Glomming onto a Federal program in the 1970s meant to spur the development of more accessible buses, DeLorean Motor Corporation saw a potential revenue stream. Not that the DMC 80 had anything to do with their now cult-classic sports car, it wouldn’t have even been built by DMC. An example of how badge engineering and pimping platforms has been going on forever in the automotive business, DeLorean was essentially planning on affixing the DMC badge to buses from Germany’s FFG.
Like the DMC-12, success was not to be had. The Urban Mass Transit Administration’s (now Federal Transit Administration) Transbus program was cancelled in 1981 after several years of floundering. DMC couldn’t continue to devote resources to the effort, so they abandoned the licensing effort and scrapped a proposal for a bus assembly plant in New York, too. While DeLorean may be little more than a passing curiosity in automotive history, the fact that they got an automobile into production and on the market means that there are plenty of enthusiasts looking for any remaining vestiges of the company. The nature of launching an automotive enterprise also means that there’s a ton of material to be strip-mined on eBay. If you find this little footnote in DeLorean’s history as fascinating as we do, you can pony up bids and get your hands on a small trove of goodies like blueprints to the non-starter bus plant, a brochure for the DMC 80, and a random DeLorean certificate of achievement. Our favorite item, though, is the memo from John DeLorean to Bill Haddad, essentially saying “call this guy, he can help us, oh yeah, he was also convicted of fraud.”
[Source: eBay via Winding Road]
Gallery: DeLorean bus
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click above image to view more pics of the Toyota Tundra Diesel Dually
With a strong OEM presence at SEMA, automakers are forced to bring The Badass to the masses. Toyota has apparently been overrun with requests from customers for some form of diesel motivation in its Tundra pickup and the automaker has responded… sort of… with the Tundra Dually Diesel. Toyota utilized two Tundra CrewMax pickups that were joined at the hip to lengthen the frame and add an additional foot to the bed. Although the majority of the Tundra Dually Diesel is bespoke show material, the drivetrain has been pulled straight from a Hino medium duty truck, with the only exception being a custom split driveshaft.
The crown jewel of the Dually is a JO8E 8.0-liter inline six turbodiesel, making around 300 HP and 600 lb.-ft. of torque. Shoehorning that kind of mill into the tight confines of the Tundra proved to be a challenge. The body had to be lifted off the frame by three inches and after some hacking and chopping of the firewall, they were finally able to fit the 1,500 pound engine into the bay. Between fitting the oil burner into the snout and mating it to a five-speed Allison tranny, the interior accoutrements have suffered - the HVAC controls are nonfunctional and the massive stick is there to provide additional leverage when shifting gears.
Mike Levine has a great write up covering all the details of the Tundra Dually Diesel, which is worth a read. And even though this mutha’ runs, don’t expect a production version to make it to dealers any time soon.
We’ve added Toyota’s press release after the jump.
Gallery: Toyota Tundra Diesel Dually Project Vehicle
Continue reading SEMA 2007: Toyota Tundra Dually Diesel
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The Heavy Duty Truck Manufacturing Industry report features 2007 current and 2008 forecast estimates on the size of the industry (sales, establishments, employment) for the 47 largest world countries. The report also includes industry definition, 5-year historical trends on industry sales, establishments and employment and estimates on up to 10 sub-industries, including turck bodies, bus bodies, van bodies and specialty truck bodies.
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The Motorcycle Manufacturing in China Comprises establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing motorcycles. This includes standard motorcycles with sidecars. This industry doe not include the manufacture of electric bicycles.
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The Automobile Body and Trailer Manufacturing in China comprises establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing automobile bodies, trailers and other non-mechanically propelled vehicle parts, such as cabs, chassis, body structures, truck trailers and semi-trailers. Additional products include special vehicle bodies, such as travel trailers, recreational vehicle bodies, campers, tankers, container trucks, munitions trailers and exhibition trailers. These products are parts of vehicles and must be towed by vehicles to run.
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The 2006 edition of this briefing was so popular; we decided to bring out an updated version again this year! In it, we analyse the top global automotive manufacturers’ approaches to platform strategy, particularly Renault Nissan, Volkswagen, Toyota, GM, Fiat and Ford The briefing also includes top…
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The first edition Hybrid Vehicles and Components Report has recently been published The report is just over 200 pages in length and includes profiles of all the key hybrid suppliers in the industry It provides an excellent market overview and covers in depth technological aspects of the sector…
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A global profile, analysis, segmentation & trends underlying the manufacture of the bodies and vehicles used for refuse collection and street sweeper applications Refuse trucks and street sweepers are highly dissimilar products from country to country, and when combined with local government…
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A global profile, analysis and segmentation underlying the manufacture of trucks for concrete mix and concrete pumping applications The delivery and placement of concrete with over-the-road vehicles is generally accomplished either by concrete mix trucks or through concrete pump trucks However,…
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The manufacture of truck bodies for vacuum and septic tank applications in North America is a diverse product segment in the truck body manufacturing industry These units can be very simple, hauling septic waste, to very complex, for cleaning sewer systems and collecting dry and wet hazardous waste…
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