Alexander palomo
[dropcap] L [/ dropcap] o we have often seen concentrations in the downtown area. Is he DeLorean DMC-12 Gustavo, possibly one of the best preserved units of the ethical car conceived by the General Motors "golden boy" of the 70s. We talk about John Z. DeLorean, successful engineer and executive, playboy, dreamer and, lastly, delinquent.
But let's not advance events, let's go by parts. When our collaborator Alejandro Palomo came face to face with this sports car made of stainless steel and gull-wing doors, he was clear that it had to be recorded. and make the video that you can see in the header. He called us and we were of the same opinion, so we all got down to work to show you a classic that is not only valuable for its stellar appearance in the film saga "Return to the future".
And it is that, as we said a moment ago, it is about the ethical car. El DeLorean DMC-12 It is the fruit of the nonconformity of its creator, John Z. DeLorean, who resigned as vice president of General Motors in 1973, largely as a result of Ralph Nader's book "Unsafe at any speed." In it, the author knowingly criticized the low safety standards observed by the North American giant in its automobiles.
John Z. DeLorean, on the crest of the wave
But John had always been the wayward executive of the company, a lover of numerous actresses and models living in and around Hollywood, married several times, and completely indifferent to the conservative code of behavior of the company he worked for. And all it worked out like a charm: Creator of the muscle car -the first of them, the Pontiac GTO, is his work-, savior of Chevrolet and youngest vice president of the colossus; the road to the presidency seemed paved ...
So maybe it was superb. The fact is that, as we have said, he resigned and proposed to create su new automotive giant, the DeLorean Motor Company, that with time it was destined to enter the Olympus of the traditional Big Three. But could John Z. DeLorean be the new Walter Chrysler? A handful of geniuses had tried it before, but only one had succeeded.
The first dish on the DMC menu was the DMC-12 (1981-1983), an ecological and innovative sports car compared to its American counterparts, efficient and equipped with the latest advances in safety. The objective was neither more nor less than to revolutionize the Yankee automobile panorama, for which it had the collaboration of Giorgetto Giugiaro y Colin Chapman among others…
DeLorean DMC-12, produced in hell
To save costs the production plant was built in IRA Northern Ireland, where the British Labor government desperately needed to raise employment levels to reduce the tension of the raging civil war raging in the region. Thus, great state privileges were granted to get the project going.
The new adventure, already difficult to carry out, was complicated by the inexperience of some operators enthusiastic about the DeLorean DMC-12 but to those who had to be taught from scratch how to build it. It was therefore inevitable that the manufacturing defects of the first series would earn our pretty stainless steel friend a bad reputation.
Things did not go as planned and the change of British government made the situation worse. The newly crowned Margaret Thatcher no longer considered the Delorean Motor Company a good investment, so when the Delorean Motor Company finally defaulted in 1982 did not give her any help. Driven by debt, the Golden Boy to whom things were failing now, he looked for money even under the stones ...
He went too far and tried his luck in the burgeoning cocaine business. On October 19, he was arrested in a hotel in Los Angeles, thus terminating his career in a withering way. (If you liked the video, read more about this story clicking here or wait until next week and you'll see ...)
*Video: Alexander Paloma, kukfilms, The Escudería
* Text: Javier Romagosa
