The buck-a-lap racing revolution was built on the concept of allowing amateur racers to drive high performance formula cars racing against the clock. The business concept was developed in full by the DeLorean brothers in the early 1970’s with the opening of the Grand Prix of America track in Troy, Michigan.
DeLorean Formula Cars became the DNA for all future buck-a-lap racing ventures such as Malibu Grand Prix, Chaparral Raceway and Action Park. The open wheel design with a rear wing became iconic.
In total, four franchise Grand Prix of America tracks were built and operated including Troy, MI; Pomona; CA, Dallas, TX and Tempe, AZ. A total of 60 DeLorean Formula Cars were built for the Grand Prix of America franchise tracks.
The Grand Prix of America story ended with the corporation in bankruptcy by the end of the 1970’s. The Grand Prix of America franchise tracks eventually closed and some of the cars were sold to other operators. At least one of the tracks, Tempe, Arizona, was leased to Malibu Grand Prix who operated the facility using Virage cars into 1990’s.
DeLorean Formula Car Design and Manufacturing
Leveraging his connections at General Motors, John DeLorean reached out to race car design royalty Harry Quackenbush and Herb Adams to help with the formula race car design. Antares Engineering of Troy, MI managed the engineering of the DeLorean Formula Cars with manufacturing being done at the contract manufacturer Outboard Marine Corporation in Oshkosh, WI.
Built for performance and durability, DeLorean Formula Cars featured many innovations including a torsion bar front suspension, rear sub frame with leaf spring suspension, rack and pinion steering, Kelsey Hayes disc brakes and the aluminum Sachs KM24 Wankel engine.
A variable clutch from Comet used a belt to drive the lower Salsbury driven. The Salsbury driven is attached to a Dana third member and rear axle which enabled the cars to reach speeds over 65 MPH. The combination of these drive components resulted in an easy-to-use combination for amateur and professional racers piloting the cars. Gas on the right, brake on the left.
Car 13 featured many of the later design improvements including single piece fiberglass body with an Endura urethane nose. Earlier cars featured a two-piece body with removable front-end section.
