Kat DeLorean, daughter of legendary automotive engineer John DeLorean, is building a new sports car to honour her father’s memory, according to a blog of the car’s site published recently.
A historic endeavour
“This historic endeavour will be filled with some of the top automotive minds in the industry, alongside a portion of the original team that helped create the first iconic DeLorean more than 40 years ago. The car will be named the Model-JZD in honour of John Zachary DeLorean,” stated the blog.
The Model-JZD. DNG Motors
The car will be built in Motor City in Detroit, Michigan, in January of 2023 by DeLorean Next Generation Motors, a company founded by John DeLorean’s daughter. The vehicle is expected to be unveiled by the end of the year.
"Kat was integral on countless engineering projects with her father, including the next cutting-edge sports car before his unexpected passing in 2005. Her engineering background, and direct involvement, make Kat the perfect successor to finish where John DeLorean left off. Kat is putting her father’s final business plan to work creating a car company based on the principles John DeLorean believed in such as quality, safety, longevity, and affordability,” reads the blog.
Hopefully the new company will not have the same fate as Jon DeLorean’s first attempt at creating his own firm. That endeavour lasted only about three years, went out of business 40 years ago, and only made 9,000 examples of a single car. Perhaps that is why Kat DeLorean is so intent on building a new and perhaps improved firm.
A new journey
“Kat begins the journey of rebuilding the DeLorean name and brand into the ethical company her father always wanted it to be. This is a new kind of mobility company the industry has never seen before, one that focuses on people and gives back to society,” further states the blogs.
Kat DeLorean’s new project will not only build cars and create jobs, it will also deliver a new engineering programme to public high schools that will provide a direct pathway to apprenticeships and engineering programmes at major universities.
She also plans to engage in partnerships with other manufacturing companies to help address some of the most pressing challenges faced by the automotive industry today.
Despite these ambitious goals, DeLorean Next Generation Motors is truly at its infancy with its logo having been created just a mere two weeks ago.
Its first car, the Model-JZD, began as an effort to create a tribute design to honour the previous DMC-12 DeLorean car by imagining what it might look like if it was designed and built today. It was initially spearheaded by Angel Guerra and Allan Portilho, and it caught the eye of Kat DeLeroen who asked the designers to join her team.
Although the first DeLorean Motor Company went bankrupt in 1982, a new version was founded in 1995 by British engineer Stephen Wynne. That firm is currently working on an electric vehicle called the Alpha 5.