John DeLorean was once a heavyweight in the American auto industry. He started his career with General Motors in the Pontiac division. His work as an engineer yielded patents that are still used today, such as the concealed windshield wiper. DeLorean also worked on the 1963 Pontiac GTO – a box office success for GM. Which won him a free dinner, by the way, because the sales manager bet they wouldn’t sell even 5000. It became 31,000 a year.
John DeLorean Could Have Been CEO of General Motors
DeLorean became head of Pontiac in 1965 and promoted to Chevrolet in 1969. It went well for him. In 1972, he moved to the “fourteenth floor,” the floor in the GM building that housed the top of the company. He was sure to become the next CEO of GM. But DeLorean wasn’t happy. He longed to go back to his early years as a technician: he wanted to build cars again.
The DeLorean DMC-12 fiasco put him personally bankrupt
You can read how his DeLorean DMC-12 fared in our previous story about the stainless steel sports car. Or see you on Netflix. The documentary Myth & Mogul: John DeLorean will make its debut there on July 30. And we bet it will also cover his vanity (DeLorean was a fan of plastic surgery), his conviction for cocaine trafficking, and the aftermath of the DeLorean DMC-12 drama, which left him personally went bankrupt.