The Orange County Register, April 10th, 2007
Sitting in the driver’s seat of his prized “Back to the Future car,” Don Steger talks about his purpose in life.
Blue, red and green lights adorn the famed DeLorean, a replica of the time machine from the popular 1980s sci-fi trilogy. The colors flash and bounce off his smiling face.
The 53-year-old mechanic, who has spent more than half his life fixing and building DeLoreans in his Garden Grove shop, has dreamed one dream his whole life – to own a piece of the DeLorean Motor Co.
His love for the car is no secret: 18 DeLoreans line the street in front of his shop. He owns them all. Not all are drivable, but he loves them just the same.
He believes the cars have potential. Each could be someone’s dream come true.
If people look at him strangely or wonder why he’s obsessed with a car from the ’80s, Steger hasn’t noticed.
“What’s not to love about a DeLorean?” he asks, his face luminous with awe.
The sleek sports car’s shimmering stainless steel body, those gull-wing doors, the engine’s amazing durability, the sheer horsepower.
“Who wouldn’t want that?” he asks.
And nothing short of crafting these beauties with his own hands would satisfy Steger.
But he knew it was a near-impossible dream.
This was a company that went under in 1983 after making a little more than 9,000 cars. No new cars have been made or parts fabricated. The brand has little or no name recognition.
And, to top it all, Steger had no more than $25,000 to spare.
• • •
Steger was one of eight children. His family struggled to survive.
He had no goals, ambitions or guidance. The heaviest kid in school, Steger often got teased, and his nickname, “Skin,” stuck through high school. He got it tattooed on his left arm.
“I never felt special or liked or even accepted when I was a kid,” Steger says.
He spooled in and out of Juvenile Hall for a variety of petty crimes, and when he turned 18, he had a choice – join the U.S. Marine Corps or go to jail. He became a Marine and remained one for four years.
“It gave me the structure and discipline I so badly needed,” Steger says.
But he still felt as if he hadn’t found his bearings in life.
He tried working for an electronics company assembling parts. But that didn’t last. He felt stagnant.
Then he enrolled in Santa Ana College to study automotive technology. After four years of study, he started teaching there and soon landed a job fixing cars in the Santa Ana Chrysler Plymouth dealership.
“I think it was pure chance that I became a mechanic,” he said. “But it saved my life and kept me from going back to everything I was running away from.”
The arrival of the DeLorean sealed his redemption.
He remembers the day the first fleet of 10 gleaming DeLoreans arrived at the Santa Ana dealership.
“It was the most awesome sight I’d ever seen in my whole life,” he said.
Steger became a certified DeLorean mechanic and a DeLorean nut for life. He collected them. He opened an exclusive DeLorean shop in 1986. He got married the next year, surrounded by 16 DeLoreans. He went to every DeLorean convention held. He still conducts an annual workshop in Chicago for an underground network of owners and enthusiasts.
He even went to Ireland for the 25th reunion of DeLorean enthusiasts from around the world. They talked DeLorean, exchanged notes and raced with an actor playing “Doc Martin” on a slalom course.
Steger doesn’t believe for an instant that his passion is misplaced.
“It’s a unique car,” he said. “People hang out of their car windows snapping pictures on their cell phones as I drive down the street. It’s very special.”
• • •
The DeLorean company came crashing down in 1983 after founder John DeLorean was charged with drug trafficking. He was acquitted, but his company was doomed.
A new DeLorean Motor Co. was formed in 1997 and has locations in Ireland, Houston, Florida, the Netherlands, Chicago and Seattle.
The company bought the rights to make the car and bought the largest remaining stock of parts from the original company.
Steger still wanted to make the cars, and the man who conceived the car was his hero. He will never forget the first time he met him.
It was five years ago at a convention in Cleveland when he and his buddy caught DeLorean’s attention with a stainless steel guitar that Steger crafted from the hood of a DeLorean in his garage.
“John pulled us aside and autographed the guitar,” Steger said. “It was a wonderful moment.”
Steger continued to see DeLorean at events and conventions. In September 2004, six months before his death, DeLorean showed up in Steger’s Garden Grove garage.
“That was a good day,” Steger recalls.
But Steger’s shop was not bringing in enough money, and the dream seemed to float farther away from him with every passing day.
He approached the Texas DeLorean Co. a year ago with the hope of selling his business, so he could open a DeLorean franchise. But Steger wasn’t happy with their offer.
“I was really down in the dumps then,” he said. “I was living from week to week. It seemed like it was never going to happen.”
But Steger’s fortunes turned when he got a call from Texas with the proposal that he could buy a franchise for $25,000 in cash and $25,000 in inventory.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Steger said. “It’s all I ever wanted – to be DeLorean Motor Co. of California.”
That means Steger will be fabricating new parts in Garden Grove and making DeLoreans. The store will open to the public May 5. The basic DeLorean will have a sticker price of $50,000.
“This was John DeLorean’s dream,” Steger says. “It was also my dream. And now that dream lives on.”
