first shipment of cars leaves belfast harbor
Though the first DeLorean came off the production line on January 21, 1981, it wasn't until two months later that the cars were first shipped to the USA. Barrie Wills, former factory executive and author of John Z, the DeLorean and me...tales from an insider writes in his book:
The first shipment of cars was to be a major landmark, not just the for the company, but also for the people of Ulster as a whole. It had been a long time since they had anything of which they could share their pride. The last major industrial achievement of the province had been the completion of the RMS Titanic on 2 April 1912. That had been the work of an entirely Protestant workforce at Harland & Wolff. in marked contrast to the ship builder, at DeLorean we had gone out of our way to create a near 50-50 mixed workforce. Protestants and Catholics were working well together, and indeed, many were forming good social relationships outside the plant. The DMC-12 could be bragged about across all the social and religious boundaries.
On 20 February, Northern Ireland Carriers began to move the first cars into the compound Bob Donnell's team had created on the dockside in Belfast Harbour. Two months later, on 20 April, the first batch of 379 cars left for Long Beach, California aboard the ship Continental Highway, arriving on 15 May 1981.
These photos of the cars being loaded at Belfast Harbour are courtesy of former DeLorean Motor Cars Limited employee Neal Barclay.
The first shipment of cars was to be a major landmark, not just the for the company, but also for the people of Ulster as a whole. It had been a long time since they had anything of which they could share their pride. The last major industrial achievement of the province had been the completion of the RMS Titanic on 2 April 1912. That had been the work of an entirely Protestant workforce at Harland & Wolff. in marked contrast to the ship builder, at DeLorean we had gone out of our way to create a near 50-50 mixed workforce. Protestants and Catholics were working well together, and indeed, many were forming good social relationships outside the plant. The DMC-12 could be bragged about across all the social and religious boundaries.
On 20 February, Northern Ireland Carriers began to move the first cars into the compound Bob Donnell's team had created on the dockside in Belfast Harbour. Two months later, on 20 April, the first batch of 379 cars left for Long Beach, California aboard the ship Continental Highway, arriving on 15 May 1981.
These photos of the cars being loaded at Belfast Harbour are courtesy of former DeLorean Motor Cars Limited employee Neal Barclay.
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