DeLorean

The De Lorean Motor Company (DMC) was a short-lived automobile manufacturing company formed by automobile industry executive John De Lorean in 1975. more...

It is remembered for the one distinctive model it produced – the stainless steel De Lorean DMC-12 sports car featuring gull-wing doors – and for its brief and turbulent history, ending in receivership and bankruptcy in 1982. Near the end, in a desperate attempt to raise the funds his company needed to survive, John De Lorean was filmed appearing to accept money to take part in drug trafficking, but was subsequently acquitted, on the basis of entrapment, of charges brought against him.

Although the company had ceased to exist before the first movie was made, the De Lorean DMC-12 shot to worldwide fame in the Back to the Future movie trilogy as the car transformed into a time machine by eccentric scientist Doctor Emmett Brown.

History

Beginning

John De Lorean founded the De Lorean Motor Company in Detroit, Michigan on October 24, 1975. He was already well-known in the automobile industry as a first-rate engineer, maverick business innovator, jetsetter and youngest person to become a General Motors executive. Investment capital came primarily in the form of business loans from the Bank of America and from the formation of various partnerships and private investment from select parties, including The Tonight Show host Johnny Carson. Money was also gained later through a dealer investment program in which those dealerships offering De Lorean's cars for sale were made shareholders in the company.

De Lorean also sought lucrative incentives from various government and economic organizations to pay for constructing the company's automobile manufacturing facilities. To gain these, he looked to build his first factory in a country or area where unemployment was particularly high. One candidate was the Republic of Ireland, although the country's then Minister for Industry and Commerce, Des O'Malley, decided not to support the project. A deal in Puerto Rico was about to be agreed when De Lorean took up a last-minute offer from the UK's Northern Ireland Development Agency (NIDA). As part of this offer, De Lorean was under the impression that the British government would provide his company with Export Credit financing. This would provide a loan of 80% of the wholesale cost of the vehicles ($20,000) upon completion and delivery for shipping.

Manufacturing Facility

In October 1978, construction of the manufacturing plant began in Northern Ireland. Officially known as DMCL (De Lorean Motor Company, Ltd.), the facility was located in Dunmurry, a suburb of Belfast. Construction of the 6-building, 660,000 square foot (61,000 m²) complex was completed by Farrans McLaughlin & Harvey in an impressive 16 months, and it was situated on the border between two communities with differing religious predominations; Twinbrook (Catholic), and X (Protestant). The facility had separate entrances for each side, but this was more of a geographic convenience than it was for religious segregation.

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