With this fuel my DeLorean could run FOREVER!

Check it out! Possible eco-friendly biofuel for traditional cars in 10 years or less!

Biofuel Breakthrough?

Successful Test Drive!!! She's Baaaaack....!

After five and a half months of research, frustrations, returned parts, bad parts, unexpected additional repairs, unexpected additional tools and a lot of hair-pulling, tonight I made the final temporary adjustments to the steering tie rods in anticipation of Friday's alignment at Gran Turismo East. I also checked the front brake lines again and did some tightening to the flange couplings and made sure the front wiring harness was secured.

At that point, I was going to hang it up until Friday morning, but Melinda convinced me to take a quick test drive to see if everything was ok. Despite it being damp outside and the tires not being completely pressure tested, I agreed a short test of all systems would be a good idea--but I was really, really nervous.

The car fired up and settled down from hunting rather quickly, I assume due to the new O2 sensor. We inched out of the garage and the brakes were responsive. So far so good. I left the neighborhood slowly and only went a little ways, before pulling over as I remembered there were still loose access panels and screws in the luggage compartment. I removed those to a safe location and then proceeded to continue getting used to the DeLorean's brakes (They're not as responsive as my 2001 Bullitt Mustang, so I had to "relearn" them as I briefly panicked that they were spongey and possibly malfunctioning, but it was all good.)

After a brief stop at a gas station to check for that suspension creak on the passenger side, which was thankfully now completely gone, I headed off for a cruise to listen for any wheel humming in the bearings or other problems. I immediately noticed the shuddering front brakes were no more, thanks likely to new pads and new rotors. Also, the speedometer was working so the angle drive and lower cable had survived the removal and reinstallation. Very very good signs.

The new front stance of the car provided much better handling and visibility. Cruising was even more enjoyable than before. When we stopped at a local Starbucks to turn around and head for home, someone yelled, "Dude, I LOVE the DeLorean! That is OFF THE CHAIN!"

Yeah...It's good to be back.

The car is still hunting on warm starts, but it seems to settle down faster. I will be looking into this soon. The immediate next steps though are a coolant flush, installation of the new stereo and speakers, headlight switch upgrade, LED interior lighting to replace the incandescents and, yes...a Flux Capacitor.

  

DeLorean Song of the Week - 3/28/2011

This week's DeLorean era classic is an unforgettable hard rock song from 1987 by the legendary Def Leppard.

Def Leppard - Hysteria

The Tires are ON THE GROUND!!!! WOOHOO!

After more than five months in the air, 6239 is finally back down on her tires! On Saturday, Melinda and I worked all day and into the evening to get the brakes back together. After a serious head game with a crappy Mityvac Brake Bleeder Pump that didn't do jack, Melinda and I did it the old fashioned way with one person working the pedal and the other bleeding the brakes. After a few adjustments, the brakes were working like a charm.

Sunday morning was the reassembly of the front end. The front brake calipers seemed to be weeping fluid, so I tightened them and will check them tomorrow night. The only thing left now is to get a front end adjustment and change the coolant!

We had a heck of a time getting the stabilizer bar back on, but we finally managed to get everything in place. Then due to the lowered front end, we brought the DeLorean's front wheels down on a stack of plywood squares. The new look of the front ride height was greatly improved. I cannot wait to get the car back on the road for the spring and summer season!

 

Happy Birthday Wishes to a Young BTTF Fan

A good friend of mine has alerted me that her cousin, Joe, is a big Back to the Future fan. The best part is that Joe is a new fan, which means one of the greatest films ever made is still entertaining 26 years later!

Like most Back to the Future fans, Joe told me his favorite car is the DeLorean. Why? Well, let me give it to you in his own words.

"Hi. I love that it is from the [future]... ...I love it!"

Yeah, that pretty much sums up my feelings as well. No joke.

Joe, I know your birthday is soon and the DeLorean is still getting repairs done, but it will be ready soon! When you get back from spring break, I'll make sure you get to meet your favorite car. But there's one thing we won't be able to do - We can't go 88 miles per hour. Why? The police will give us a ticket. I know from personal experience...

Faces Not Known But Forever Remembered

I've been so focused and frustrated with the repairs to the vehicle lately, that I haven't taken the time to relax and reflect. This afternoon I had a moment of pause, and a vivid memory from my ownership experience came to mind. I had planned to eventually write down a lengthy, multi-part chronicle of my purchase and road trip home from Connecticut, but I think I'll tell this story now.

It was the second day of my road trip home with the DeLorean. If I recall correctly, I was somewhere in Pennsylvania heading for the edge of Maryland. I will never remember the town. It was one of the many tired no-name remnants of Americana I flashed through on the way back to Atlanta.

The sun was just starting to turn orange behind the weathered early-20th century buildings. I was following state roads to keep the car off the highway. The benefit was little to no rocks being thrown up on my new car. The drawback was navigation confusion as the roads wound around and signs pointed to out of date avenues or simply paths to nowhere.

Expectedly, as I followed the road down the main drag of the tiny town I was in, the signs suddenly sent me to the right and then after two blocks, I was sent to the left and then immediately left again, where I found myself behind some apartment houses, with some young kids playing ball in the street. They couldn't have been more than 7 or 8 years old. As I slowly drove past, they stopped and looked with curiosity, but no recognition.

Then I turned left at the end of the street and found the signs telling me to go right at the end, back onto the first detour. The signs had just made me do a pointless loop. Ugh.

The road was on an incline and going right was going back up the hill. As I lunged the DeLorean back onto the road to head back to the main street where I would take a right and keep going, ever thankful for the pointless extra gas and time wasted on that little loop, I passed a man on the sidewalk on my right.

The man looked to be in his 40s, though maybe he was a weathered late-30s or well-preserved early-50s. It was hard to tell. The orange pallor of the sunlight was going purple behind the town.

What I didn't miss was the automatic wheelchair he was seated in, and the speed with which he turned the wheelchair to follow the DeLorean as it zoomed by. I saw his face only for an instant, and he was slack-jawed with surprise, his eyes wide and trying to take it all in as fast as he could.

I could tell he was absolutely stunned. He knew exactly what car he was looking at, and he didn't expect to see it driving by in a flash in the tiny town where he lived. I often wonder if he'd ever seen one in person before. I often wonder if it was his favorite car, or maybe he was just a car enthusiast. Either way, I look back and think two things: First - Why didn't I stop? Well, there was nowhere to do so, and you can't stop for every pointing finger, but in this case I often wish I had done differently. Secondly, I think to myself, "He clearly loved DeLoreans, and likely had never seen one in person before, but the chances are slim to none he would ever get to drive one." It always makes me feel simultaneously very sad and very lucky.

It is moments like these that make owning this car worth it. I'm glad I chose to take the backroads for many reasons, but the one that stands out the most in my mind is that man in the wheelchair in that tiny forgotten town, completely surprised. I hope 6239 gave him a good memory.

The Good Calipers, the Bad Dust and the Ugly Rotor - REPAIRS STALLED

I'll keep this quick. The front suspension is finally rebuilt despite great difficulty. The OEM lower control arms were refurbished while the Heninger LCAs were sent back for evaluation. So, now the front wheels are reassembled--new rotors, new pads, calipers mounted, new springs, new shocks and LCA braces.

So I move on to the rear brakes, after topping off the fluid. Turns out there's no way I can easily remove the pads without disassembling the entire shebang. So, off comes the emergency brakes and the rear calipers, with great difficulty and some brake dust in my eye, which is never good...

The trouble starts with the new rear rotors. The second one is an absolute mess right out of the box. It was covered in a horrendous, slick gunk that I can only assume is the remnants of Cosmoline. One side of the rotor was scored, as if someone had stabbed it with a knife. There was no way I was putting this on my car. Looks like I'll be delayed again as I return yet another part.

I guess the good news is my McFly Jacket, despite having to be returned also for having the wrong color panels, is being completely remade and should be done in a week. God let something go right...

Marty McFly Jacket Arrives! - Car Work Continues...

The Marty McFly jacket arrived from Magnoli Clothiers and it is EXCELLENT! Superb quality, perfect fit, amazing attention to detail!

Well, that was a fun diversion. Now back to re-rebuilding the DeLorean's suspension...

USA Today Says the 1980s Will Never Die! WOOT!

Enjoy this awesome article!

USA Today: The '80s are alive and well...

Back to the Future Game Review

Gen Xers have been waiting for a decent "Back to the Future" video game since 1985. The LJN Nintendo game and it's "Part II/Part III" combo sequel didn't cut it in the slightest. The online flash game with the original DVD release was also crap. But in 2009, Atari released "Ghostbusters: The Video Game" which was a successful "sequel" with the voices of all the original cast members. For some reason, given their consecutive movie release years, it seems "Ghostbusters" and "Back to the Future" go hand in hand in pop-culture and share the same fan base.

So it appears Universal Studios took a page from Sony's playbook for "Ghostbusters" and reached out to Telltale Games to create a virtual sequel to the "Back to the Future" series. They attempted to get the original cast just like "Ghostbusters." Alas, Michael J. Fox, Tom Wilson and Crispin Glover (no surprise) declined to return. Thankfully, Christopher Lloyd stepped up to reprise Doc Brown and producer Bob Gale was a consultant on the project. With the heart of the cast and one of the original writers/producer, Telltale was off and running.

The result is quite entertaining, so far equaling the appeal of Atari's "Ghostbusters." Telltale Games is releasing "Back to the Future" in five episodes via direct download and accessed through a dashboard-style interface. Unlike "Ghostbusters," which took a photorealistic approach to the game almost recreating the youthful appearances of the actors, Telltale opted with "Back to the Future" to take a stylized approach. The result is something in the direction of Pixar's "The Incredibles," and it works well conveying the spirit of the original actors without crossing into digital wax figures.

Voice acting is superb, with Marty McFly's voice all but matching Fox's. The weakest voices so far have been the very brief sound of Lorraine's voice that doesn't seem to clinch with Lea Thompson's and the voice of Biff Tannen, which in some lines is perfect. In others, it's somewhat off. An unexpected but impressive acting job is done by the actor voicing George McFly, which sounds very much like Glover. Telltale also ponied up the cash for Huey Lewis' "Back in Time" which adds a nice touch in the background on Doc's jukebox and the end credits.

Thus far, the opening episode is available. Titled "It's About Time," it will be followed in February by "Get Tannen." OK fanboys, I'm about to describe the story so that means SPOILERS are ahead. Cover your eyes.

THE STORY

The game opens at Twin Pines Mall through the lens of Doc's JVC video camera. Here Telltale recreates "temporal experiment number one" from the original film, but through the "eyes" of Marty behind the lens of the video camera. It's an extremely cool touch and immediately immerses us in the world of "Back to the Future." But something is horribly wrong - the DeLorean doesn't return with Einstein and then Doc disappears! Fortunately for Marty it is a nightmare and he wakes up in his bedroom. The date? May 14, 1986.

From there, the plot gets going as Marty races over to Doc's house where George McFly is overseeing the sale of Doc's estate so the bank can sell the property to build a parking garage. Marty is convinced that Doc is coming back, Biff is rummaging through Doc's stuff and out of nowhere, the DeLorean returns in front of Doc's house with Einstein in tow, but no Doc. Just a tape recorder with Doc's voice imploring Marty to come rescue him and an old fashioned woman's shoe. With only Doc's tattered journal to help him and the time circuits display on the fritz, Marty and Einstein trace the shoe to old, crabby Edna Strickland, presumably the mother of James Tolkan's Mr. Strickland from the series.

Marty learns from the old bat and her exhaustive newspaper collection that she lost the shoe the day an infamous Hill Valley speakeasy burned down. Within the newspapers is the horrifying news that a man named "Carl Sagan" was arrested for the arson of the speakeasy and killed a few days later, in the year 1931! Marty recognizes this Sagan as Doc! He and Einstein take the DeLorean and head off to 1931 to save Doc from the gangster and bootlegger Kid Tannen.

The story is well written and executed in the classic point-and-click adventure style. You choose what Marty says and gather clues and information from the locals, using items and solving situational puzzles to achieve objectives. The play control is solid and enjoyable. I was a little annoyed at first that the plot is similar to "Part III" with Doc in dire trouble and Marty heading to his rescue, but I found the writing so original and the attention to detail so complete, I quickly forgave the setup.

In a lovely mirror to the original film, Marty enters a soup kitchen on the Hill Valley Square. Inside a guy is eating soup and behind the counter a thuggish guy is reading the newspaper. A guy bursts into the soup kitchen and begins harassing the soup eater, yelling "McFly!" At this moment, I finally realized what it would have been like to be Marty pulled out of time. It never occurred to me that I was in the same building that served as an aerobics club, the Cafe 80s, malt shop and Western Saloon. When Kid Tannen yells "McFly" and the soup eater begins stammering, I was genuinely surprised and knew I should have seen it coming.

What follows involves convincing a 17-year-old Doc Brown to build a rocket drill so Marty can spring old Doc from jail. What stands in Marty's way? A young Edna Strickland looking for a good story for the newspaper, having to subpoena his own grandfather and staying one step ahead of Kid Tannen, who is out to ruin Hill Valley. All the while trying to remember that your name in 1931 is Harry Callahan. Or was it Michael Corleone or Sonny Crockett? You decide. It's classic "Back to the Future!"

CONTROLS & GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is an upgraded version of the classic point-and-click adventure. The keyboard controls Marty smoothly as you guide him through the world of Hill Valley. The cursor, in the shape of the Flux Capacitor, allows you to highlight and interact with objects in the scenery. The controls can get a bit wonky when the perspective changes and some of the environments are stylistically tilted or at an interesting angle so sometimes Marty changes directions and bump into a wall for a sec (don't worry, it doesn't hurt you). In other words, up might be up on one screen but when the perspective changes up could make Marty turn right instead. It's not a real problem, just an occasional annoyance.

The other issue I have with this game are the interaction choices for speaking with the other characters. You are often given three choices at each verbal intersection, but on many occasions the choices are all there merely to amuse you. When you click any of them, Marty ends up saying a pre-scripted universal answer. Example: On one occasion I saved the game before a conversation and tried all three potential responses, reloading each time to take an account of the reactions. With each choice, Marty simply said "Uhh…" before Doc Brown interrupts him. Seems kinda cheap of the designers to dodge that way. There were a few moments in which the game was buggy and dialogue was missing, including a key line from Doc Brown that I am still not sure what was said. A shame, as it was Lloyd's dialogue.

The puzzles are not always a walk in the park and it was nice to have some challenges, but nothing that drove me to cheating with a walkthrough. However, I would not describe this game as super challenging, at least not the first chapter. The strength of this game lies in the quality of the storytelling and character development. It FEELS like "Back to the Future" in a way that the short-lived cartoon was unable to accomplish. I am currently working through the second chapter right now and the game continues to delight.

Oh the Places You'll Car Show

As if the "on the street" and "Back to the Future" attention isn't enough, 6239 is a regular at Atlanta car shows throughout the spring, summer and fall seasons. There have been a variety of shows and cruise-ins attended. 6239 is a regular attendee of the big Caffeine & Octane cruise-in every month, mentioned in a previous posting. 

6239 also does some charity work and has appeared at the Galaxy Cruise-In, the Atlanta Dream Ride and the UPS United Way Car Show.

United Way Charity Event - August 2009



Atlanta Dream Ride - June 2009



6239 meets Herbie the Love Bug at the Atlanta Dream Ride

UPS United Way Car Show - September 2009

UPS United Way Car Show - September 2010

Don't You Want Me Baby?! - Awesome Take Me Home Tonight music vid!!!

I can't count all the 1980s movie references in this video! It's awesome. Check it out - with the stars from "Take Me Home Tonight" and Topher Grace's own excellent Marty McFly impression!

DeLorean Song of the Week - 3/7/2011

Sometimes the best 1980s songs are from the bands that didn't escape that tubular decade of decadence. This week I present to you one of those rockin' awesome songs from the 1980s band Autograph! I dare you to listen to it only once - you'll have to play it again, guaranteed.

Autograph - Turn Up the Radio

Take Me Home Tonight - 1980s Movie Review of the Week

Just saw "Take Me Home Tonight," the 1980s comedy with Topher Grace and Anna Faris. Set in 1988, the story follows an MIT grad who can't get his life together, but wants desperately to make a connection with his high school crush at the year's big annual party. For those watching carefully, he attended the fictional "Shermer High School," a nod to the fictional Shermer, Illinois, where many of John Hughes 1980s teen comedies were set. This film includes extended cameos by "Terminator" star Michael Biehn and 1980s redhead vamp Angie Everhart.

Great comedy, good pacing and a genuinely funny story. Worth a watch. Now let's breakdown the 1980s stuff here...

1980s nostalgia trips are in a tough position. They have to recreate the look and feel of decade that many people have only pastiche memories of, so the visual broad strokes of the 1980s get crammed into the film anachronistically. "Take Me Home Tonight" is set in 1988, but its well-intentioned flubs are numerous.

Examples: Grace's character works at Suncoast Video Company. There is a prominent poster for "Back to the Future" in the store, however "Back to the Future" came to VHS almost two years before so it is unlikely the store would be featuring this video. Similarly there is a poster for "Biloxi Blues," but that film was theatrically released in 1988, so it probably didn't get released on VHS until 1989 or later. Even weirder are the posters in the store for "Howard the Duck" and "American Graffiti." "Howard the Duck" was released in 1986 and was a flop, so there's no chance it would be the feature poster in the store window. Then there's "Graffiti" which was 1976, so that film being in the background must simply be a thematic reference.

In the opening of the film, the characters are in a music store where there are feature walls for Madonna's "Like a Virgin" (1984) and Whitney Houston's "Whitney" (1987) side-by-side. Again, it is unlikely "Like a Virgin" would still be on the feature wall. At best it would have been Madonna's 1986 album "True Blue."

At one point in the film during the party they play the Motley Crue classic "Kickstart My Heart," but this song was released in 1989. Whoops.
But all is forgiven when they go to a yuppie banker party and amongst the exotic cars pulling up at the California mansion is a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12. It just isn't the 1980s if a DeLorean isn't somewhere around.

Back to the Drawing Board - LCAs too short...ARGH!

After a serious debacle with funky shocks and flipped brackets, it's all for nothing. The new lower control arms are too short and the ball joints are not placed correctly. The result is too much toe-out and positive camber in the suspension that cannot be corrected. I have to send the arms off to a machinist to see what, if anything, can be done. In the photos below, the OEM arm is on the left and the new LCA with the incorrect length and placement is on the right.