A icon for the right or maybe wrong reasons of the 20th century motor world.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4366733.stm
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He was 80? I never knew that.
Great shame though.
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Adam
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Forget what happenend i put him in same class as Colin Champan and others. A great innovator and entreprenuer.
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Give the car a cleaner front end and it would still look fresh today. I can never make up my mind whether John Z was a crook or a well meaning innovator who got out of his depth and sunk.
He looked great himself for eighty - I'd settle for looking that good now!
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He looked great himself for eighty - I'd settle for looking that good now!
i suspect that photo was taken 20 odd years ago.
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A great innovator and entreprenuer.
As far as I can see, the only innovation was a stainles-steel body. Not a very successful innovation, never been copied since.
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Quite clearly you've never driven one over 87mph then have you NW.
;-)
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Adam
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Neither have you Adam!
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Well of course not RF otherwise I'd have been back before I drove it...or back after I'd drove it but if I was goign back to the future then did my driving experience really happen?
Duh!
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Adam
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Quite clearly you've never driven one over 87mph then have you NW.
Of course not. Have you?
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Er, no.
You have watched Back To The Future haven't you?
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Adam
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You have watched Back To The Future haven't you?
I may be a cynical old cow, but I think you are referring to a feature which wasn't actually standard equipment in retail versions.
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Well you're cynical yes but certainly not the rest. I think however that there was the slight chance I may have been being sarcastic...
..possibly.
But of course you knew that didn't you.
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Adam
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He was 80? I never knew that. Great shame though. -- Adam
>>
Well, well even a mention of a Focus in this!
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4369883.stm
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I can safely say I'm not a Dad Henry! Good article though - I'd have a DeLorean. Yes I know - unreliable and all that caper but there's something about it which even now looks nice.
I can't explain it and yes; before anyone points it out, I often see beauty in a car where no-one else can!
Thanks for the article Henry.
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Adam
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I only just watched the a programme about the car and company on BBC2 a few weeks ago, and now I want one!
I'm sorry for him that he didn't realise his dream.
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Mike Farrow
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I'm sorry for him that he didn't realise his dream.
I'm afraid that I can't bring myself to feel sorry for him. The collapse of his dream was due at least in part to its basic flaws and to poor management. The public investment was a huge sum which could have done a lot to improve the lives of folks in Northern Ireland if it had been wisely invested, though the folly was as much govt's as DeLorean's -- the Irish govt turned him down.
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The gull-wing doors may have been innovative, but the chassis on which it was built was not. IIRC he finished up using the floor pan of a triumph Herald!
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The gull-wing doors may have been innovative
Innovative? Gull-wing doors had been done years before.
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I did say "may"!
Not much else of merrit to mention about the project.
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John Delorean was a crook who swindled the UK out of £87 million and deluded the poorest most depressed part of the country into thinking they had a future under his stewardship. Only the stupidity of politicians allowed his mapcap scheme to ever get started. He will not be missed.
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I think that's a bit harsh....
The launch of the company coincided with a large recession, which would explain his failures.
We'll never know the truth surrounding the allegations against him - he'll never be able to answer to such charges now.
Genious - yes, crook - we don't know, business failure - yes but why?
It's a shame the world could not have tapped his innovative flare due to - ahem - poltics, and the fact he was effectively disgraced.
I actually went to the Earls Court Motor show when the car was launched and grabbed a few De Lorian Brochures, which were nothing more than a folded A4 glossy flyer IIRC. How I wish I had them now!
I do recall that the cars were beset with niggles, like electric windows that wouldn't work etc.
H
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Err Hugo - He was a crook, convicted in a court.
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RF - I thought he was aquitted of the drugs charges - that's what Imagos' link said isn't it?
I may be wrong, it has been known.
H
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Apparently acquitted of those charges H but wanted here with regards to charges of fraud.
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Adam
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RF - I thought he was aquitted of the drugs charges - that's what Imagos' link said isn't it?
Correct, he was.
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I understood he did a deal. Pleaded charges down for States Evidence
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He was a flamboyant man, he tried do something different rather than sit in the faceless General motors ivory towers pushing pens, He tried to bring prosperity to a notorious unemployment blackspot.
When it started to go wrong it seems he'd stop at nothing to realise his dreams.
A lovable rogue is the best way i'd discribe him.
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Whatever he was, he's dead now but he designed what could have been a great car.
Some would argue that he did in some respects.
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Adam
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don't forget though the dead can't sue.
a petrolhead and a maverick.
Surely this should be applauded.
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Rf, what are your views on the guy?
Sounds like you don't admire him?
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Many an entrepreneur (how the hell do you spell it?) is on a fine line between bankruptcy and sucess, and not all would survive a finincial investigation.
Colin Chapman is widely regarded with admiration for his achievements with Lotus, but only his untimely death saved him from a probable spell in one of Her Majesty's institutions for his part in the DeLorean affair.
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I think it's debatable whether or not John Z was a crook: he had talent for design (two iconic 60s Pontiacs, the GTO and the Firebird, to his credit), but (like all too many of his countrymen) he became too obsessed with an idea to think it through properly before acting.
The DMC-12 was too idiosyncratic to sell well, and if he genuinely wanted to bring hope end employment to Ulster he should have started with a more commercial product with a bigger potential market. Once that was estabnlished the DMC-12 could have been a niche model.
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