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Car Developer John DeLorean Dies at 80
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<!-- TextStart -->By JEFFREY GOLD, Associated Press Writer
NEWARK, N.J. - John Z. DeLorean, the innovative automaker who left a promising career in Detroit to develop the stainless steel-skinned, gull-winged sports car bearing his name and was acquitted of charges he planned to sell $24 million worth of cocaine to support the venture, has died at the age of 80.
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AP Photo </CENTER>
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DeLorean died Saturday at Overlook Hospital in Summit, N.J., of complications from a recent stroke, said Paul Connell, an owner of A.J. Desmond & Sons Funeral Directors in Royal Oak, Mich., which was handling arrangements.
DeLorean, whose namesake car was turned into a time machine in the "Back to the Future" movies, was among just a handful of U.S. entrepreneurs who dared start a car company in the last 75 years.
DeLorean "broke the mold" of staid Midwestern auto executives by pushing General Motors Corp. to offer smaller models, auto historians said.
While at GM, he created what some consider the first "muscle car" in 1964 by cramming a V-8 engine into a Pontiac Tempest and calling it the GTO.
Although he was a rising if unconventional executive at GM, and was believed by many to be destined for its presidency, he quit in 1973 to launch the DeLorean Motor Car Co. in Northern Ireland.
Eight years later, the DeLorean DMC-12 hit the streets with its unpainted stainless steel skin and gull-wing doors.
Car Developer John DeLorean Dies at 80
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width=420 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=center><TD width="40%"><!-- Yahoo TimeStamp: 1111342523 --><!-- recent_timestamp 1111342523 1622 secs not stale 28800 secs -->27 minutes ago
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- TextStart -->By JEFFREY GOLD, Associated Press Writer
NEWARK, N.J. - John Z. DeLorean, the innovative automaker who left a promising career in Detroit to develop the stainless steel-skinned, gull-winged sports car bearing his name and was acquitted of charges he planned to sell $24 million worth of cocaine to support the venture, has died at the age of 80.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="1%" align=left border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD width="99%"><!-- ult --><CENTER><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=150 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD><CENTER>
AP Photo </CENTER>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER><!-- start 2005 03/20 10:03 expire 2005 03/27 10:03 --><CENTER><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width=150 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=sectiontitles><CENTER>Related Links</CENTER></TD></TR><TR align=middle><TD class=leftcolumnmain><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD width="1%">•</TD><TD width="99%">DeLorean Web Sites (Yahoo! Directory)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER></TD><TD width=5> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
DeLorean died Saturday at Overlook Hospital in Summit, N.J., of complications from a recent stroke, said Paul Connell, an owner of A.J. Desmond & Sons Funeral Directors in Royal Oak, Mich., which was handling arrangements.
DeLorean, whose namesake car was turned into a time machine in the "Back to the Future" movies, was among just a handful of U.S. entrepreneurs who dared start a car company in the last 75 years.
DeLorean "broke the mold" of staid Midwestern auto executives by pushing General Motors Corp. to offer smaller models, auto historians said.
While at GM, he created what some consider the first "muscle car" in 1964 by cramming a V-8 engine into a Pontiac Tempest and calling it the GTO.
Although he was a rising if unconventional executive at GM, and was believed by many to be destined for its presidency, he quit in 1973 to launch the DeLorean Motor Car Co. in Northern Ireland.
Eight years later, the DeLorean DMC-12 hit the streets with its unpainted stainless steel skin and gull-wing doors.
