Posted on 03/20/2005 10:35:27 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
NEWARK, N.J. - John Z. DeLorean, the innovative automaker who left a promising career in Detroit to develop the stainless steel-skinned, gull-winged sports car bearing his name and was acquitted of charges he planned to sell $24 million worth of cocaine to support the venture, has died at the age of 80.
DeLorean died Saturday at Overlook Hospital in Summit, N.J., of complications from a recent stroke, said Paul Connell, an owner of A.J. Desmond & Sons Funeral Directors in Royal Oak, Mich., which was handling arrangements.
DeLorean, whose namesake car was turned into a time machine in the "Back to the Future" movies, was among just a handful of U.S. entrepreneurs who dared start a car company in the last 75 years.
DeLorean "broke the mold" of staid Midwestern auto executives by pushing General Motors Corp. to offer smaller models, auto historians said.
While at GM, he created what some consider the first "muscle car" in 1964 by cramming a V-8 engine into a Pontiac Tempest and calling it the GTO.
Although he was a rising if unconventional executive at GM, and was believed by many to be destined for its presidency, he quit in 1973 to launch the DeLorean Motor Car Co. in Northern Ireland.
Eight years later, the DeLorean DMC-12 hit the streets with its unpainted stainless steel skin and gull-wing doors.
Its angular design earned it a cult following, and the car was a time-traveling vehicle for Michael J. Fox in the "Back to the Future" films of the late 1980s.
However, the factory produced only about 8,900 cars in three years, estimated John Truscott, membership director of the DeLorean Owners Association.
DeLorean's company collapsed in 1983, a year after he was arrested in Los Angeles, accused in a sting of conspiring to sell $24 million of cocaine to salvage the company.
DeLorean used an entrapment defense to win acquittal on the drug charges in 1984, despite a surveillance videotape in which he was shown calling a suitcase full of cocaine "good as gold."
He was later cleared of defrauding his investors, but continuing legal entanglements kept him on the sidelines of the automotive world. He declared bankruptcy in 1999.
They had him on full audio-video tape making the deal... it was airtight. There must have been drug users on the jury who resented the drug laws, so they let him go.
The chief of police actually came out and said he looks like that because he is a crackhead and meth addict. He looks at least 20 years older than he is.
The powers that be were determined to see that his car company never succeeded.
Unfortunately, he chose the wrong way to obtain cash to continue.
NO EXCUSES
One daughter stayed behind to live with daddy.
Doubtful his wife could be held responsible for his misdeeds.
Entrapment doesn't bother me. If you get snared, you did something wrong.
I remember it well, the LAT covered the trial and I was involved in the race car biz at the time. A few of his cars came into the shop. The DeLorean, compared to a Merc-Benz 300SL, was not a comparison. It was merely a kit car, with gull-wing doors, assembled by a factory. I don't think that anyone who ever bought a DeLorean even understood the engineering reason that Merc-Benz gulled the doors in the 300SL coupe. It wasn't for looks. I never thought the Deloreans worth the money. No wonder DeLorean considered selling drugs for thrills. His car, IMHO, certainly didn't give any.
That the feds used his little son was stomach turning and that may have swayed the jury.
The car was a piece of junk, always in the shop.
Perhaps not, but there was larceny in DeLorean's heart and it began to show long before the drug deal. He conned the Northern Ireland Development Board into footing the bill for this very ill-conceived car. John DeLorean was just a high class grifter. As someone once said; "More money is stolen at the point of a pen, then the the barrel of a gun". Delorean used a pen until it ran out of ink and then turned to drugs for a refill. Now John has the chance to try and cheat the Devil himself.
I've really never heard the story about that - His next door neighbor as a front for the sting. Do you have details or a link?
Slander?
Yes. A few new Delorean owners wanted our shop to fit the cars with roll bars, SCCA seat belts, master electrical switches, etc., so they could drive them on a road race track. We didn't do it. After going over and under the car, we didn't think it had any competitive ability and wasn't worth taking time away from other client's projects.
Well, technically, 'libel'.
So his flux capacitor must have gone out. The DeLorean was a beautiful automobile. God Bless John DeLorean!
My brother had a GTO. It was kind of a copper gold and a beautiful car.
My,my we Texans sure do like our cars.
He had some fun for a while, then too much fun for a while. Could say he died young without accomplishing anything even though he was an active child and 80 isn't all that young.
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