Road to ruin
A new docudrama charts the rise and fall of American carmaker JOHN DELOREAN
Including Framing John Delorean and Celebrity Snoop Dogs
NEW DOCUDRAMA Framing John Delorean Saturday, Sky Documentaries HD, 9pm
THE ILL-FATED Delorean sports car became a household name when it featured in the 1980s Back to the Future film franchise. So it’s perhaps no surprise that the life of the car’s inventor, John Delorean, reads like something out of a Hollywood movie.
Mixing interviews with archive footage and dramatic reconstructions, with actor Alec Baldwin portraying Delorean,
Sky Documentaries’ Framing John Delorean tells the dramatic story of the maverick American tycoon’s ambition and greed.
An inventor and engineer, Delorean quickly worked his way up the ranks at carmaker General Motors (GM), developing Pontiac and Chevrolet models, before deciding to go it alone.
He started the Delorean Motor Company in 1973, leaving his illustrious career at GM and gambling everything on a highstakes dream to build a sports car that would conquer the world.
PIONEER
‘Delorean was a man who might have had the chairmanship of GM in his pocket, if he just did everything in the traditional way,’ says Baldwin.
‘But he didn’t want to do anything traditional; he wanted to do something bold. However, John and everyone around him were all just victims of his pathological ambition.’
By 1978, there were multimillionpound plans for a state-of-theart factory in Belfast, but soon the wheels came off. Production delays meant that the Delorean didn’t reach the market until January 1981, eight years after the company was founded.
Meanwhile, the new car market had slumped considerably, and by February 1982 more than half of the 7,000 Deloreans produced remained unsold. The company was quickly in dire financial straits, unable to recoup its
$175 million investment costs.
Then, on 19 October 1982, came a surreal Hollywood-movie-style twist. Delorean was caught in a videotaped FBI sting at an LA hotel, allegedly about to purchase 100kg of cocaine. On the tape he’s heard describing cocaine as being ‘better than gold’.
At his 62-day trial in 1984, which captivated America, Delorean was acquitted of eight counts of conspiring to possess and distribute cocaine thanks to a defence of illegal police entrapment.
FAILURE
But, by then, the Delorean Motor Company had already come to an end. It had collapsed into bankruptcy, the British government had seized the factory, and Delorean’s reputation as a businessman was irrevocably tarnished.
He died in 2005, aged 80, but the drugs sting will always overshadow his carmaking legacy.
‘There are men who want money, sex and power. John was one of those men,’ says Baldwin. ‘He wanted everything; he wanted the pinnacle of success, and everything that goes with it. But I think more than anything, he wanted the car to be a success.’
‘Delorean wanted success and everything that goes with it’
ALEC BALDWIN