Inventors: Giorgetto Giugiaro / John Z. DeLorean
Assignee: Delorean Motor Company
Patent number: D283882 / 4378658
Filing date: Jun 12, 1981 / Feb 4, 1981
Issue date: May 20, 1986 / Apr 5, 1983
Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads! Stainless steel, gull-wing doors, grey hair, drug trafficking, 88 mph… All the stuff of legend. John Z. DeLorean was a fascinating but ultimately flawed man. He said he had more than 200 patents including designs for tennis rackets and monorails. Every car built in the world today contains at least one of his creations. Brash and charismatic he left behind a successful career with General Motors to form his own DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) in 1974. The company would only produce one car before collapsing, however the DMC-12 was an instant classic and it’s influence would ripple throughout history.
Designed by Italdesign’s Giorgetto Giugiaro. The car entered into production as the DMC-12, but is generally known as the DeLorean. A stainless steel body, gull-wing doors. and the “Douvrin” V6 engine set it apart. The manufacturing plant to build the new car was built in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, with substantial financial incentives from the Northern Ireland Development Agency of around £100 million. A great boost to a troubled Northern Ireland, the factory employed over 2000 workers from early 1981, but by February 1982 the company was in receivership. It turned out around 9,000 cars over 21 months before the British government ordered its closure in November 1982.
From the mid 80’s onward things got messy for DeLorean becoming involved in a bizarre cocaine bust that involved the FBI and Larry Flynt. DeLorean successfully defended himself with a procedural defense, arguing that the police had asked him to supply the money to buy the cocaine. His attorney stated in Time, “This was a fictitious crime. Without the government, there would be no crime.” The DeLorean defense team did not call any witnesses. DeLorean was found not guilty due to entrapment on August 16, 1984. The car is of course fondly remembered today as the Time Machine from Back To The Future.
