[Shotimes] (OT) John DeLorean, Innovative Automaker, Dies at 80

[Ron Porter]

FYI,

Ron Porter


March 20, 2005
John DeLorean, Innovative Automaker, Dies at 80
By DANNY HAKIM

John DeLorean, the flamboyant automobile industrialist whose 
dream of running his own car company dissolved into bankruptcy, 
died Saturday evening at Overlook Hospital in Summit, N.J.. He 
was 80 years old and lived in Bedminster, N.J.
The cause was complications following a stroke, his family said.
Mr. DeLorean, a Detroit native, was once thought to be a 
contender for the presidency of General Motors but left the 
world's largest automaker in 1973 and went on to start his own 
company, DeLorean Motor Company, with the backing of investors 
like Johnny Carson and Sammy Davis Jr.
DeLorean Motor produced only one model, the DMC-12, but it made a 
lasting impression. In the early 1980's, with increasingly dull 
cars coming from Detroit, the unpainted, stainless steel sports 
car had doors that opened like a seagull's wings and was featured 
in the "Back to the Future" movies starring Michael J. Fox.
Though the car remains an iconic collector's item, the life of 
Mr. DeLorean's company was brief, with about 9,000 cars produced 
at a factory in Northern Ireland before the company went bankrupt 
in 1982 amid charges by authorities in the United States that Mr. 
DeLorean was selling cocaine to prop up its finances. Mr. 
DeLorean was acquitted in 1984 after a highly publicized trial.
Though he was never able to rekindle his automotive dream-for a 
time he started a wrist watch company called DeLorean Time -he 
also never let it go. His fourth wife, Sally, said in a brief 
interview yesterday that he had designed a new sports car and 
still hoped to start another automaker.
"He's been working on it for the last couple years," she said.
John Zachary DeLorean was born in Detroit on Jan. 6, 1925, the 
oldest of four sons of a Ford Motor Company foundry worker. 
Growing up in a working class neighborhood, he graduated from the 
Lawrence Institute of Technology and went on to earn masters 
degrees in both engineering and business.
He joined the small Packard Motor Car Company as an engineer in 
1952. With ambition, insight and an eye for the unconventional 
option that could succeed, he became a rising star, first at 
Packard, and starting in 1956, within G.M., the world's largest 
automaker. At 40, he became was the youngest general manager of 
G.M.'s Pontiac division and four years later the youngest manager 
of Chevrolet. In 1972, at 48, he became a G.M. vice president.
He was an anomaly in an industry then dominated by button-downed 
executives. He dyed his hair jet-black, wore shirts open to the 
navel, married a teenage starlet and subsequently a supermodel, 
and became a wonder at self-promotion. He wore long sideburns 
that violated the company's unwritten dress code and even had the 
president of Ford as best man at his second marriage. He also 
owned a tenth of the San Diego Chargers for a time and played the 
jazz saxophone.
"He once told me that he placed enjoying life very high in his 
list of priorities, and he felt that contrasted with many other 
executives," said J. Patrick Wright, who collaborated with Mr. 
DeLorean on a book called "On a Clear Day You Can See General 
Motors."
His flair extended to business. He created Detroit's first muscle 
car, the Pontiac GTO, the first of a wave of such vehicles. Many 
in the industry felt he would someday be G.M.'s president, but he 
left G.M. in 1973, citing opposition to his unorthodox business 
style; others said he was dismissed. He told reporter at the 
time, "There's no forward response at General Motors to what the 
public wants today."
Mr. DeLorean became intent on creating a corporation in his 
image.
"If we were super, super lucky and did everything right, we might 
some day have another B.M.W.," Mr. DeLorean said in 1977.
He opened a factory in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, in early 1981, 
which was to produce his $25,000 sports car, at a time when the 
average vehicle cost about $10,000. The British Government sunk 
$120 million into the $200 million project.
But with cars sales depressed in the United States, and with the 
cars plagued by numerous quality problems, the company fell into 
financial trouble and was the subject of a British Government 
investigation into allegations of financial irregularities. The 
inquiry found no evidence of criminal conduct, but on Oct. 19, 
1982, the British government announced the factory would be 
closed.
On the same day, in Los Angeles, Mr. DeLorean was arrested and 
charged with conspiring to obtain and distribute 55 pounds of 
cocaine. He was videotaped in an F.B.I. sting, declaring, "it's 
better than gold" when presented with a case of cocaine by what 
he thought were investors and who turned out to be government 
agents.
His trial was seen as kicking off an era of celebrity cases. Mr. 
DeLorean contended that he had been seeking a legitimate 
investment for his factory when he was lured into a setup. 
Accompanied by Christina Ferrare, the model who was his third 
wife, Mr. DeLorean, his hair by then snow white, professed to 
have found religion in jail. A jury in Los Angeles acquitted him 
in August 1984.
Shortly thereafter, he faced another trial, in Detroit, on fraud 
charges after a grand jury accused him of siphoning off, for his 
own use, about $9 million investors had put into his auto 
company-he was also acquitted in that trial.
Persistent legal troubles drained Mr. DeLorean's resources over 
the years. By 2000, he sold off his sprawling estate in 
Bedminster, N.J., which is now a golf club operated by Donald 
Trump.
In addition to his wife, Mr. DeLorean is survived by two 
daughters Kathryn Ann DeLorean, Sheila Baldwin DeLorean; a son, 
Zachary Tavio DeLorean; three brothers: Charles (Chuck) Delorean, 
Jack DeLorean and George DeLorean; and two grandchildren.
Though Mr. DeLorean's company long ago went bankrupt and stopped 
producing cars, it lives on today, operated by a company in Texas 
that bought all of the remaining DeLorean parts and repairs and 
refurbishes cars for collectors.
"You can't discount the value of the Back to the Future movies," 
James Espey, the vice president of DeLorean Motor, said 
yesterday.
"People who saw the cars in the movies in their teens, these are 
people in their early, mid 30's, well established, and they now 
can get the car they wanted when they were a kid."
Though Mr. DeLorean was not involved with the company, Mr. Espey 
said he spoke to Mr. DeLorean once a month, including a 
conversation Thursday morning shortly before he suffered a 
stroke. Mr. Espey said Mr. DeLorean was concerned about the 
increasing financial troubles of his former employer, General 
Motors.
"He had said that there were too many bean counters and not 
enough engineers in the management," said Mr. Espey. .
Mark DeLorean, Mr. DeLorean's nephew, said Mr. DeLorean was 
concerned that domestic automakers were relying too much on 
rebates to sell cars that were not much to look at.
"John's attitude was always, I want people's eyes to light up 
when they walk through the showroom," Mr. DeLorean said.


Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company