Delorean Story, The: The Car, the People, the Scandal

CARS

   Hardcover First Edition Mint copy! pp. 256 illustrated #080823

 This is the inside account of the DeLorean I saga written by a senior manager who worked with the company from beginning to end and saw it all. The short life of the DeLorean DMC-12 sports car — a vision of the future with its gullwing doors and stainless steel body — began after John DeLorean secured financial backing from the British government for his car-making venture in Northern Ireland.

In a blaze of publicity the DeLorean dream arrived in Belfast in the summer of 1978, attracting the brightest managers from the global automotive industry. The challenge was to build a car and a factory in 18 months, with two prototypes and 72 acres of muddy fields in West Belfast as the basic ingredients. Money shortages and civil disturbances — the result of the IRA hunger strike campaign — caused major disruptions.

Four years and almost 9,000 cars later the company went bust and John DeLorean’s dream turned into a nightmare as he was tried for alleged drug offences, eventually to be found not guilty’ due to entrapment by the FBI. His apparent charmed life continued when he was also found not guilty’ of embezzling the missing equity money from the Belfast factory. His big ally, Colin Chapman of Lotus, also drew posthumous scrutiny.

Prior to John DeLorean’s trials, Margaret Thatcher vetoed a plan by a UK consortium to restart the DeLorean site, which would have provided over 1,000 jobs, but she decided this recovery plan was not for her. What were her reasons? This book offers one possible answer.

Who were the real heroes and villains in this saga? The DeLorean Story reveals everything about the car, the people and the scandal, from 1978 to 2004.

This is the true story behind the eye-catching sports car known as the DeLorean DMC-12. Written by a senior company insider, this revealing account covers every angle of an extraordinary saga, including fraud, sectarian violence and drugs trafficking.