Innovation

Growing up, my father and uncle told me stories about Tucker and the Tucker car. Since Tucker was building cars in Chicago, access to the factory and engineers was not uncommon. I even remember seeing a Tucker parked at a gas station.

I had a huge collection of serial box cars and I could recognize every car, just by seeing a part of it. My favorite car was the 1955 Mercedes gullwing sports car. At that time, It was one of my life goals to own one.

In graduate school, I had responsibly for the Urban Vehicle Design competition held at the University of Illinois in 1972. This included both gasoline and electric cars. After this experience, I alway had a keen interest in the evolution of automotive technology.

In the mid 70s, GM tried to recruit me to the Delco Division. I used this opportunity to tour many of their facilities, but decided not to join them. Seeing too much outdated and unsafe equipment was not unlike Ralph Nader’s book.

I went on to restore and improve upon a number of classic cars, including many Camaros, Mustangs, Pacers and Deloreans. I installed an aluminum V-8 in a Delorean, effectively doubling its horsepower and I am currently working on an entirely updated Delorean – the Iron Man Delorean.

The 3rd event was seeing the movie, “Who Killed the Electric Car.” I walked out of this film and said, the title is wrong. It should say “Who Killed the Electric Car -This Time. At that time, I was very knowledgeable of the history of the electric cars from the early 1900s all the way to the Electric Corvair. Actually, very early automobiles were mostly electric. These were produced up to 1926 when GM bought the last electric vehicle company and closed it.

I was aware of the electric moon rover car. This was similar to the electric car in the Urban Vehicle design competition. Open cab, very light weight, and it worked.

The next event was reading about electric Nissan Datsuns being made in Las Vegas in 1979 and Electric AMC Pacers in New York.

The next serendipitous event was in 1985. I had the chance to speak to the wife of an owner of a 1955 Mercedes gullwing. She said that she hated the car because the windows did not go down and the car had no air-conditioning. Well, obviously, no 1955 Mercedes gullwing for me because adding air-conditioning would seriously damage the value of the car because it would not be original.

So it was on to becoming a Delorean owner that had air-conditioning and a functioning window. In 1986, my car friend found me a Delorean and my Delorean saga started.

In 1989, while hunting for car parts in a New Orleans junk yard, my friend Brent spotted a Delorean in the tall grass. The car was a disaster, but the price was right. The movie Back to the Future had an ever expanding audience and was endearing the Delorean into 1980’s culture. The disaster Delorean was a blank slate and 8 years later, I modified this car into the first complete running Delorean Time Machine, outside of Hollywood.