John Zachary DeLorean was born in Detroit, and was the eldest of four sons of Zachary and Kathryn DeLorean. Zachary DeLorean was a mill worker from Romania, and emigrated to the United States when he was 20 years old, spent time in Montana and Indiana, before moving to Michigan. By the time John was born, Zachary was working as a union organizer at Ford Motor Company, and occasionally as a carpenter.
Kathryn DeLorean was from Hungary, and found work at the Carboloy Products Division of General Electric throughout much of John’s childhood. Though she tolerated Zachary’s episodes of erratic behavior, she would take her sons to live with her sister in Los Angeles during some of Zachary’s more violent periods. John’s parents divorced in 1942, after which John saw little of his father.
DeLorean was accepted into Cass Technical High School, a school for Detroit honors students, and signed up from the electrical curriculum. He excelled at his studies, and his academic record and musical talents earned him a scholarship to Lawrence Institute of Technology, which is the alma mater of some of the automobile industry’s best engineers.
DeLorean’s studies were interrupted by World War II. He was drafted, and served three years in the U.S. Army. DeLorean received an honorable discharge in 1946, and returned to Detroit to find his mother and siblings in economic difficulty. After working as a draftsman for the Public Lighting Commission for 18 months to provide for his mother and brothers, he returned to Lawrence to finish his degree. While at Lawrence, he worked part-time at Chrysler and at a local body shop. DeLorean graduated in 1948 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering.
Instead of entering the engineering industry immediately, DeLorean began selling life insurance to improve his communication skills. He developed an analytical system aimed at engineers and sold about $850,000 in policies in ten months. He then turned to working for the Factory Equipment Corporation. A foreman at Chrysler’s engineering garage recommended him to Chrysler for work, and the Chrysler Institute of Engineering allowed DeLorean to advance his education while gaining real-world experience in automotive engineering. In 1952, he graduated from the Chrysler Institute with a Master of Science degree in Automotive Engineering and joined Chrysler’s engineering team. DeLorean graduated from the University of Michigan with an MBA in 1956.
DeLorean was at Chrysler for less than a year. In 1953, he was offered $14,000 at Packard Motor Company under the supervision of engineer Forest McFarland. DeLorean quickly gained his new employer’s attention with an improvement to the Ultramatic automatic transmission, which was relaunched as the Twin-Ultramatic.
Packard had been experiencing financial difficulties because of the postwar automotive market. Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler had begun producing affordable mainstream products to cater to the rising middle class, but Packard retained its prewar notions of high-end luxury cars. Packard’s focus on precision engineering had a positive effect on DeLorean’s attention to engineering detail, and after three years, DeLorean became McFarland’s successor as head of research and development.
Packard suffered alongside other independents, and struggled to compete when Ford and GM engaged in a price war. Packard’s president decided to merge the company with Studebaker in 1954. DeLorean was considering moving to Studebaker headquarters in South Bend, Indiana, when Oliver Kelley, vice president of engineering at GM, called DeLorean to offer him his choice of a job in any of GM’s five divisions.
In 1956, DeLorean accepted an offer of $16,000 to work at GM’s Pontiac division. He quickly became close friends with general manager Semon Knudsen. DeLorean patented dozens of innovations for Pontiac, and was promoted to division chief engineer in 1961.
DeLorean became widely known at Pontiac for the GTO, a muscle car named after the Ferrari 250 GTO. The Pontiac brand reached third place in annual industry sales in the United States. The GTO debuted as a Tempest/LeMans option package with a larger and more powerful engine in 1964, and the car and its popularity continued to grow over the following years. DeLorean received almost total credit for the GTO’s success, and was rewarded with a 1965 promotion to head of the Pontiac division.
DeLorean believed there was an undue amount of conflict between GM’s division heads, including resistance to several of Pontiac’s advertising campaigns, and Ed Cole’s decision to ban multiple carburetors, which enhanced engine performance. DeLorean also asked GM executives for permission to market a smaller version of the Pontiac Banshee show car for 1966, but his idea was rejected because GM was concerned that the Banshee would divert sales from the Corvette. Pontiac moved on to develop the Firebird, which was introduced for the 1967 model year.
DeLorean then turned his attention to the development of an all-new Grand Prix, Pontiac’s personal luxury car. Sales were lagging, but the 1969 model would have its own distinct body shell. To obtain financing, DeLorean went to his former boss, Pete Estes, at Chevrolet, and asked Estes to share the cost of development with Pontiac, and for one year of exclusivity before Chevrolet released the 1970 Monte Carlo. The 1969 Grand Prix featured sharp bodylines, a 6-foot long hood, a wraparound cockpit-style instrument panel, bucket seats, and a center console, and was a sportier, lower-priced alternative to the Thunderbird, Buick Riviera, Eldorado, Toronado, and Lincoln Continental. The 1969 Grand Prix production ended at over 112,000 units, far higher than 32,000 units in 1968.
While at Pontiac, DeLorean began to enjoy the freedom and celebrity of his position, and he began traveling to locations around the world to support promotional events. His frequent appearances helped solidify his image as a “rebel” corporate businessman. Pontiac remained highly profitable even as General Motors experienced revenue declines. In 1969, DeLorean was promoted to head Chevrolet.
At Chevrolet, DeLorean was earning a salary of $200,000, with annual bonuses of up to $400,000, and became a pop culture icon, wearing long sideburns and unbuttoned shirts. Ford president Lee Iacocca was best man at DeLorean’s second wedding. DeLorean became a part owner in the San Diego Chargers and the New York Yankees. He also began hanging out with celebrities such as Sammy Davis, Jr. and Johnny Carson. Meanwhile, GM executives continued to clash with DeLorean’s nonconformity.
Chevrolet was facing financial and organizational troubles: the new Camaro was due out for the 1970 model year, and rapidly falling behind schedule, and redesigns for the Corvette and Nova were also delayed. Past years of turmoil had caused sales to slump, in large part due to the bad publicity surrounding the Corvair and quality-control issues affecting other Chevy models, which had resulted in an unprecedented recall of 6.7 million Chevrolets built between 1965 and 1969. DeLorean delayed release of the Camaro and simplified the modifications to the Corvette and the Nova, using the extra time to streamline Chevrolet’s production overhead and reduce assembly costs. By 1971, Chevrolet had record sales in excess of 3 million vehicles, and DeLorean’s division alone was nearly matching the sales of the entire Ford Motor Company.
The Vega was assigned to Chevrolet by corporate management. DeLorean ordered dozens of extra inspectors to the Vega assembly line, and the first 2,000 cars were road-tested. Then, in 1972, GM Assembly Division took over the Chevrolet Lordstown assembly plant and the adjoining Fisher Body plant to cut costs. More than 800 workers were laid off, including many of the additional inspectors. The layoff led to assembly-line vandalism, with workers intentionally slowing the line, leaving off car parts, and installing parts incorrectly. Incomplete and non-functioning cars filled the factory lot, and had to be reprocessed and repaired by a team assigned specifically by DeLorean. A one-month strike followed, and dealers did not receive enough cars to keep up with demand in 1972. DeLorean regrouped, and for 1973, new Vega sales approached 400,000. The one-millionth Vega was built in May 1973.
By 1972, DeLorean was vice president of car and truck production for General Motors, and his rise to president seemed inevitable. To GM executives, however, his presidency was intolerable. DeLorean left GM in April 1973. He claimed that he left voluntarily to maintain his freedom, but it was rumored that DeLorean had been fired. DeLorean was sharply critical of the direction GM had taken by the start of the 1970s, and objected to the idea of using rebates to sell cars.
In 1973, DeLorean raised $200 million, including $4 million of his own. A two-seat sports car prototype was shown in the mid-1970s called the DeLorean Safety Vehicle (DSV), with a bodyshell designed by Italdesign’s Giorgetto Giugiaro. The car entered into production as the DMC DeLorean, with a body of stainless steel and featuring gull-wing doors produced by Lotus, and a VG engine developed by Peugeot, Renault, and Volvo (“PRV”). The manufacturing plant was built in Dunmurry, a suburb of Belfast in Northern Ireland, with substantial government incentives of 100 million pounds. The Dunmurry factory produced about 9,000 cars.
Production delays meant the DeLorean did not reach the consumer market until January 1981, by which point the new car market had slumped considerably due to the U.S. recession. Lukewarm reviews from critics and the public exacerbated the problem. Interest in the car dwindled, while competing models with lower price tags and more powerful engines sold in record numbers during 1980-81 despite the recession. By February 1982, more than half of the 7,000 DeLoreans that had been produced remained unsold. DMC was $175 million in debt, and the factory was placed in receivership.
In January 1982, the British government discovered that DeLorean built 8,500 cars, while 23 million pounds had been transferred to a Panamanian account under the name of General Product Development Services, which was a company intended to subsidize Lotus, The money never made it to Lotus, and Lotus head Colin Chapman died at the start of the investigation into the missing money. DMC produced another 2,000 cars while in receivership, until John DeLorean was arrested in late October, and liquidation proceedings were undertaken. The factory was seized by the British government.
In October 1982, DeLorean was charged by the federal government with trafficking cocaine. In a sting operation, undercover federal agents videotaped him agreeing to bankroll a cocaine smuggling operation in the presence of 59 pounds of cocaine in a hotel near LAX. DeLorean was alleged to be the “financier” to help financially declining DMC by selling 220 pounds, with an estimated value of $24 million. The government was tipped off by confidential informant James Timothy Hoffman, who reported to the FBI that DeLorean had approached Hoffman to ask about setting up a cocaine deal. In fact, Hoffman had approached DeLorean and suggested the deal to obtain a reduced sentence for his own federal cocaine trafficking charge; Hoffman was aware of DeLorean’s financial troubles before Hoffman made contact, having overheard DeLorean admitting to needing $17 million “in a hurry” to prevent DMC’s insolvency. Hoffman’s actions and his career-criminal history allowed DeLorean to successfully defend himself with the procedural defense of police entrapment, by calling only one witness: Carol Winkler, DeLorean’s secretary, whose call log proved that Hoffman made the initial call.
By the time DeLorean was acquitted, DMC had collapsed into bankruptcy and DeLorean’s reputation had been irrevocably tarnished. Then, in September 1985, DeLorean was indicted on charges that he defrauded investors and committed tax evasion by diverting millions raised for the company to himself, but he was acquitted again. DeLorean knew his days in the auto industry were over, remarking “Would you buy a used car from me?”
In 1994, DeLorean was granted U.S. Patent No. 5,359,941, to a raised monorail transport, but the transport was never built. DeLorean also planned to resurrect his car company, describing a new vehicle called the DMC2. To raise funds, he designed and sold high-end watches via the Internet under the name DeLorean Time.
The DMC name was purchased by a Texas-based firm that provides parts and professional restoration to DeLorean owners. John DeLorean spoke to the vice president of the firm on the phone once a month.
DeLorean was married four times, and had three children.
In 1999, he declared personal bankruptcy, after fighting more than 40 legal cases following the collapse of DMC. He was forced to sell his 434-acre estate in Bedminster in 2000.
DeLorean died from a stroke in 2005, at the age of 80. His ashes are interred at the White Chapel Cemetery, in Troy, Michigan. Only a handful of people attended, and were joined by a U.S. Army Funeral Honors Team from a Detroit unit of the Michigan Army National Guard. His tombstone shows a depiction of his DeLorean sports car with the gull-wing doors open.