JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

NEWARK, N.J. -- John Z. DeLorean, the innovative automaker who left a promising career in Detroit to develop the stainless steel-skinned, gull-winged sports car bearing his name and was acquitted of charges he planned to sell $24 million worth of cocaine to support the venture, has died at the age of 80.

DeLorean died Saturday at Overlook Hospital in Summit, N.J., of complications from a recent stroke, said Paul Connell, an owner of A.J. Desmond & Sons Funeral Directors in Royal Oak, Mich., which was handling arrangements.

DeLorean, whose namesake car was turned into a time machine in the "Back to the Future" movies, was among just a handful of U.S. entrepreneurs who dared start a car company in the last 75 years.

DeLorean "broke the mold" of staid Midwestern auto executives by pushing General Motors Corp. to offer smaller models, auto historians said.

While at GM, he created what some consider the first "muscle car" in 1964 by cramming a V-8 engine into a Pontiac Tempest and calling it the GTO.

Although he was a rising if unconventional executive at GM, and was believed by many to be destined for its presidency, he quit in 1973 to launch the DeLorean Motor Car Co. in Northern Ireland.

Eight years later, the DeLorean DMC-12 hit the streets with its unpainted stainless steel skin and gull-wing doors.

Its angular design earned it a cult following, and the car was a time-traveling vehicle for Michael J. Fox in the "Back to the Future" films of the late 1980s.

However, the factory produced only about 8,900 cars in three years, estimated John Truscott, membership director of the DeLorean Owners Association.

DeLorean's company collapsed in 1983, a year after he was arrested in Los Angeles, accused in a sting of conspiring to sell $24 million of cocaine to salvage the company.

DeLorean used an entrapment defense to win acquittal on the drug charges in 1984, despite a surveillance videotape in which he was shown calling a suitcase full of cocaine "good as gold."

He was later cleared of defrauding his investors, but continuing legal entanglements kept him on the sidelines of the automotive world.



Rear mounted, liquid cooled - Light Alloy V6,
2.85 Liter - Single overhead camshaft - C.I.S. mechanical fuel injection - Cylinder Bore 91mm - Stroke 73mm - Displacement 2849 cc -
Power Rating 130 SAE NET HP @5,500 RPM -
Maximum Torque 208 Nm @ 2,750 RPM -
Compression Ratio 8:8:1



SO POST YOUR RESPECTS TO THIS GANGSTER/COKE DEALER/AUTO GENIOUS

MADE GTO FOR G.M.
AND THE DELOREAN

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

shoulda turbo'd it O0

that car is so tight, he musta been a good man

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

to bad he died.. but thats what happens to old people.

btw, I never did like the car at all. I drove one and thought it was so freaking slow, the thing had to weigh like 6000lbs??

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

I put a clutch in one at my shop :-X what a piece of ----! I took it out to rip up the streets ::) A auto civic would own its ass ;D

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

:(
now i know...
i was always wondering what car was is in the movie.

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

Delorian was a gangsta. he built the 426 Hemi. Dodge has made millions off his design.

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

you never rid in the factory turbo model did you?

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

to much cocaine ^-^

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

cokeheads dont last forever

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

I doubt it, since the whole thing was made out of fiberglass.

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

yea he did make a factory turbo car that was fast as hell


saying there slow proves you know nothing...



its like riding in a 1988 hf automatic and then saying s2000 are slow just becouse there both hondas

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

that was a feiro, delorian was stainless steal

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

I dont think he had anything to do with the hemi :P

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

only the outside was stainless steel ;)

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

BUT HE DID MAKE THE GTO

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

Google

The car is actually of fiberglass construction with stainless steel panels hung on the outside. The panels are not much heavier than normal steel panels, and the panels themselves only make up a small fraction of the total car weight. Although not as light as some small all-plastic sports cars, it is not overly heavy either.

To be exact, the total curb weight with a full tank of gas is 2712 lbs (1232.73kg) with a weigth destribution of 35% in the front and 65% in the rear.

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

Rest In Peace DMC

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

Well obviously when you drove it you must not have hit 88mph thats when timetravel vtec kicks in :P

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

the delorean is actually my favorite car. too bad they had to put a crappy french renault motor in it. but i got pictures of me in one bad ass cars slow yes but they have a history nice

http://tinypic.com/2ai787

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

RIP DMC

the original twin turbo model from GM was supposed to be ferrari performance at half the price. think of how much cooler GM would have been with a man like that at the helm.

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

the motors were designed by the R&D heads of renault, pugeo, volvo


they were called RPV motors

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

No, I got in the car, went up to about 80mph (which took about 20 seconds) was hoping to travel back in time but in actuality a mini-van passed me.

The car looks gay, drives gay..... and is gay

Sorry to bust your back to the future bubble man, but saying I don't "know anything" when I have actually drove one .... ya, :-X

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

slow yes but i still think they are bad ass not a 89 hatch

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

my 4th grade math teacher had a delorean , it was pretty badass, she sold it and got an acura legen =/ she said she was tired of the gullwing doors, and that when it broke down it was very expensive to fix since nobody made any parts for it.

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

the delorean only had 140 hp and weighed about 3,000lbs :-X

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

Rotary in a Delorean:

Vid: http://www.eliseusa.com/d3webadl.wmv

Info: http://www.eliseusa.com/rotary.htm

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

Delorean One is down the street from me. Seems like a poplular place, maybe alot of people are in to them. I always see them driving on the street. I'll hit one up next time.
http://www.deloreanone.com/

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

thats a damn shame they never took off. i always wanted to drive one and once i saw one in gt4 ive been waiting ever so patently to win one cuz they wont let you buy it. but hey it might not have been the best car but it will always go down in history as a unique car

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

I still think the big three had it out for his ass.... there was so much talk of a conspiracy and all, him going down with the drug charges. It was a cool little car.. I wouldn't mind having one. I wouldn't drive it, but I could keep it somewhere...

Yep... it was a Renault engine in that puppy. With that compression ratio your could probably boost the ---- out of it.

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

yea, the police tricked him into doing a big coke deal, I tyhink thats why his chages eventually got aquitted or whatever, they specificly went after him cause he was mr. delorean.

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

But man... he did have some good ----.. Hardcore. I bought an 8 ball off him once.

Re: JOHN DELOREAN DIED LAST NIGHT
 

Thats exactly what the car should have been.. that thing is bad ass

-CF