| Most of us think of John DeLorean as the guy | | | | competing against the Big Three automakers that |
| behind the gull-wing stainless car from the Back to | | | | he had helped so much in the 1960's. His |
| the Future movies nut the fact of the matter is | | | | namesake, the DeLorean DMC-12 was a unique |
| that his contributions to the automotive world go | | | | brushed stainless steel sports car with the |
| much farther back than that. DeLorean was | | | | innovative flip up gull wing doors. The car never |
| actually the creator of the muscle car revolution in | | | | really took off and actually less than nine thousand |
| the United States. Think of how different the | | | | ever sold. Still, the vehicle was responsible for |
| sports car industry would be today if we hadn't | | | | many innovations for years to come. |
| had that era of performance cars. | | | | DeLorean along with Preston Tucker were both |
| In 1964 DeLorean was with Pontiac and he made | | | | headstrong individuals who were forward thinking |
| the decision to totally recreate the Tempest using | | | | revolutionaries way ahead of their time introducing |
| a huge V8 high performance engine. The car | | | | cutting edge vehicles. Although their product ideas |
| became known as the GTO, also nicknamed the | | | | didn't take off in their time they influenced the |
| Goat by adoring fans and remains to this day one | | | | future of the automotive industry. |
| of the all-time favorite muscle cars. The GTO | | | | In 1999 DeLorean had hopes of coming back to |
| was a big hit for Pontiac sparking off huge sales | | | | the automotive world with a high performance |
| volume and led other manufacturers to follow suit. | | | | sports car that would be priced below 20k and |
| His creative out of the box thinking got him | | | | would be made of mostly plastic. It seemed like |
| advanced to the higher echelons of the | | | | he was ready for a revival but it never came to |
| automotive industry but his independent free | | | | fruition and he died in 2004. |
| thinking nature was not really cut out for that and | | | | It will be interesting to see how the new Tesla |
| he ended up leaving that and forming his own | | | | Motor Company's electric high performance car |
| company to do things his way. | | | | does; the founder says he was influenced by |
| Leaving his past fruits behind him in Detroit, | | | | DeLorean and Tucker. The car does o to 60 in |
| DeLorean opened his own car company in | | | | under 4 seconds with a top speed of 130 mph. |
| Northern Ireland with the rather ambitious idea of | | | | |