On this day in 2005, John DeLorean, an innovative auto industry
executive and founder of the DeLorean Motor Company, dies at the
age of 80 in New Jersey. In the early 1980s, the DeLorean Motor
Company produced just one model, the DMC-12, a sleek sports car
with gull-wing doors that opened upward, before going bankrupt.
John DeLorean was charged with drug trafficking in an effort to
raise funds for his struggling company. Approximately 9,000
DMC-12s in total were produced. The car later became a
collector's item and received a big publicity boost when it was
featured as a time-travel machine in the "Back to the Future"
movies starring Michael J. Fox. DeLorean was born on January 6,
1925, and grew up in Detroit. He worked as an engineer for the
Packard Motor Company and later moved to General Motors, where
he was credited with developing the Pontiac GTO, the first
"muscle car," which launched in 1964. DeLorean quickly rose
through the ranks at GM, becoming the youngest general manager
of the Pontiac division an