Below is the story behind the DeLorean car. Please be aware that this is a cumulation of many sources that I found in the library, over the Internet, and in Magazines, etc. So I've tried my best to turn it into a formidable story, however, it might not be the best because of time constraints.
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Soon, GM recruited him to become chief engineer at Pontiac at age 36. Pontiac's sales had slipped over the course of several years and De Lorean was determined to set the company straight again. He sought to develop a new market for Pontiac: the younger crowd. This prospective market would require a car that was powerful, yet affordable. De Lorean found just the car he was looking for when he dumped a huge engine into his Pontiac Tempest. The resulting creation was named the G.T.O. John's immediate superior told him to go ahead and produce the G.T.O. without having the concept approved by GM management (he was afraid that they would can a great idea). Many people at Pontiac speculated that the G.T.O. would not sell many units at all, but in 1964 when the G.T.O. debuted, Pontiac sold 31,000 G.T.O.s and 312,000 more of them over the next four years. The remarkable sales record of the G.T.O. set Pontiac back on track and far ahead of the other divisions. Strangely, GM management was furious at De Lorean for failing to seek their approval on the G.T.O. project.
John De Lorean was promoted to the position of general manager of Chevrolet in 1969 where he hoped to solve another dilemma. Chevrolet had been making some less-than-desirable cars and as a result, sales were falling. The first area for reform was in the design of several Chevrolet vehicles. When De Lorean took several Blazer engineers through the factory car wash in the Blazer, they all came out drenched. This problem and many others were solved with a new design and the Blazer soon became one of the most popular SUVs on the market. Also at Chevrolet, De Lorean headed the team that revolutionized comfort in automobiles by reducing noise. Chevrolet engineers placed the engine on rubber blocks, which dramatically cut vibrations and improved the ride. The new Chevrolet was much quieter than anything else on the market. In fact, their commercial stated that the new Chevrolet was "quieter than the most luxurious car in the world" and showed a Rolls Royce in the background. When GM management saw the commercial they were once again angry with John De Lorean. GM management insisted that Chevrolet could not make such claims because Cadillac was GM's luxury line!
Under John De Lorean's
reign, Chevrolet's profits increased 400% in four years and he was promoted
to the position of vice president of GM's American car and truck divisions
in 1973, where he earned $650,000 per year and was expected to
become GM's next president.
General Motors management and John De Lorean did not mesh well and after
several years, De Lorean was basically fired. But before leaving, he did
have his say about the lack of quality in GM cars. De Lorean stated to
the Detroit auto world that GM constantly neglected safety, quality, and
fuel economy and also stated that he would soon do something to change
that. The public was very enthusiastic and praised John De Lorean. Now
he could set out to achieve his ultimate dream, to develop his own car
and company. After his many years of incredible success in the automotive
industry, DeLorean was sure to find support for his new car project.
In 1975, De Lorean Motor Company (DMC) was founded and set up a temporary office in Detroit. DMC eventually set up its luxurious headquarters in a sky-scraper on Park Avenue in New York City. Now for the product: As John De Lorean stated, "The goal was to design and build a car that would be as safe as possible, reliable, comfortable, handle and perform well, be enormous fun to drive and unmistakably elegant in appearance." What he came up with was the De Lorean automobile we all know of today, which successfully meets all of De Lorean's criteria quite nicely. The first car that DMC would produce was called the DMC-12, since the goal was to make the car cost $12,000.
John De Lorean hired
Bill Collins to design his dream car. Collins was a very reputable engineer
from GM. Together, the team traveled to Italy and hired Giorgetto Giugiaro
of Italy Design to design the car's unique appearance. The key elements
for the design were to include gull wing doors and adequate room for a
tall person. The next step was to construct a factory. The original goal
was to build the car in the United States, but financial incentives led
DMC to investigate other areas of the world. Puerto Rico was seriously
considered. DMC and Puerto Rico negotiated and stalled for months while
DMC investigated the possibility of Ireland. With no time left, DMC was
on the verge of a deal with Puerto Rico when the Northern Ireland Development
Agency came up with a finance package that would beat all other offers
and the assembly plant was finally set to
be built in a muddy
field in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland.
DMC contracted Renault to design and build the modern factory, which consisted of five major buildings occupying 650,000 square feet. Belfast was one of the most violent areas in the world and was experiencing severe economic problems in the late 1970s. The British government wanted to improve employment in Belfast and figured that having a major automobile factory was sure to help the economy, and it did. De Lorean Motor Cars, Ltd. (DMCL), the division of DMC that assembled the cars and supplied DMC (US) with most of its money, once employed 2,600 workers. Many of these employees never had a job before. DMC hired equal amounts of Catholics and Protestants, so there was little conflict at work. All people of Belfast were quite enthusiastic about having DMCL in Northern Ireland and there was little violence aimed toward the company.
While the factory was
under way, there was much confusion in the developing the car. Bill Collins
had already produced several prototypes and was well underway in the design
work, but for an unknown reason, John De Lorean decided to hire
someone else to design
the car. He looked at Porsche and BMW, but they wanted too much time.
Meanwhile, Lotus was experiencing some trouble. In their racing department,
Team Lotus's amazing record took a turn for the worse when their
number two driver
was killed in a crash (Mario Andretti was their other driver). Lotus sales
had fallen, and the Lotus executives were looking for outside contracts
to save the company from bankruptcy. When John De Lorean offered them the
job, Colin Chapman was very opposed, but the other Lotus leaders pressured
him into the deal as it was the only way to save Lotus from facing financial
trouble.
The deal was done,
Lotus would design the DMC-12. Ironically, the company that John De Lorean
was so hooked on, Lotus, was probably not the best choice for this project.
The Lotus engineers were very skilled and created top quality cars, but
Lotus created cars for low-quantity production, there were to be at least
20,000 DMC-12s produced per year! Lotus built cars with a "File it 'til
it fits" philosophy and their initial design specifications were not exactly
precise. This posed a problem for the DMCL engineers who needed accurate
information in order to make sure the car could be produced properly. With
Lotus
ignoring DMCL's requests
for design drawings, a major problem occurred when the car reached production
and the actual assembly people in Northern Ireland had to improvise on
some designs.
The Lotus designers
hated the gull-wing doors and the rear-mounted engine, but John De Lorean
demanded that they be included. Those were about the only of De Lorean's
features that made it to final production. Initially, DMC spent millions
of
dollars on ERM (Elastic
Reservoir Molding) technology. ERM was lightweight, rust-proof, durable
and was one of the major initial selling points to the car. Lotus canned
the ERM features and John De Lorean didn't question this move. The only
part of the production car that was made of ERM is the panel under the
rear fascia.
What happened to Bill Collins? He was shafted from the deal when Lotus was hired. Collins tried to set things straight with designing a mass production car, but De Lorean ignored his warnings and told him to just let Lotus do the work. The initial design work that Collins had done was completely ignored by the new engineers and his prototypes were mocked at. The Lotus guys snickered about one, "Look, this one has fourteen welds in the exhaust line!" Collins replied, "It's a prototype, they are supposed to be built that way." But the Lotus designer said, "That's not the way we do it here at Lotus." Collins soon left DMC and started his own company to design lightweight motor homes.
So was Lotus a good
choice for De Lorean Motor Company? That is still a good question. On one
side, Lotus creates outstanding cars and has a long history of innovation.
They were the only ones to design the car within John De Lorean's time
limit and did a remarkable
job. Lotus may have been history today without the multi-million dollar
job from DMC. On the other hand, Lotus quashed most of the key elements
to the DMC-12 concept. What kind of car would the DMC-12 be if Bill Collins
was allowed to design it? That question can never be answered, but it can
safely be said that the DMC-12 would be very different automobile.
Initially planned to
debut in 1978, the De Lorean Sports Car was finally ready for the U.S.
roads in 1981. The car features a PRV-6 engine which was made by Renault.
Volvo regularly used this engine, so most of the parts are under the Volvo
name. Here in the U.S., the PRV-6 engine was used in the Volvo GLE and
Bertone series. Since fuel economy was a concern with the De Lorean, a
four cylinder Citroen engine was used in one of the prototypes, but since
it could not supply efficient power, the engineers opted for the PRV-6.
The transmission is also from Renault. (Don't be confused: there is a BIG
difference between the real Renaults and the Renaults that we know of here
in the U.S. These U.S. Renaults were made by AMC and are the butt of all
auto jokes, but the real Renaults from Europe are a different story). The
frame and several other parts are directly
from the Lotus Esprit.
Many of the electronic components were produced by the infamous Lucas and
are unreliable to say the least. The electrical design of the DMC-12 is
not its strong point. Dick Brown summed it up by calling it "a mess."
The key features of
the car, of course, are the gull wing doors, the rear engine, and the 304
stainless steel panels. The interior features leather trim and seats, power
windows and mirrors, and an adjustable steering wheel. The car also features
air
conditioning, which
is necessary since the windows are only 5 inches tall. The stainless steel
panels are not painted and can never rust. (DMC painted only three vehicles
that were used for testing purposes (ST-02-2/82)).
The De Lorean was quite different than the rest of the 1981 lineup of sports cars. The cars were hyped so much that the first ones had no trouble selling. Early buyers reserved a car and paid a $1000 deposit without even knowing how much the car would eventually cost. The De Lorean was priced at around $28,000, a far cry from the initial goal. Buyers' opinions of the car widely varied. Many people complained that the performance was not as powerful as the Corvette and like any completely new car, the first De Loreans had many design problems. In fact, the first ones were terrible. Johnny Carson was one of the original major contributors and received one of the first DMC-12s. His car broke down quickly after leaving the lot. Dick Brown ran the Quality Assurance Centers for DMC and was forced to rebuild many of the first cars just so they could be sold. But quality factors were quickly resolved as the assembly line gained experience and the DMCL engineers worked out the design flaws.
There was still much hope in mid-1981 for DMC. With fantastic initial sales, De Lorean increased production at DMCL to 400 cars per week, far more than the 1981 sports car market could hold. When sales began to fall drastically in early 1982, DMC struggled to find financial support. JZD looked furiously for backers until the British government finally put DMCL into receivership. Receivership is a process in Great Britain where the government appoints someone (the receiver) to come in and run the failing company in an effort to fix all of the problems. DMC had its problems, and the reputable Sir Kenneth Cork was appointed to be the receiver. He had success in saving several other major companies, and the British government was counting on him to save their huge investment.
In 1982 when John De Lorean was searching for financial support, he was referred to an acquaintance of his from many years ago. This man was Morgan Hetrick, who ran a small aviation company in the Mohave desert. Hetrick also secretly smuggled drugs from South America, but De Lorean claims that he did not know of that. Recently the FBI had caught an accomplice of Hetrick, a man named Hoffman. Hoffman's sentence was reduced significantly if he would help the FBI and DEA in their sting operations. Hoffman was to help agent "Vicenza" arrange the drug deal. According to reports, the deal was: De Lorean would put up $1.8 million and "Vicenza" would put up $3.2 million. Hetrick would supply the cocaine and "Vicenza" would distribute it. John De Lorean states that he never supported the involvement of drugs and originally thought that it was a legitimate investment opportunity. De Lorean also states that agent "Vicenza" mentioned a drug deal once and that he flatly refused the offer.
To make a long story
short, De Lorean was arrested in Los Angeles and went to trial. He was
acquitted (proven not guilty) of all counts to charges of drug trafficking.
He is NOT in prison today and only spent a couple of days in jail while
he raised bail. Unfortunately, the press had already destroyed his
reputation. De Lorean Motor Company went bankrupt, and the inventory
was auctioned off.
A company called Consolidated bought most of the remaining DMC inventory
and assembled the remaining '83 series cars. With DMC finished, the British
government tossed the dies that were used to make the De Lorean car into
the Atlantic ocean, destroying the possibility of ever making any more
De Loreans. Strangely, this act was illegal at the time, because law stated
that dies used to make cars must be kept around for ten years after the
car left production. Why would anyone be in such a hurry to destroy the
dies anyway?
Theoretically, 6539 cars were produced in 1981, 1126 in 1982, and 918 in 1983. But many employees in Belfast state that they assembled over 10,000 cars. With this varying information, maybe no one knows for sure exactly how many De Loreans were built. Around 6,000 cars are believed to still be in working order, most of which are in the U.S., but several can be found in Europe. There are countless varieties of sports cars on the road today of all shapes and forms. But out of all those cars, even the most exotic, very few capture the response and enthusiasm of the De Lorean.
Today at 73, John Z. De Lorean lives on his farm in New Jersey and has remained quite active lately in preparing to surprise the world with another car. The FireStar 500. Rumors say that it is planned to be the fastest car in the world. Dubbed the Firestar 500, the gullwing's styling is similar to that of the earlier DeLorean, with wider front and rear fenders and an elevated rear wing not unlike that of a Plymouth Superbird. According to Gordon Novel, a New Orleans businessman and one of the backers in the venture, present plans call for the car to be powered by a 4-valve fulel-injected all-alloy V-8, expected to produce in the neighboorhood of 500 horsepower. By lightening the previous DeLorean up to 500 pounds, Novell expects the powerplant to propel the Firestar 500 from 0-60 in less than 4 seconds and to a top speed of 220 mph with Boneville-type tires. So there you have the story of John Z. DeLorean and his fabled car, hope you enjoyed it.