Ben Ferguson
I used to get my grandfather's
Popular Science magazines after he was finished reading them and I
attribute my current ownership of VIN 10365 to receiving these
paper-backed gifts. It was just before my 11th birthday when I
first became interested in the DeLorean DMC-12 Sports Car after reading
a July 1981, Popular Science article, "DeLorean's Stainless-Steel-Clad
High-Tech Sports Car". Almost a year later, another Popular
Science article came out in the March 1982 issue, "DeLorean Space
Capsule For The Road". I was fascinated by the included
technology and the forward-thinking of the engineering. Clearly
this was a car years ahead of its time and I wanted one.
Fast-forward a few years
... By this time I was a "certifiable car nut", especially when
it came to limited production exotic cars. I was watching TV at a friend's house when a
movie trailer started playing. The first shot I saw was a tennis
shoe kicking a tire, but not just any tire. I recognized the
curvature of the sidewall and the small segment of the wheel. The
first thing I said with auctioneer speed was, "That's a
DeLorean!" The next shot showed the door being unlatched and
swinging upward. The next thing I said was, "Yep, that's a
DeLorean! I have to go see that movie!" I then turned to
the nearest person and asked her out to see,
"...thatmoviewhateverit'snameisIdon'tremember!" So the whole
reason that I went to see Back to the Future, was because there was a
DeLorean in it. Lucky for me, it was and still is a great movie.
I am not 100% certain of VIN
10365's ownership records, but she was assembled in Dec 1981 and later
sold to a married couple in Florida who lived in a gated
community. By 1986 this couple decided to be a little different
from the other 15 DeLorean owners in their neighborhood and had VIN
10365 painted white. Unfortunately, they did it the right way and
used some extremely stout primer (which has proven to be quite a
challenge to remove and seems almost chemical resistant). Anyway,
she got VIN 10365 in their divorce and kept her for several years until
selling VIN 10365 to Matthew P. Olans. Matthew had VIN 10365
shipped to New Jersey where he proceeded to put about 125 miles on her
before parking VIN 10365 at PJ Grady where she sat for about three
years.
My
first day of ownership of VIN 10365 was December 18th, 2003. A
bitter-sweet morning because she arrived in time for me to see her off
the truck, but so close to the time I had to leave for work that I
couldn't do a really close inspection or take her out for a spin.
In all actuality, when VIN 10365 arrived she was not mine at the
time. During the day, current owner, Matthew P. Olans came over
to the house to arrange for vehicle inspection and emissions
testing. In the evening we met at my credit union to finalize the
transaction and VIN 10365 was now mine (and my credit union's).
Ben Ferguson
Arizona DeLorean Club, Car Cruise Director - VIN 10365
captainhydrogen@cox.net
Note from the Webmaster:
Ben is quite the musician! Click here to get
the mp3 of a song named "Pogo" performed by him and his band. Ben wrote
the song and played bass.
