John DeLorean left a successful career at General Motors in 1973, convinced the industry built the wrong cars for the wrong reasons. He spent two years raising money, secured large British government subsidies to build his factory in Northern Ireland, and began making the DMC-12 in 1981. The car — stainless-steel body, gull-wing doors, styled by Giugiaro — looked the part. It was also underpowered, unreliable and priced too high for sports-car buyers and too sporty for luxury ones.
Sales reached about 6,000 against a break-even of 10,000 to 12,000, and by late 1981 the company was running out of cash. In October 1982 the British government announced the plant would close. The same week, federal agents arrested John DeLorean in a Los Angeles hotel on drug-trafficking charges. He was acquitted — the FBI had entrapped him — but the company was already dead, the factory shut and the money gone. Three years later, Back to the Future made his car immortal.
Worth remembering
- The DMC-12 was built in Dunmurry, a deprived part of West Belfast, with British government subsidies meant to bring jobs to Northern Ireland during the Troubles — a gull-winged American sports car assembled in one of the most volatile regions in Europe.
- The DeLorean became famous in 1985's Back to the Future, three years after the company had folded; the producers picked it for its looks, and John DeLorean reportedly wept when he saw what the film had done for his car.
Sources
- The DeLorean Motor Company was founded in 1975 and built about 9,000 cars before collapsing in 1982, wiping out thousands of jobs and over $100 million of investment. Wikipedia
- In October 1982 John DeLorean was arrested in an FBI sting on drug-trafficking charges and later acquitted on grounds of entrapment, but the company was already finished, its factory closed and its debts unpaid. Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The British government provided roughly half of the company's startup money to build the plant in Northern Ireland, and the car's high price and low sales left it far short of break-even. Wikipedia
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