John DeLorean was a former GM executive with a vision to create a new type of car company. In 1975, he launched a subsidiary focused on innovative materials and secured investment to fund a prototype. The result was the DMC-12, a sleek, stainless-steel sports car designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and initially funded by Allstate Insurance.
Its distinct gull-wing doors and stainless-steel body gave it a futuristic edge.
To manufacture the DMC-12, DeLorean needed significant funding, and he found it in Northern Ireland. With over $100 million in grants and loans from the British government, he built a factory in politically troubled Belfast. Lotus was brought on to handle engineering challenges, swapping the initial chassis for a more robust backbone design. Production finally began in 1981, but the company faced immediate financial challenges, exacerbated by the early 1980s recession and sluggish sales.
Desperate to keep the company afloat, DeLorean sought additional funding, and soon, questions about misused funds emerged. In 1982, as the company struggled with bankruptcy, John DeLorean was arrested in an FBI sting operation for allegedly attempting to smuggle cocaine to save DMC. Although he was acquitted on grounds of entrapment, the scandal left his reputation in shambles.
DMC ultimately dissolved, but the DeLorean car lives on as a cultural icon. The stainless-steel DMC-12 remains a symbol of both innovation and the risks inherent in ambition. Despite the company’s collapse, the DeLorean legacy endures, immortalized in Back to the Future and revered by car enthusiasts worldwide.
Elizabeth Puckett