Re: [DML] DeLorean's Soul

[Noah <sitz@xxxx>]

On Thu, Dec 05, 2002 at 05:56:48PM -0000, James LaLonde wrote:

> What actually makes our DeLorean OUR car. Or better phrased; what 
> determines if vin 4009 is still vin 4009.

[snip]

> At what point do we give in and admit we've hacked the car too 
> much... that it has undergone too extensive of repair to still be 
> considered vin4009... or even a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 at all!?

Keep in mind that every cell in your body is replaced with a nice shiny
new one (assuming proper meiosis); on average, your entire body is
swapped out every 6-8 years or so (is there a biologist in the house? Do 
I have that right?). Are you still the same person you were? 

Putting aside for the moment the fact that brain cells don't experience
this (that whole 'romantic' thing again), I'd say that I'm still me
because I'm still recognizable as such. I can look in the mirror and 
say "yup. I recognize that guy...he's me!" So one defintion would be
that a DMC (or any car) ceases to be one when you can't look at it and 
say that it is. If you went though 4009 (or I through 2867) and over the 
course of a few years replaced every part with a non-DMC (either OEM 
or new replacement) part, at some point you would no longer have a DMC; 
you would have something you (or I) had cobbled together from the ground 
up. Rich's projects are (obviously) still Ds (although I personally feel 
the hovercraft is stretching that pretty close to the limit. =) ) as is 
Curtis' or Rick G's car, because despite the fact they've been altered 
to hell and gone, you can still look at them and say "yup. that's a DMC." 

That doesn't fully define it, though; the car doesn't necessarily need 
to be identifiable as such by any layperson. If it did, I suspect none 
of us would have DMCs. ;) Mine's been identified as (in no particular order):

* a lamborghini
* "who makes a 'delorean'? toyota? honda?"
* "what the heck is /that/?"

So, to refine the definition, it should be identifiable as a DMC by 
someone who knows DMCs. If you replaced the frame with an SS one,
dropped a NorthStar in the back, gave it groundskirts, custom wheels,
and a paintjob, anyone on this list would still be able to identify it as
a DMC, and therefore it would be. 

Now, as to when 4009 would stop being 4009 because you'd replaced a good
number of the bits with other DMC parts, I'd say that's subjective. At
what point does the car no longer /feel/ like 4009? If you wound up
replacing all the bits that had the VIN, I suspect it would be 4009
until/unless you sold it to someone who didn't know you or the car up
until then, at which point they'd likely start thinking of it as
whatever VIN the DMV thought it was (it doesn't /feel/ like 4009 to that
person, because they never met her). The car is inextricably linked to
the person who loves it (usually, but not necessarily the owner), and 
will likely keep the identity associated to it by its current lover. 
Interestingly, if your car was passed down to a relative, it would (I 
suspect) keep the same identity, which opens up a whole new philosophical 
debate. =)

Noah
#2867


-- 
"Hey, kitty! Who's a good kitty? Yes you are! Who wants to go 
destroy earth with daddy?"
-- Diesel Sweeties #562