Columbus, Ohio, isn't widely regarded as a center of automotive
manufacturing, and rightly so: Of the 10 or so manufacturers that
actually proceeded with automobile production in the city, all had
disappeared by the mid-1920s and only about four of them built
automobiles for more than a couple of years. Yet one company - De Lorean
- thought Columbus would make for a fine place to build some cars call home in the 1980s.
Yes, De Lorean built the majority of its cars in Dunmurry, Northern
Ireland, before the company went bankrupt following the October 1982
arrest of John DeLorean on drug trafficking charges. According to DeLoreanMuseum.org, De Lorean Motor Company built 9,200 DMC-12s in Northern Ireland between January 1981 and December 1982.
Those latter months of 1982 proved a turbulent time for De Lorean,
both the man and the company, but they also saw the arrival on the scene
of Sol A. Shenk, a Russian immigrant to the United States, who in 1967
started a business selling closeout and overstock car parts; the
business, Consolidated Stores, took off when Shenk switched to household
goods and became the company that runs Big Lots and Odd Lots stores
across the country. Following the demise of Malcolm Bricklin's eponymous
car company in late 1975, Shenk swooped in to buy its remains and sold
off the 300 finished cars along with the leftover parts inventory.
"He's doing all right with Bricklin," David Brownell told the New York Times
years later. "He's the sole source for Bricklin parts, and since parts
fall off Bricklins with some regularity, it's a good business."
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