PONTIAC GTO & DELOREAN DMC-12
THE MAKING & BREAKING OF JOHN Z DELOREAN
John Z DeLorean confirmed his meteoric rise within GM’s ranks with the development of the 1964 Pontiac GTO and, two decades later, he used the influence earned during a successful career with the USA automotive giant to design and build a car carrying his own name.
By 1964, DeLorean had already trialled a large capacity V8 fitted in his own Tempest.
Doug Cleverly is best known within classic car circles for his abiding passion for all things Lancia, and his collection of these Italian thoroughbreds is extensive and includes everything from four-door saloons and coupés to rally-bred specials such as the 037 Rallye, Fulvia HF and Integralé. His latest acquisition is a genuine Stratos, the iconic Ferrari V6-engined car that dominated the World Rally Championship (WRC) from 1974 to 1976.
However, when we last got the chance to check out Doug’s amazing collection, tucked away among a sea of Lancias we spotted a silver intruder – a stainless steel-bodied DeLorean DMC-12. Although Doug’s collection includes many other nonLancia vehicles, the DeLorean stood out from the surrounding Zagato, Touring and Pininfarina-styled cars.
Today, of course, the DeLorean is mostly remembered as Doc Brown’s time-travelling machine from the Back to the Future film series, while Lotus enthusiasts will, no doubt, view the car from an entirely different viewpoint.
So, why does a collector of mainly Italian classics have a car that was initially conceived by an American, further developed by an Englishman and built by Irishmen (and Irish women)?
In talking to Doug, he told us that his interest in DeLorean’s backstory grew when he learned all about his meteoric rise through the ranks at General Motors (GM). Born in the USA’s ‘Motor City’ – Detroit
– on January 6, 1925, John Z DeLorean entered the automotive field in his late 20s. Following graduation from the Chrysler Institute, he joined Packard in 1952. He quickly rose through the ranks, eventually moving to Pontiac having been head-hunted by that company’s general manager, Bunkie Knudsen. DeLorean, then only 39 years old, had a hand in Pontiac’s revival as it was transformed from a builder of worthy but dull and uninteresting cars into one with genuine street cred offering high-performance options – it even went racing.
By 1964, DeLorean had already trialled a large capacity V8 fitted in his own Tempest and, encouraged by another Pontiac employee and part-time racer, Jim Wangers, he went one further and dropped a 326ci V8, from the full-size Catalina/Bonneville models, into the smaller and lighter Tempest. Cheekily, DeLorean swiped the GTO appellation as previously used by Ferrari for their homologation specials, and the ‘Great One’, the Pontiac GTO, was born. In 1964, with its high performance 389ci engine, the GTO effectively signalled the beginning of the ‘muscle car’ trend.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Even while he was dreaming up the GTO’s overall concept, DeLorean was already looking ahead to the future or, more specifically, his future. Although his first attempt at building an ‘ethical’ sports car was dashed by GM’s top management, spurred on by his own ambition and ego, DeLorean would eventually give up his lucrative position at GM in order to further his automotive dreams.
As such, the John Z DeLorean Corporation was set up in 1974 to further his dream and Giorgio Giugiaro of Italdesign was commissioned to come up with a new design. The intention was to build a body using a plastic moulding process – Elastic Reservoir Moulding (ERM) as developed by Royal Dutch Shell – with the car’s plastic body encased in stainless steel. The DSV – DeLorean Safety Vehicle – came to the attention of Allstate Insurance, which would become
With finances and a new factory sorted, DeLorean’s next move was to secure a partner capable of engineering the car of his dreams.
the company’s initial investor, eventually contributing US$550,000 to DeLorean’s automotive dream. This allowed DeLorean to build three prototype DSVs.
The following year, the DeLorean Motor Company was incorporated and through the DeLorean Sports Car Partnership US$3.5 million was quickly raised, with the company going public in 1977 and the subsequent share offering pumping over US$5 million into the firm’s coffers.
From that point on, things began to get complicated.
The possibility of setting up a factory in Puerto Rico was investigated but, despite financing from Akram Ojjeh, a Saudi Arabian entrepreneur, the deal fell through – in part due to an unfavourable report on the car by ‘the father of the Corvette’ Zora Arkus-Duntov.
At this point, Northern Ireland came into the frame. It was keen to set up a factory that would provide much-needed local employment in what was at that time a severely depressed region. Meanwhile, US$22 million had been raised to fund the Puerto Rico operation, but once investors received news of the potential Northern Ireland arrangement those funds were promptly withdrawn. DeLorean quickly requested that Northern Ireland’s Industrial Development Authority (NIDA) replace that money. Amazingly they agreed, and a deal was finalised on August 3, 1978. The UK Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Roy Mason, would eventually approve financing for the DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) to the tune of £85 million, with an all-new factory to be built on the Twinbrook Industrial Estate in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland.
With finances and a new factory sorted, DeLorean’s next move was to secure a partner capable of engineering the car of his dreams. Initially he approached Porsche, but they wanted a lead-time for the project that was simply too long. Instead, DeLorean approached Colin Chapman, meeting at the Lotus supremo’s Norfolk home in July 1978. Cheekily, DeLorean planned to buy Lotus Cars outright but Chapman was having none of that, although he was persuaded to visit the USA to examine and test-drive one of DeLorean’s DSV prototypes – it broke down during his test run!
While a sale was not on the cards, what DeLorean did offer Chapman was his talent for accumulating cash, something that was always in short supply at Lotus. DeLorean spun up a terrific tax avoidance scheme, with the pair forming GPD Services Inc., a Panamanian-registered ‘shelf’ company based in Geneva. With that settled, Chapman agreed to re-engineer the DSV for an initial sum of £12 million – funds effectively provided by the British taxpayer via NIDA.
Chapman put that money to good use developing the Lotus Esprit Turbo, while on the DMC front he promptly scrapped the ERM bodyshell, settling on a more Lotuslike engineering premise for the DeLorean sports car – a steel-backbone chassis clothed in an injection-moulded fibreglass body. DeLorean’s original idea for a rear-mounted engine, a Renault/Peugeot/Volvo family V6, was also retained, with the engine mated to either a three-speed automatic or a fivespeed manual transmission. The stainless steel concept was retained but now as simply a thin outer skin laid over the GRP body.
DeLorean may not have been entirely happy with the Lotus redesign of his baby but, nevertheless, on November 3, 1980,