DMC engine upgrades (and warehouse move news)

[James Espey <james@xxxx>]

Scott -

I don't recall a message from you on this, but here's the latest for you and
everyone else...

As of right now, there is about a two month waiting list on the engine
upgrades (either to your existing engine or a new crate engine). We've
installed about a dozen of them to date for owners in Florida, New York,
California, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and of course, Texas among others.
We're trying to do about two per month.

Most of the attendees at our open house this past summer got the chance to
drive one or both of the two cars we had on hand equipped with this engine.
Same for the attendees to the Chicago Tech Day event held in September. I
think a few people drove the car we had in Atlanta, too.

I don't know how specific you want information on the engine...obviously we
have significant development expense in the engine modifications, so to
expect that we would disclose exact specifications so that you could create
it yourself is not likely to happen. Generally speaking, however, we port,
polish and flow the heads, install new camshafts (completely new - designed
for us), the new exhaust system (including dual, aftermarket 50-state legal
catalytics) and some alterations to the fuel system to increase fuel
delivery at the higher revs.

All of the development testing was done on an engine stand, so those numbers
are at the flywheel, like the original DeLorean specs were. 197 vs 130 is
about a 50% increase (not 75% like Marc posted). Obviously, numbers at the
rear wheels WILL BE markedly less - look at Bob Brandy's "Dyno Days" article
for details on that. His tests showed a stock five-speed at the rear wheels
showed HP to be 100hp, and 90hp for an automatic. Some very informal dyno
tests done a few months ago on our automatic car showed 130hp at the rear
wheels, an increase of 40 over a stock automatic.

In regards to torque, peak torque on the stock engine (again, at the
flywheel), out tests showed 179 at 2500rpm. Our upgraded engine leaves the
torque essentially unchanged up to about 3750 RPM, but then evens it out
considerably at the higher RPMs, where the improved 'breathing' of the
upgraded engines (as a result of the ported, polished and flow tested heads)
delivers the most increase in power. That's resulted in the biggest problem
we have with the people who have had their engines upgraded - they are
shifting too soon. Where the stock engine loses a lot of steam around 4500
RPM or above, the upgraded engine will 'pull' right up to 6500 RPM and a
little beyond.

There will be some changes to the engine program, probably start of the
year, but in a nutshell, what is NOW the Stage I will become Stage II, and
the currently being tested Stage II will become the Stage III. The exhaust
system (separately) will become the new Stage I. This is because the Stage
III was looking to cost a TON of money on top of the Stage I and Stage II
upgrades. Look for an update to be posted after the start of the year.

As of this past weekend, we had unloaded a total of 22 semi-trailer loads of
DeLorean parts from Ohio into our new warehouse. This means that there are
about 20-25 loads left (either already in transit or yet to be packed). Once
the actual move portion is completed (late December), January will be spent
doing the inventory. As time permits this week, I will post some photos
taken as the move progresses.

James Espey
DeLorean Motor Company
Houston, Texas 

281/568-9573
800/USA-DMC1
http://www.delorean.com