couldn't just be buffed out.That dude gave it awayafter his insurance paymentswent up to $1,000 a month.The third gold-platedDeLorean was up for saleby a private owner andit's unclear whether or notit's been sold.The asking price was $250,000.I mean Will.i.am probably bought it,but no one will ever know.Unlike Nolan's heart, thebody isn't made of solid gold.The body is actually 24karat gold sheet on topof stainless steel.If you scraped off allthe gold from this car,it wouldn't even fill your hand.It's less than an ounce.The steel plates are attachedto a fiberglass monocoque underbody.This wasn't the original concept though.DeLorean had planned to useurethane foam and fiberglassfor the underbody in a processcalled elastic reservoir molding or ERM.Or ERM.The benefit of this methodwas extreme crash resistancewith impact being spreadover the entire panel.It was a smart idea but in the end,they ditched the methodfor a more conventionaland cheaper fiberglass underbody.DeLorean actually boughtthe rights to ERM processbefore it was proven for some reason.It was just one of thedumber moves in a stringof dumb moves that woulddescribe the DMC legacy.Luckily, DeLorean made acouple of smart moves too.One of them was enlistingthe minds over at Lotusto look over the earlier,heavily flawed designsof the DMC-12.Lotus helped with the design.They added larger reartires and helped fortifysafety features in the DMC-12.Without the help of Lotus,the DMC-12 might have beenmuch worse than it was.The chassis was completelyredesigned by Lotus.It's a steel double yframe chassis that's sharedwith the Lotus Esprit.Obviously, one of the most iconic featuresof the DeLorean are its gull wing doors.They open straight up like how a seagullgets into their car.That's how they gottheir name, true story.Now would be a good time tomention that I have to weargloves to open this door.I'm only allowed to touchcertain parts of this car.The main differences betweenthe normal stainless exteriorand this gold-plated exteriorare that fingerprintsare super hard to wipe away on this one.And big bros got warrants.(seagull caws)One common misconceptionis that these doorsrequire a larger clearance to open,making them useless forcramped parking lotsbut that's actually not true.They only require 11 inchesof clearance to fully openwhich is less than anormal car needs to open.So, eff you haters.One thing that's prettycool is that even the insideof the door is gold-plated.And they used gold screwson the door panels.Nice attention to detail,in my humble opinion.Despite some small victories,the DMC-12 was stilla huge failure, whetherit's covered in gold or not.To understand how brokenDeLorean's system was,you have to understand the circumstancesin which it was built.The original DMC-12swere made in a factoryin Dunmurry, NorthernIreland, a suburb of Belfast.If you don't know, NorthernIreland in the early 80swas at the epicenter of a bloody conflictbetween Loyalists, whowanted Northern Irelandto remain part of the UK,and Nationalists aka theIRA, who wanted it to be partof Ireland proper.Listen to "Sunday Bloody Sunday" by U2to learn all about it.Long story short, itwasn't the ideal situationfor a blooming new car company.The location of the factoryhad an adverse effecton DeLorean's price model.The DMC-12 was named that because DeLoreanwanted to sell them for$12,000 but the added costof shipping them across the Atlantic meantthat if they wanted tomake any profit the carsneeded to be sold for $25,000.You could get a Corvettefor $16,000 at the time.So DeLorean was alreadyfacing an uphill battlefrom the moment they entered the market.And let me tell you, Iwouldn't want to be stuckin a DeLorean going uphill.You see, this sports car'sengine only makes abouta 130 hrsprs, let's take a look.Which is what I wouldsay if I were allowedto open this hood.So I'm going to rely on thetalents of my editor Maxto make it look like I am opening the hoodand we're putting the engine right there.Whoa.This(eye wink noises)is a 2.85 liter V6 PRV engine.PRV stands for Peugeot Renault Volvo.It wasn't DeLorean's firstchoice for an engine.It wasn't even his second choice.He originally wanted to puta 200 hrsprs Citroen sourced rotaryinto the DMC-12 butthat idea got scrapped.The first prototype hada four cylinder Citroen,then a Ford V6 and eventually they landedon this leaky PRV.It has a top speed of 110 miles per hour,it can do 0 to 60 in, get ready for it.Hold onto your seat, letme know in the commentsif you're ready, hit the subscribe button.You ready?You ready?You sure?0 to 60 in 10.5 seconds.The boys over at DMCran into a big problemwhen they switched to the PRV.The initial rotary took up a lot less roomso they had to move it backand then it went from beinga mid-engine car to a rear-engine carand that shifted the weight,causing massive problemswith the handling.That was not their only problem, however.The build quality of the DMC-12was shotty from the get go.Inexperienced workersneeded to be trained quicklyand immediately productionschedules were delayed.Even by the time the factorywas on schedule in 1982,they weren't producingenough cars to coverthe manufacturing overhead.DeLorean was sinking.He needed to findinvestment capital quick.And on October 19th 1982,John DeLorean was busted bythe FBI in a sting operationfor bankrolling the transportof 59 pounds of blow.(upbeat electronic music)- Federal authoritieshave finally arrestedhim earlier this week.- A week later,the British governmentpulled the plug on the DeLorean factoryand laid off 2500 workers.Now a lot of people say he was framed.I might be one of those people.The big three don't want tosee a little guy come up.Why do you think Elon Musk isrunning into so much trouble?Let's take a look at the interior.(electronic music)This is the only gold DeLoreanthat has black leather.The other two have brown leather.So that's pretty exciting.I would love to touch this but alas,the Peterson will notlet me sit in this car,but if I could, I wouldn'thave a problem fitting.John DeLorean was six footfour and wanted to make surethat he and the rest of usbig boys could sit in his carwithout having to hunch over.If you're short, it's a little harderto yank to doors closeso there's this loopthat you can pull.It's like a subway loop.All you JDM boys love it.The seats look comfortable.Wouldn't know, can't sit in it.They're tastefullybolstered and the leatherlooks nice and soft.It's really crazylooking at a car this oldwith carpet this nice.I don't think I ever owneda car with carpet this nice.The gauge cluster is prettybasic but there is onepretty cool thing about it.The door ajar light has gull wing doorsinstead of conventional doors.And that's about all I cansay from this distance.This gold covered car is themost DeLorean thing ever.The dude was really smartand was driven to makethe coolest car possible.But you can't produce a caroff of pure determination.There's so much that goesinto making a great carthat DeLorean skippedover because of his egoor because of mismanagement.Who knows?A few different decisionsor if the cards fellin a different way here and there.We could have been drivingnew DeLorean models today.If only Elon Musk had beenborn 30 years earlier.Thank you so much to the Peterson Museum.You like this car, you wantto see more cars like this,go to the Peterson.Information is in the description.They're a huge, huge friend of Donut.We couldn't do a lot of thisstuff without their support.Thanks for watching Donut Media.If you guys didn't watchit, then we wouldn't getto make it.We got a ton of new showscoming out this summer.To make sure you don't miss anything,hit that subscribebutton right down there.If you like this video, let us knowby hitting the like button.It's the one that looks like this.Don't click this one becauseYouTube has a new thingwhere it just sends a boxof dog poop to your house.It's weird.Follow me on Instagram @jamespumphrey.Follow Donut on Instagram @donutmedia.If you want to learn more about DeLorean,check out this episode of myother show, "Up To Speed."It's all about the history of cars.I love you.(laughs)