I am honored to have Barrie Wills, the longest serving employee of DeLorean Motor Cars Limited, contribute an "Afterword" to The Illustrated Buyer's Guide to DeLorean Automobiles - his words are below...
Nearly 35 years after its market launch in 1981, the DeLorean remains - like Marmite - something one either loves or hates. Hated mainly by those who have rarely seen it let alone driven it, spurred on by a few so-called motoring journalists in Britain with a taxpayers’ axe to grind - loved by the many more better informed owners of the 6,500 of the 9,000 plus cars built that remain in service across the world, from North America to Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
When I was invited to visit today’s DeLorean Motor Company in Houston, Texas in 2007, I was more than impressed that the high standards of warehousing set in Dunmurry by material control manager Martin Graham were being maintained - using the same racks, pallets, cages and bins procured by chief buyer Norman McClinton and his team all those years ago. That so many of those parts sold to Consolidated International of Columbus, Ohio during DMCL’s liquidation in 1982 and packed so carefully by the last score or so of retained employees, under the supervision of Leif Montin, Dick Mulholland and Paul Murray, should still meet the needs of owners in a new Millennium, both amazed and more than gratified me.
Stephen Wynne is to be congratulated for his enthusiasm, entrepreneurialism and foresight in continuing to maintain the dream so expertly. But then one can expect nothing less of a ‘scouser’! The support of James Espey and the rest of the magnificent team in Texas has been crucial and well appreciated by the company’s many satisfied customers. James’ considerable efforts to re-source long-forgotten parts - by several extinct or malingering former suppliers - often seems inexhaustible.
Equally applaudable is his determination to ensure the needs of acquisition, restoration and service are best met through the publication of this excellent book. I expect readers have found its most thorough contents as helpful as I have found them educational. Despite being both chairman and a member of the small group that formed the combined DeLorean-Lotus product coordination team that guided the car through its engineering, test and development at Hethel, after reading it, I found the shortfall in my detailed knowledge of the car near-shameful.
I know owners will join me in thanking and congratulating James for his continuing dedication to the DeLorean cause. Long may it continue! That a portion of the proceeds of this invaluable book go towards the DeLorean Museum is also applaudable. Please keep up that good work as well for the sake of history, which - despite those immortal words of Henry Ford - is never ‘bunk’!
Barrie Wills
Meriden, UK
September 2014
Thank you, Barrie, for the kind words - I appreciate your thoughtfulness in providing the "Afterword" for the Buyer's Guide.
Barrie's book, which chronicles his four and a half years as the longest serving employee of DeLorean Motor Cars Limited (DMCL), tentatively titled John Z, the DeLorean and Me...tales from an insider, is due to be released in the late summer of 2015. Having been privy to an early draft, I can say without questions that this promises to be a book that every DeLorean fan will want to have in their library!
Barrie's book, which chronicles his four and a half years as the longest serving employee of DeLorean Motor Cars Limited (DMCL), tentatively titled John Z, the DeLorean and Me...tales from an insider, is due to be released in the late summer of 2015. Having been privy to an early draft, I can say without questions that this promises to be a book that every DeLorean fan will want to have in their library!
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