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John Z. Delorean (1925-2005)

John Delorean, the designer and entreprenuer, died yesterday at 80 years of age. Delorean was best known for his involvement with the resurgence of General Motors and striking out on his own to start the Delorean Motor Car Company.

DeLorean transformed General Motors by bringing the company from it’s stodgy, massive designs to the flashy, speed demon vehicles of the 60’s. While at GM, he created what most consider the first “muscle car” in 1964 by stuffing a V-8 engine into a Pontiac Tempest and calling it the GTO, fondly dubbed the “Goat” by auto enthusiasts.

DeLorean was a rising if unconventional executive at GM who many believe was destined for its presidency before he quit in 1973 to launch the DeLorean Motor Car Co. in Northern Ireland. Eight years later, the DeLorean DMC-12 hit the streets.

Its hallmarks, such as an unpainted stainless steel skin and the gull-wing doors, have been ignored by mainstream automakers. The angular design, however, earned it a cult following… but the factory produced only about 8,900 cars in three years, estimated John Truscott, membership director of the DeLorean Owners Association. That figure is dwarfed by the major automakers, who sell more than a million vehicles a month. The Delorean plant was surrendured in bankruptcy.

In more recent years, rumor had it that Delorean was interested in pursuing a “plastic” sports car, unfortuantely this design will never come to fruition as the world has lost a great automobile engineer.

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