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Thread: DeLorean developer dies

  1. #1
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    DeLorean developer dies

    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.


    AP Photo


    Related Links
    • DeLorean Web Sites (Yahoo! Directory)



    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.


    Its angular design earned it a cult following, and the car was a time-traveling vehicle for Michael J. Fox in the "Back to the Future" films of the late 1980s.


    However, the factory produced only about 8,900 cars in three years, estimated John Truscott, membership director of the DeLorean Owners Association.


    DeLorean's company collapsed in 1983, a year after he was arrested in Los Angeles, accused in a sting of conspiring to sell $24 million of cocaine to salvage the company.


    DeLorean used an entrapment defense to win acquittal on the drug charges in 1984, despite a surveillance videotape in which he was shown calling a suitcase full of cocaine "good as gold."


    He was later cleared of defrauding his investors, but continuing legal entanglements kept him on the sidelines of the automotive world. He declared bankruptcy in 1999.

  2. #2
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    Wrong section. Should have went to the American Cars section

  3. #3
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    Yay!!

  4. #4
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    I'm sure there will be a few celebrations going on in Ireland.
    Thanks for all the fish

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by UCR
    Yay!!

    no jim, boo.

    cruel cruel man, you shouldn't dance on anybody's grave, that's just mean.

    I have to admit, john made some pretty cool cars, but he souldn't have made the deal to treansport drugs., but his cars were cool.

    here is a small rememberance




  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Coventrysucks
    I'm sure there will be a few celebrations going on in Ireland.
    There was a docu on a few months back and none of the workers in Ireland had anything bad to say about the man or the company
    "A woman without curves is like a road without bends, you might get to your destination quicker but the ride is boring as hell'

  7. #7
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    John DeLorean was a dickhead...I don't care whether he dies or not, even though DeLoreans are my 2nd favourite car marque.
    TOYNBEE IDEA IN KUBRICK 2001 RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPITER

  8. #8
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    Even if he was a dick you should never be glad that someone has died. Nor should you ever wish death upon someone else. Its just wrong.

  9. #9
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    oh yeah, hitler is diffent.

    people you can dance on the grave of.
    Suddam hussan
    Bin laden
    adof Hitler
    Bill Ford

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Karrmann
    oh yeah, hitler is diffent.

    people you can dance on the grave of.
    Suddam hussan
    Bin laden
    adof Hitler
    Bill Ford
    karrmann two of those men are not dead, and you spelled two of them wrong and the last one is just stupid. Bill ford is a genius.
    John says:
    so i had to dump acid into the block tank today
    i'm afraid to fap
    cause i got it on my hands

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Karrmann
    oh yeah, hitler is diffent.

    people you can dance on the grave of.
    Suddam hussan
    Bin laden
    adof Hitler
    Bill Ford
    Hitler has no grave and the rest are still alive.
    If you should see a man walking down a crowded street talking aloud to himself, don't run in the opposite direction, but run towards him, because he's a poet. You have nothing to fear from the poet - but the truth.

    (Ted Joans)

  12. #12
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    I wouldn't.Hitler did some good things too, although he did more things VERY bad.

    and to karrmann :

    OWNED

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wouter Melissen
    Hitler has no grave and the rest are still alive.

    I know but I meant when they die, you can piss on their graves

  14. #14
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    Can I add Hillary Clinton and Slick Willy to that list?
    no harm in asking

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by izzy
    Can I add Hillary Clinton and Slick Willy to that list?
    No...
    Thanks for all the fish

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