This Day in Auto History 8.16.1984 After nearly 30 hours of deliberations, a jury unanimously acquited the former automaker John Z. DeLorean of eight counts of drug trafficking in a Los Angeles court. A Detroit native and the son of an autoworker, DeLorean began working for the Packard Motor Company as an engineer in 1952. He rose quickly at Packard and later at General Motors (GM), where he moved in 1956. At GM, he managed both the Pontiac and Chevrolet divisions before becoming a vice president in 1972. In 1975, DeLorean left GM to found the DeLorean Motor Company and follow his dream of building a high-performance and futuristic but still economical sports car. With funds from the British government, DeLorean opened his car plant near Belfast in Northern Ireland in 1978 to manufacture his dream car: Officially the DMC-12 but often called simply the DeLorean. The car featured an angular stainless-steel body with distinctive gull-wing doors. When production costs skyrocketed, the rear-engined DMC-12s price tag rose above $25,000 (at a time when the average car cost just $10,000) sales were insufficient to keep the company afloat. Following an investigation into suspected financial irregularities, the British government announced the closing of the DeLorean Motor Company on October 19, 1982. That same day, John DeLorean was arrested and charged with conspiring to obtain and distribute $24 million worth of cocaine. The prosecutions seemingly airtight case centered on a videotaped conversation about the drug deal between DeLorean and undercover FBI agents. If convicted, DeLorean faced up to 60 years in prison. DeLoreans defense team argued that he had been entrapped, or lured into a situation that made it look like he had committed a crime. On August 6, 1984, the jury issued its surprising acquittal verdict. Over the next 15 years, DeLorean saw his dream car shoot to Hollywood stardom (in the Back to the Future film trilogy) even as he battled nearly 40 legal cases relating to his failed auto company. He declared bankruptcy in 1999 and died in 2005, at the age of 80.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 11:30:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015