Anyone who has watched the movie Back to the Future knows full well what a Delorean Automobile is, as well as a flux capacitor.  However, few know the story of John DeLorean and his namesake automobile.

John Z. DeLorean was born in 1925 in Detroit, the son of a Ford Motor Company employee. As a young man, DeLorean was mechanically inclined and eventually earned a master’s in engineering from the Chrysler Institute. After graduation, he worked in the Packard research and development department but soon left to go to General Motors. After a decade of moving up the corporate ladder at GM, DeLorean was promoted in 1969 to the head of the Chevrolet Division.

The late 1960s were difficult times in Detroit and Delorean in his autobiography, DeLorean, wrote that the ethical and business problems he had with GM had become so big that he simply felt the need to resign.   Truth be told, this allowed him to become an independent corporate consultant where he could raise funds to do what he really wanted to do: build his dream car.

In 1975 the DeLorean Motor Company came into being. That same year, DeLorean created the Composite Technology Corporation to develop new automotive construction materials, some of which would be used in his dream car. When asked what he wanted his dream car to be like DeLorean said it should be “fun to drive, safe to operate, and long-lasting. And of course it should have cool gullwing doors.”

To build his dream car, the DMC-12, DeLorean hired the famed Giorgetto Giugiaro of Ital Design and Colin Chapman of Lotus. After looking into Puerto Rico and Ireland as sites for a factory, he settled on Northern Ireland, which offered the best business deal. The factory’s opening was in 1981. As the story goes, the first 70-80 cars to roll off the line were so bad they were parked, unfinished, along the factory’s fence. DeLorean actually had to set up rebuilding facilities on the East and West Coasts of the U.S. to fix completed cars before they could be delivered to dealers. Not helping the situation were the troubles between the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland and the tanking of the financial exchange rate during this time.

Despite the setbacks, there were orders on the books for thousands of DMC-12s. DeLorean tried to ramp production up to 14,700 a year to meet demand, but the cash flow problems were too serious. The DeLorean Motor Company was put into receivership by the British government in 1982, and in his desperation, John Z. pursued “questionable sources of funds” and ended up in a DEA cocaine bust in October 1982. In 1984, he was found not guilty of all counts against him, but his dream car company was long gone by then.

Today the DeLorean Motorcar legend is kept alive by the DeLorean Motor Company in Humble, Texas. They have purchased the DeLorean trademark and most of the original parts left behind when the company collapsed. Today, you can buy a remanufactured Delorean from them or select from a number of fine used Deloreans.

Courtesy of: Sheboygan Chrysler Center