DeLorean project unfairly maligned

THE Venice Film Festival review in the Belfast Telegraph September 15 (Cocaine, Catastrophes, and Crazy Cars: the battle to make the John DeLorean biopic Driven) is disappointing.

It appears to overdose as a critique of the DeLorean car, manufactured in Dunmurry in the ’80s, in preference to focusing on the movie itself. Better the story itself than the facts, it appears, following in the wake of Bruce Gardyne’s statement in the House of Commons, under the protection of parliamentary privilege, that John DeLorean was a “conman”.

As many of your readers, who were former employees, know, 6,500 cars of the total manufactured of 9,080, shipped almost exclusively to the USA, remain in use 36 years later — across the world from the west coast of North America to New Zealand. That is a remarkable statistic which is testament to John DeLorean’s aim to develop the ethical car.

Whilst my 2015 book, John Z, the DeLorean & Me — Tales from an Insider, sets out to correct the many myths, it is critical of my former chairman.

It does, however, lay the blame for the bad press towards the DeLorean project in the UK fairly and squarely on the seeds sown by Bruce Gardyne.

BARRIE WILLS

Former CEO of DeLorean Motor Cars Ltd

Warwick