The DeLorean Alpha | Hacker News Reader

The DeLorean Alpha

delorean.com

116 pointsDDSDev102 comments

FYI the current DeLorean Motor Company has nothing to do with the original DeLorean other than a bought-out brand name. Their primary business is selling merchandise and collecting royalties from Universal Studios. They tried to set up a small manufacturing line for new cars in 2017 but failed. Considering how difficult and competitive the electric car market is and how many very well-funded startups routinely fail, it's hard to believe that they will be able to successfully get this Alpha5 (or any car for that matter) to market. Looking at the marketing page, their intention seems more to sell NFTs than real cars.

Apparently they didn't really even bother to buy out the brand name.

>DeLorean Motor Company (also doing business as Classic DMC) is a company based in Humble, Texas, established in 1995 by Liverpool-born mechanic Stephen Wynne, using the branding of the defunct automobile manufacturer.

>In 2014, Sally Baldwin, the widow of John DeLorean, sued the unaffiliated Texas-based DMC for misuse of trademarks and images which were never purchased after the bankruptcy of the original company, claiming that they were still owned by his estate. On October 20, 2015, the lawsuit was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum in exchange for DMC having the rights to use the DeLorean Motor Company name, trademarks and logo.

Well at some point that was true but considering the settlement out of court I don't think you can say that anymore.

They didn't say _exclusive_ rights.

Who didn't say that? You can't say they haven't bought the rights when the settlement involved them buying the rights.

Pay for != buy

The miscommunication here is between the phrases "bought" and "bought out." The latter phrase typically denotes that there's nothing left on the shelf, ie an exclusive license.

Ahh this ninja was just using the proven method on how to acquire a brand/logo from a bankrupt company as most frugal and efficiently as possible when u broke yourself…

Exact same 'strategy' as Atari basically.

Or whoever is Commodore these days.

> their intention seems more to sell NFTs than real cars

That was exactly my impression. I have to pay $88 to be part of a club, and then pay $2,500 for a manufacturing slot and THEN I can start to configure a build? And it mentions a bit too predominantly how members can buy and sell production slots amongst themselves.

Seems like an attempt to create an NFT circle jerk.

I get wanting a real car instead of an NFT. After all, an NFT can’t exactly drive on the road. On the other hand, roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.

Which makes a consistent sequal to the original DMC! Starting out as a scrappy legitimate production effort, ending in acts of cocaine-fueled financial desparation, DMC went all-in on the stereotype of '80's entrepreneur hustle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLorean_Motor_Company#Downtur...

This modern "DMC" has found some success as a proper parts, servicing, and restoration resource for original Deloreans. They're the main reason why so many nicely reconditioned original Deloreans exist today. Which is nice and all except for the stereotypical 2010's brand squatting and equity extraction, now 2020's NFT hustling. At least they're self-aware enough to keep their less palatable business objectives partitioned away from their brick and mortar business site?

https://www.classicdmc.com/

Getting replacement parts of these kinds of cars is really expensive. Your car insurance will probably suck as well.

This is a $2,500 non-refundable, Digital-Twin avatar, digital wallet and flexible reservation, powered by blockchain technology, that allows owners to buy/sell/trade their Digital-Twin avatar and production slot reservation on the DeLorean Exchange.

sigh

https://delorean.com/reserve/#faq

What a complex way to write 'scam'.

Weird that people were cheerleading digital monkeys on digital vessels though, which is the same exact thing.

Plenty of folks called those a scam too.

Plenty of people were pointing out that is a scam as well.

Maybe that’s the whole point gathering 1000 reservations and then closing online presence.

"Tell me you're a scammer without telling me you're a scammer."

If you want a better vaporware DeLorean, check out Hyundai N Vision 74.

https://www.hyundai.com/worldwide/en/brand-journal/mobility-...

Vaporware of not, I do like that!

To my eyes, the Ioniq 5 [0] has the most interesting styling of the current crop of EVs, and this takes similar ingredients and runs with them further towards a gamer/dystopian/cyberpunk vibe.

[0]https://www.hyundai.com/worldwide/en/eco/ioniq5/highlights

It's like they took an 80s Supra and slightly updated the looks while drastically changing the underlying technology.

Add to cart!

> Designed with purpose. DeLorean has confidence and a compelling presence. We will continue to apply our rebellious DNA to shape our vehicles and constantly push the boundaries of what’s possible. We are writing our legacy in real-time. Instinctively adapting to the future with a heightened curated experience. Rooted in counterculture we confidently embrace the unexpected.

Am I the only one who's getting a weird sense of relief that we can routinely start treating this sort of marketing blurbs as AI-generated bullshit every time se wee them?

> …continue to apply our DNA

What is that even supposed to mean? How does one “apply” DNA?

I'm giggling like a maniac, picturing some smirking NFT bro, pointing to his crotch and saying "want to get in on some applied DNA action?"

Don't know if I want to know what "apply our rebellious DNA" would mean then...

literal NFT circle jerk

Not even AI: http://whatthefuckismysocialmediastrategy.com/

Doesn't read as AI generated to me, more like English language marketing copy from APAC.

Glad there’s a legit car company behind this, because otherwise it would sound like a weird riff on scammy NFT exchanges:

1. JOIN THE ALPHAS CLUB Your journey to ownership begins with an $88 Alphas Club lifetime membership. Additionally, your Alphas Club membership includes a variety of exclusive benefits.

2. PURCHASE ON THE DELOREAN EXCHANGE Alphas Club members have exclusive access to secure their place in line on the DeLorean Exchange, by purchasing a randomized production slot for $2,500.

3. CUSTOMIZE WITH DELOREAN FLEX Once you've successfully purchased your production slot on the DeLorean Exchange, DeLorean Flex enables you to transfer, trade, or sell your production slot to other Alphas Club members. Members who were unable to secure a production slot have the ability to purchase one from other Alphas Club members on the DeLorean Exchange.

It's only barely a car company, because they don't actually manufacture any cars yet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLorean_Motor_Company_(Texas)

So this company is "ClassicDMC", all they do is take Delorean parts and build "brand new" Deloreans out of those parts. This new "delorean" company seems to be just some rando brand that licensed out the name.

At least with ClassicDMC you can actually buy a car.

“Glad there’s a legit car company behind this, because otherwise it would sound like a weird riff on scammy NFT exchanges”

Heh. You joke, but I honestly don’t know who I’d trust less to make a car: a car company that released one car model and promptly went broke, or a merchandise company that liked the brand enough to capitalize on it but not enough to buy the rights to the brand.

But will it be available in Stainless Steel?

Probably not.. would make an already heavy EV even heavier.

I am struggling to find a connection to the roots and character of the DMC-12. This looks plasticy on the outside and suspiciously similar to a Tesla on the interior.. bleh.

What's the point of a mid-engine look when there's no engine there? Impractical wasted space in a hollow shell.

I just saw a video from James May yesterday about some electric hypercar where he comes to the conclusion that the battery is best placed where the engine would be in a mid-engine car. Because so the mass is at the center of gravity.

> Because so the mass is at the center of gravity.

The center of gravity will be where the mass puts it.

I suppose the argument is, that the mass is better concentrated lengthwise, although doing so places Cg higher.

No, you can have two weights on either end of a stick versus two weights right in the center of the stick. The center of gravity is in the middle, but the moment of inertia is radically different. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_of_inertia

It's still put where it is put by the mass. In other words: the only way to move the COG around is to move the masses around. And if you move the bulk of the mass to the place where the engine would be in a mid engined car (assuming the batteries are the bulk of the mass) then that's where the COG will likely center on because it is roughly the middle of the car.

I don't actually agree with May, I think you should keep the COG in a car as low as possible until it starts to interfere with your ground clearance.

I can kinda see the connection if i squint. There are two front lights on each side but instead of being the old halogen lights its two thin led strips on each side. The rear window fins, even the wheels hearken back to the grille like wheels. I think it wouldve served them better if they angled off the rear and made a more explicitly angular trapezoid shape, using that black cladding, and then including an array of square (rectangular?) led lights on the back in red amber and white like the original. Right now it looks too much like a jaguar concept.

at this point, I think that bezier curves are ugly. I just want a car with an actual shape, not something that looks like a used bar of soap.

It is quite ugly, but I want a real dashboard, not a pair of touchscreens.

I believe Mazda is one of the few brands still sticking to physical buttons. I do think / hope that the touch screen thing is a temporary thing though. Probably not because it's cheaper to manufacture and install, lowers the amount of parts in a car and opens up future updates, e.g. to show ads.

Is it designed like that for style or aerodynamics though?

I mean used bars of soap are really slippery.

Modern software lets you get away with a lot in aerodynamics if you really wanted to.

Painful website, marketing is pushing a little too hard and it ends up looking like a sketchy startup. For example:

> Rooted in counterculture we confidently embrace the unexpected.

wtf. The (old) DeLorean was based on a standard image of wealth (low profile, gull-wing doors) and became rooted in culture with the Back to the Future movies

Yeah the copy here is really cringe. Trying way too hard in every sentence.

Meh. It's barely a DeLorean. The fact that it's not unpainted stainless steel is a joke. If Tesla ever releases a "Cybercar" it would probably be more of a DeLorean than this.

Hell, even StableDiffusion would design something better than this.

So this is an NFT project built around the rendering of an electric DeLorean... Neat.

Hyundai are making the most aesthetic successor to the DMC we all know and love, their electric cars are wonderful for having such strong character.

The lights feel more 80s than the original too

It is sad that the Ioniq 5 design was dropped in the 6 model. Loved that car's design so much!

The Ioniq 6 does not replace the 5. In the Ioniq series, odd numbers are crossovers/SUVs and even numbers are sedans.

It's sad to see the word "Delorean" go the way of the word "Atari," divorced forever from the magic or mystery or mad genius of its original story, repurchased and repurposed to sell vapor to the nostalgic or underinformed.

I feel sorry for the designers, they're stuck with having gull wing doors no matter how nonsensical they are.

Interesting they held onto the doors, but binned the clunky former shape and stainless steel.

The doors are iconic. Honestly I think they're about the last thing you could drop if you want to invoke "DeLorean". Of course, the steel would not be far behind that, and yet...

I believe you can get the same (or similar) doors on some Porsches, or Lamborghinis. (and they would probably cost the same as this thing)

Correct — many cars before the DeLorean had gull-wing doors[1], Lamborghini-style scissor doors[2] also predate the DeLorean by many years, and AFAIK, both of these door styles are still available on production vehicles today.

The most interesting thing about the DeLorean is the story behind its creator and creation[3], not any particular aspect of the design of the final production vehicle.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gull-wing_door

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scissor_doors

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_John_DeLorean

Sure --- but to the average individual, what is iconic about them? People who probably never saw one in real life, maybe only ever saw the one in Back to the Future? What percentage of people even know about those other vehicles?

I think most of what we could say to that would be anecdotal on both sides. So I guess, this is just my anecdotal perspective?

Totally not trying to say that those other things are not interesting, btw.

Years ago the motoring media was very excited by the idea that electric cars could have a shared “skateboard” and then a coach-built body on top. Surely this DeLorean would be an excellent application of this - standard platform plus shiny bodywork and fancy doors! Why do they want to build a whole platform from scratch just to cash in on the nostalgia?

Reading "rooted in counterculture" on the website of a luxury car. I don't think they know much about this term.

I wish they would go for a complete recreation of the original, at least as far as exterior style goes. I know they probably can’t as just the name was sold, but when I see that name I think of just one car.

Someone in my local town owns a Delorian, that car always attracts a crowd, people love it. Car people, non car people, everyone.

Not low-poly enough.

Ex-automotive designer here.

IMO the designers simply ripped a few small pages out of the DNA of the car and completely ignored the true value the target customers want: the legacy shape and feel, largely associated with Back To the Future.

The overall form is...nothing. The scale of the features is all over the place; there's no dominant order or memorable hierarchy. If it didn't have gullwing doors and had the Toyota emblem pasted on you would never guess it was a Delorean.

The curves feel disconnected and uninspired. Don't believe me? Close the page and try to remember what it looks like. Now conjure the original we know and love, see how easy that was? That's good automotive design.

Great example of how important good copywriting is. Judging by the comments in this thread, this is a great example (in my personal opinion) on how copy can lead people to perceive a brand as untrustworthy.

Its not real DeLorean unless you're defrauding the UK tax payer.

This trend of taking reservation money and delivering nothing on-time seems to be all the rave nowadays. This is a very dangerous game. I hope people know better!

I mean it works to a point with some Kickstarter projects, or later in development, early access releases. But I don't trust it at all with things like this.

An actual car (not an NFT) is in the design stages at a company run by DeLorean's daughter, who happens to also be an accomplished cyber security professional. https://dngmotors.com/

I would be excited about this if it were just a little bit more familiar.

Another company asking for interest-free loans in the form of "reservations". What happened to announcing products and releasing them within a few months instead of years?

They lost me at weird shaped steering wheel and massive touchscreen.

When this baby hits 88mph, we're gonna see some serious shit.

This looks to me to be close to 100% a scam. Avoid at all costs.

1) You can sell your slot to someone else. Bad idea. Now we'll get slot hoarding.

2) Why does the website like need a chat? Not to mention the obnoxious chat popup sound...

Lame you’d make something that just looks like everything else. Don’t really see the point of making something so un-opinionated

The result of a world where cars are nothing more than shells around batteries with brand names on them

The copy on that page is just awful.

Coming soon: trademark suit from Alfa Romeo, whose parent company Stellantis also owns the trademark to the Lancia Beta name. The carmaker (and likely the courts) won't care about whether DeLorean would argue such tech terms as alpha and beta are fair use. What the heck were DeLorean (not) thinking?

EDIT: replaced FIAT with Stellantis.

This reminds me of when a nascent car company in the U.S. that wanted to build specialist police cars thought it was a great idea to have a big gold diamond as their logo and grille badge. Renault called, and the U.S. company had to ditch it all. No sign of that failed entity, probably for a variety of reasons.

Good luck with those doors in a parking lot in a shopping centre.. how do you go out?

If cybertrucks were street legal and available, I would go for that.

Great Scott. Or considering that it's the Alpha 5, Ay-yi-yi-yi!

am i only one who sees "CIVIC" on the rear lights?

Does it have a ChatGPT-powered voice in the car dash?

I had to remind myself that John DeLorean is dead.

We don’t need another supercar for the rich.

why would you take the brand delorian and the NOT USE the only thing that is iconic which is the DMC logo?

crazy

Needs more touchscreens.

The DeLorean Tesla

The real question is could it be used to travel back in time?

This one only takes you to the future. At a rate of 1 second / second...

The rate is a tiny bit higher if you drive really fast.

Wouldn’t that be a tiny bit slower?

Depressing.

Pathetic.

Really gorgeous. Those subtle dragon fins, the fluid yet opinionated geometry.

Did you write the marketing blurb for that website?

Just my personal, i.e. subjective, aesthetic response. I don’t see how it can be “wrong”, given it is a matter of taste.

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