Much like the car he’s most famous for, John DeLorean is celebrated for his sleek fantasy vision of the future and widely mocked for his spectacular failures
that his “poor English and problems with alcohol prevented him from ever progressing beyond the factory floor.” John’s mother, Kathryn, worked for General Electric and tried to keep things together at home.that when things got particularly rough, she would whisk the boys away to her sister’s home in Los Angeles. It has been speculated that John developed a love for the California lifestyle during these escapes.
DeLorean called it the Pontiac Tempest LeMans GTO, and it created a new category of automobile that would come to be known as the muscle car. Before the GTO, DeLorean’s lifestyle had conformed to GM’s image of an executive: He kept his hair short and clean, wore conservative three-piece suits, was married and attended the right social functions. That all changed after the muscle car was born. Now he was a rock star—making the money of one and living the lifestyle.
But by the spring of 1973, it all changed. Harmon and DeLorean had divorced. Then came the infamous Greenbrier presentation. DeLorean was set to give a confidential speech to 700 top GM executives at the triannual Greenbrier Hotel GM management conference in West Virginia. Topic: How the poor quality of cars they were producing was hurting GM’s bottom line. The speech was very critical.
Total investment: More than $1oo million in British government loans and loan guarantees, and tens of million from private investors. Everything seemed to be in place. “The biggest problem we had was that the first business plan that was developed once the project had come to Northern Ireland made it quite clear we’re going to run out of money the day we produced the first car,” says Barrie Wills, author ofwho was DMC’s director of purchasing and supply at the time and then its final CEO.
To this day, many still consider the flawed auto exec to be a savior, no matter what he is said to have done. “Everybody—from the taxi drivers to bartenders to hotel clerks, everybody— has something to say about John DeLorean,” says Livingston, who recently attended a reunion of DMC workers and their families. “He left an incredible stamp on the community.
Wills had to face the workers after hearing the news. “There were grown men in tears,” he says. In less than 24 hours, the staff had gone from being told the money was on the way to seeing their boss—whom they adored, either in spite or because of his bravado—arrested on drug charges. A week later, DMC filed for bankruptcy.
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