RHD Project for auction, 1st Sept 2018

[Smithy2970]

Lot 612
1981 DeLorean DMC12 Coupé
Registration no. MGJ 126Y Chassis no. SCEDT26T6BD005730
Sold for £ 34,500 inc. premium 

A little over the estimates!!

[Stuart Rees]

Well done Chris... crafty move indeed.  I'm relieved it's finally in the right hands... pun intended!

Can't wait to see the AXI reunion one day

[Chris P]

Its all Phil P's fault......he planted the idea!

[theningiachicken]

Hey chris nice one very sneaky of ya. Just a thought if you want an extra pair of hands let me know would me cool to work on a Delorean

[Matt Clark]

Congrats Chris. This one felt a bit like a foregone conclusion, but can't wait to see it next to 1698!

[Chris P]

Hi Matt,

We all have our dreams.....my wife tells me this is just my latest one...but it seems real to me.

 Cant wait until Wednesday!

[Dangermouse]

(26 Aug 2018, 07:01)Chris P Wrote: Had I not decided to part with Pilot 20 a few weeks ago,

Wait, what?


Congrats on the AXI sisters. You'll have to get them with 1697 for a triplet photo shoot. Are there any photos of all 3 together?

[Chris P]

Not that I'm aware of Dermot...not yet anyway! Two is the best yet. Wait until I see it for the rest time in 15 years....

[MrToast]

Congrats Chris!

I’m jealous (it was above my budget for the condition of it) Will be great to see it restored.

It will be great to see all three together!

[Pikey07]

Congratulations Chris

[TristanC]

Awesome news!
Well done Chris. Looking forward to seeing her back to her former glory

[Phil Peters]

(26 Aug 2018, 15:49)Chris P Wrote: Its all Phil P's fault......he planted the idea!

I'm sure the seed of the idea existed long before I mentioned it the other day, Chrispy

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(27 Aug 2018, 13:15)Dangermouse Wrote: Congrats on the AXI sisters. You'll have to get them with 1697 for a triplet photo shoot. Are there any photos of all 3 together?

Here you go Dermot, I'm pretty sure that this photo shows the 3 AXI cars outside at Wooler-Hodec before being shipped back to Dunmurry:

[Chris P]

Can't see any roof ariels Phil. The side markers look regular as well.  I'm not sure Wooler did the AXI's or other grey interior cars.

[Phil Peters]

(28 Aug 2018, 21:41)Chris P Wrote: Can't see any roof ariels Phil. The side markers look regular as well.  I'm not sure Wooler did the AXI's or other grey interior cars.

AXI 1698 (VIN 5638) and AXI 1699 (VIN 5730) were definitely at Wooler-Hodec Chris. See pages 357 and 359 of "Celebrating the Impossible" by Chris Parnham! 

It's quite hard to make out in the photo but in my opinion those door trim panels appear to be grey and the headliners look like the later style light grey ones. The three cars in the photo also all appear to have the later style silver wheels whereas almost all of the other 121XX Wooler-Hodec cars had the early style grey wheels since they have all - so far - turned out to be early production cars originally in the 5XX and 6XX VIN range.

I would imagine the little details that differentiate the AXI cars visually from the other 121XX cars like the side markers, roof aerials, rub strips etc were fitted later when the cars returned to Dunmurry and once the UK homologation spec was firmed up.

The idea that the RHD conversion work on the three AXI cars was carried out in its entirety at Dunmurry has never really made much sense to me when you consider:

a) There was a small engineering department in-house at Dunmurry and a further engineering department in Coventry but as far as I know, neither one was a fully fledged industrial fabrication set-up like Wooler-Hodec.
 
b) While DMC was in receivership it's unlikely they would have had the capital to suddenly increase the engineering / fabrication resource in-house. Surely it would have been cheaper and quicker to outsource the job to the firm who had already developed, converted and tested a number of cars already by that point.

c) As I understand it, DMC were intending to outsouce the RHD conversion work to Wooler-Hodec anyway when the RHD cars went into production, so why suddenly bring the work in-house just to produce three cars?

Perhaps it's accurate to say the AXI cars were "completed" at the factory, but converted? Personally I think the evidence points against it.

Of course, that being said it doesn't for one moment change the fact that it's a very special and historically significant car and it's really great to see you finally getting to "live the dream" with this one after such a long wait. I'm looking forward to seeing it back on the road.

[Chris P]

Hi Phil,

Unfortunately many of the people who were most directly involved had passed to the 'great garage in the sky' by the time And & I started looking into this in detail. And some that did survive, had conflicting versions of what occurred. Thats why we have not been too specific about these events in our book.

But right from our first involvement, the 3 cars were referred to, by most folk as 'The Factory RHD's.'.....It matters not...as I've said before, all DeLorean are special  .....

....This one has always been very special to me, since I first saw it on the front cover of Motor Makers in Ireland, which as you probably know was published just before the factory was finally closed. 

It is also a book the JZD personally signed for me, 5 years before his death. 

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         It's being collected today by Andrew W and Matt C.  can't wait to see it in the flesh...so to speak.