RIP John Delorean

[j-raj]

RIP John, I spent many years of my youth in the passenger seat of your car. Makes me sad thinking of those memories.

 

[Hambone]

DeLorean was a Visionary in the automotive world. Many of his ideas were ahead of their times.

An example was the OHC Inline 6 Cylinder engine that was used by Pontiac in the late 60's,early 70's. The American auto buying public wasn't that interested in a six at the time when you can get 350 & 400 CI V-8's in a Firebird. Inline six engines were were used in trucks and cheap grocery getter Falcons, Darts, and Novas. But none the less it was a pretty advanced engine for it's day the the public wasn't ready to accept the inline six as a performance engine.

It did not sell well but the OHC inline six became a staple design for BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Nissan, and Jaguar. They saw the potential of this design and continue to use refined versions of their own inline six designs. They have sold millions of performance cars and have won 1000's of races with inline six engines.

Had DeLorean worked for a Euro company more of his ideas may have made it to production.

RIP John DeLorean

Just a small clarification - The inline 6's used in the pickups and passenger cars (Dodges, Fords, Chevy's) of the 60's and 70's were all pushrod engines. The second paragraph sort of reads like the engines in the grocery getters were also the OHC's and not very popular.

 

[jrthebassguy]

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Having never seen this man before in my life, I always imagined him looking like Christopher Lloyd's character, Doc.


RIP

 

[srxplayer]

Just a small clarification - The inline 6's used in the pickups and passenger cars (Dodges, Fords, Chevy's) of the 60's and 70's were all pushrod engines. The second paragraph sort of reads like the engines in the grocery getters were also the OHC's and not very popular.

Sorry. Did not mean to imply that a smiliar OHC was used in those vehicles. I just meant the car buying public associated the OHC with those less refined designs, and it did not help sell the engine.

 

[deichman]

I run an auto retailer. We have a Delorean in our shop right now. That stainless steel beauty. I have looked at the car sitting out back for the past few days now. Tomorrow I'll take a closer look, and pay a small tribute to John Delorean.

deichman

www.endofstory.com

 

[DeLorean]

For those wondering, he was my uncle (father's brother, specifically). Thanks for the kind thoughts. It is nice that folks are remembering his time and work at both Pontiac and Chevrolet as well as the DMC days.

As to the "except for the drug thing" comment, he was never a dealer or money launderer for dealers. That case was pure entrapment brought about by a couple agents looking to create their own version of Watergate to ride their careers out on. Unfortunately, it ceased to be interesting to the news medias when the case was dismissed with prejudice. So there weren't months of "DeLorean innocent!" headlines and similar lines read by the anchors. The story about the results of the case was usually a small two paragraph comment on 8D rather than 1A where stories of the accusation ran and barely or not mentioned on TV news. People speaking as if he had been convicted is one of the few things more annoying than every sub-90 IQ person thinking they were the cleverest thing around by telling me some subset of the same 27 DeLorean jokes throughout the mid 1980's.

Sorry for the rant. I know he would appreciate the kind rememberances and appreciation for the cars he helped create.