April 21, 2020 ▸ Corporation, History, People

Episode 474: John DeLorean: Cars, Corporations, and Cocaine

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On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we travel back in time and look at a legend of the 1980s, John DeLorean. DeLorean was a very gifted engineer and marketer who invented the category of the muscle car with the creation of the GTO. His rise through the ranks of Detroit’s Big Auto made him the top rival of Ford, and a celebrity as well. He eventually built the iconic DMC-12 made immortal by the Back to the Future movies and then blew it all in an FBI arranged 220 pound cocaine deal. Like you do.

John DeLorean was born where else, but Detroit Michigan. He was the son of two immigrants (and an abusive father), and he was smart. He went to the best schools due to his grades and intellect, and eventually got multiple degrees, even though he took a pause to go fight in WWII. When he returned, he took a few jobs and eventually got work at the Packard company. He thrilled his bosses there, and when Packard merged with another company, he left and joined General Motors.

It was there that his star rose. He created the Pontiac GTO and in so doing, gave birth to the muscle car. GM leaders didn’t want this car, and DeLorean had to lie and fight to get it made, but it was wildly successful. He created other big car lines and jumped higher and higher up the corporate ladder. But his Hollywood life style, casual looks, big mouth, and defiance made him unpopular. Eventually, a speech he wanted to give leaked, and he parted ways just before he would have likely become president of GM.

So, off he went to design his own car and create his own car company. It took a decade to go from concept to factory floor. He lined up investors (even famous ones like Johnny Carson and Sammy Davis Junior), and he had to open a plant in Ireland due to tax breaks he was afforded there, but he finally produced the DMC-12. His goal was to make the best care possible: best for safety, best for speed, best for aesthetics, best for the environment.

But he didn’t. It had a small motor that couldn’t push the weight of stainless steel frame. It was prohibitively expensive. The doors jammed, and it had a lot of problems. A friend of his had a solution to fix his financial mess. Join with him and buy 220 pounds of cocaine and sell them to get liquid cash to save the company. So DeLorean joined forces with this guy, and it turned out to be an FBI sting. The star of Detroit was now a world-renowned drug dealer with a collapsed car company.

So what happened to DeLorean once he was busted? What type of legal wrangling got him away from jail time? Why do some people think he conned everyone, including the FBI in this drug deal? What happened when he tried to create a new DMC years later? What happened to the company he started? Listen, laugh, learn.

Visit Our Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_DeLorean

https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/delorean-john

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chucktannert/2019/07/26/john-delorean-reinvented-the-dream-car-then-he-totaled-it/#76b287d514ef

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/john-z-delorean-is-arrested-in-24-million-cocaine-deal

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/john-delorean-dmc-facts/

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/54600/5-things-you-might-not-know-about-john-delorean