6th June 2024
London to Birkenhead - Stena Line Ferry Terminal
The day had arrived and after my boys had left home for school I was restless, I couldn't wait to get going and my planned time for setting off, 11:15, seems such a long way off. I had planned to get to Norton Canes service on the M6 Toll for 13:30-14:00, where I'd meet with other owners. Come 08:45 I was too restless so I decided to go out and re-fuel, at the risk of hitting the tail end of rush hour traffic.
09:15, I'm back home, fuelling took no time at all. Still two hours to go... With the car on the driveway, I started loading it up.
10:00, the car is loaded, my luggage on the luggage rack behind the seats, a package containing a re-covered DeLorean dashboard was carefully fitted in to the passenger side of the car, to be delivered to its owner, Alexx Michael, whilst in Belfast. My day bag fitted next to it on the passenger seat, and my boiled sweets for energy were placed within reach in the coin tray.
10:30 I can't stand waiting anymore, I'm off! I decide to hit the road early.
See this video to follow the journey to Birkenhead.
Norton Canes Services
At around Northampton Ryan Harvey and Monica were at the motorway services near Northampton in their DeLorean, just as I was passing. They soon caught me up and we headed together to Norton Canes.
Initially Ryan, Monica, and I arrived, shortly followed by Nick Askew in his Time Machine conversion.
Shortly afterwards more arrived, Mike Knowlton, Barry Knowlton, John Dangerfield to name but a few.
By about 13;30 we set off in convoy for Cheshire Oaks, an outlet mall in the Ellesmere Port area of The Wirral where it had been planned to meet up prior to a final mass convoy to the ferry terminal.
Cheshire Oaks
At Cheshire Oaks the DeLorean count grew to about 22. We spent time, whilst we waited for the agreed departure time of 19:15, chatting, tinkering with our cars, grabbing dinner etc. The sight of all the cars caught everyone's attention. Even the outlet mall's manager had seen us on CCTV and came down to thank us for choosing to use his site as a staging post due to the attention it was getting.
We set off promptly for the port, the sight of ca. 22 DeLoreans was magic, and some footage of the convoy was later found posted online such as the following.
Stena Line Ferry Terminal at Birkenhead Port
It wasn't long after arrival at the terminal that we started to be processed and filtered through the the staging area prior boarding.
From the staging area one could see the Liverpool waterfront on the opposite side of the Mersey river. If you look through my open doors in the photo below you can see the towers of the Liver Building.
Just before 21:00 we started to board the ferry as can be seen in the clip below.
Once parked we secured our vehicles and headed up the four or five flights of stairs to the passenger decks.
I went straight to my cabin. I thought I would go out to the communal areas and meet the other owners, but I was so knackered that after taking a few snaps, I just got in to bed, even before the ferry had left port and then slept through until Friday morning.
The pictures I did take included the one below of the Liverpool waterfront lit-up.
7th June 2024
Arrival in Belfast
I set an alarm to wake up at 05:30. One hour before needing to return to vehicles to disembark. After getting up and clearing my cabin I went to the lounge at the front of the ferry just as we were coming in to port.
When we returned to our vehicles we had also been joined by these Bentley's to our right.
As the doors opened we were first off and headed into town and directly for our designated car park.
Once parked up, with some time to go before the first event, we walked into the city to find a cafe for breakfast. Afterwards we returned to the car park and departed for the day's events.
Belfast City Council Media Shoot
It had been arranged that the convoy to the Ulster Transport Museum would detour past Belfast City Hall, and that at the back of the line Paul Jenkins and myself would peel-off into the forecourt of the building for some media shots for the council.
The convoy and our arrival at City Hall can be seen in the below clip filmed for the YouTube channel, Channel 6 News.
As we pulled in off the main road we noticed two further DeLoreans had also joined us since they had got lost, seen us and just followed on behind.
The shoot made it into the Irish News. Yours truly in the centre between the "F" and the "A".
Ulster Transport Museum
Once all the media "stuff" was done we made our way to the Ulster Transport Museum. I had mentioned to Paul that at some point I really wanted to get a picture of my car in front of the Samson and Goliath iconic cranes. Fortunately these would be on our route so Paul noticed how the road that passes alongside them was not so busy and pulled up for a few quick snaps.
At the transport museum, still not yet at the full compliment of attending DeLoreans, but still an impressive number graced the car park.
There was an impressive amount of regionally significant modes of transportation from bikes to cars, trains and trolly-buses, even aircraft, most of which could have kept me there for the entire day. However for us, for this trip, it was the DeLorean DMC-12 exhibit that we gravitated towards.
The exhibit firstly shows the model, built when in the design process, note how the window are different to name just one evolution.
The exhibits narrative is shown below.
Further along the wall there is, from bottom to top, a chassis showing the major components and an interestingly placed handbrake, compared to where the actual one is located on the production cars. In the middle, suspended on it's side on the wall is a body mould, and then above is a cross-section of the fibre-glass tub.
Then as you walk around the back of this wall you come to another DeLorean, as shown in the image below, against which the museums interpretation of the story is told and the car is used as a canvas against which animated projections are displayed.
About 1pm we all congregated back in the car park and set off for the Titanic Distillers at Thompson Dock.
Titanic Distillers
After a longer than expected journey due to some faulty traffic lights we arrived at Thompson Dock for a visit to Titanic Distillers. Thompson Dock is where Titanic was located in dry doc, after its' main hull and infrastructure was built and launched off the slipway into the bay.
After the long line of DeLoreans had parked up around the dockside some of the group tinkered with their cars, others grabbed lunch whilst some went on tours at the distillery.
Also available was a limited DeLorean Revival edition whiskey, as seen below.
Following the distillery visit we all returned back to our designated car park.
That evening Darren Reardon had organised dinner for a large group of us including Karaoke at a local Chinese restaurant opposite our hotel.
8th June 2024
The Stormont Classic Car Show
Saturday saw an early start to arrive at Stormont for the annual classic car show. The DeLorean Revival contingent had been given permission to enter from the main gates and cruise up the long driveway to our designated spot in front of the main Stormont buildings.
There was the best part of 60 DeLoreans joining the car show as part of the greater DeLorean Revival event.
During the show we also received tickets for a tour of the Stormont Assembly Building and the Commons Chamber.
Following the tour it was time to get some photos done.
Shortly after 16:00 the car show drew to a close, but the DeLoreans held back for some synchronised cinematography as can be seen in the official Stormont Classic Car Show video below.
The Tesla Cybertruck
Once we departed from the Stormont estate those of us that wanted to, drove to the Belfast Tesla dealership where we had been invite to park up and view their Cybertruck.
That evening, once all the cars were nicely tucked up in their designated floor of the car park, a large group of us met up for dinner, this time the cuisine was Indian.
9th June 2024
DeLorean Motor Company Ltd Test Track
This was the main event, and everyone was keen to get there. First however we had to all get out of the car park, which by now had become a well practised ritual.
It was a wet day but this didn't dampen our spirits. We were taking our cars home, back to the factory, to the test track where they each would have been taken around some 40+ years ago.
Although a private event, news of the DeLorean Revival Track Day had spread and as we arrived at the site of the former factory, local Dunmurry residents had gathered on the streets to cheer and welcome us. It was a wonderful experience! It is certainly not an understatement to say that the establishing of the DeLorean Motor Company factory in Dunmurry in the late 1970's, did amazing things in the midst of the troubles, and brought this community closer together. This is something that impacted the many families of Dunmurry, and now the younger families of former workers still recount the stories and take on the pride of having parents and grandparents that worked to produce these vehicles.
The track had got into a terrible state, especially since the cancellation of EuroFest in 2021 due to the COVID pandemic.
Thanks to the DeLorean Revival organising team they shared the following videos, that I've consolidated, of the track clearing.
Alexx Michael produced a great video about the test track, history and the day's event, an extract of the historical footage is shown below.
Before the cars were let loose on the track we all were led on a track walk to understand its layout and features to avoid, such as the rumble strip.
The cars lined up alongside the factory building ready to be called forward for their turn on the track. Multiple goes of four to five laps each were possible. I did two attempts in 16606.
My first time on the track is recorded in the following video.
The rain didn't let up but it did allow for a great photo of 16606 being captured by Aaron's Motorsport.
Having the opportunity to drive on the factory test track was an honour and an experience that won't be forgotten. Unfortunately time went by faster than the speed attainable on the track itself. Soon we found ourselves departing after a full afternoon and heading back to Belfast city centre.
Once back in Belfast we parked up in the car park and found a nice pub, Robinson's, opposite the Europa Hotel where we had dinner and reminisced over the days events.
At some point around 19:00 we returned to our cars to set off to the Stena Line ferry terminal.
Departing Belfast for the Ferry Terminal
A short 15 minute ride took us to the terminal where the long line of us turned many heads.
A similar check-in procedure to the outbound sailing took place.
We were once again loaded on to the main deck with the larger vehicles and trucks, and positioned to the front for a speedy get-away.
Having left the cars I once more headed to my cabin for the night. I set my alarm for 05:30 and went to sleep.
10th June 2024
Arrival in Birkenhead and the Journey Home
Suddenly I was awoken by an announcement. "The time is now 06:15, would all passengers vacate their cabins and return to their vehicles"! Bugger! I had over-slept. In a panic I packed everything together in 60 seconds and made a dash for the car deck. As I got to my car I see others also wearily returning to theirs. I later found out that the announcement that woke me had in fact been the only one and most awoke with it in a panic.
The journey home was uneventful. A group of us decided to sit out rush hour and drove back to Cheshire Oaks and had breakfast at a Starbuck's within the on-site Sainsbury's supermarket. Once done we hit the motorways as each of us gradually peeled off as necessary to get to our home destinations. For me I decided not to stop en-route and to push for home where I finally arrived around 13:00.
All in all I was very happy with the performance of 16606, although a hot-start issue developed during the trip, but once I had learned how to deal with it, it became less of an immediate worry.
Roll on the next road trip!
Media and Miscellaneous
ITN News at Stormont.
Sky News feature
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