John Z. DeLorean was an innovative automotive engineer who served in a number of high level positions during a 17-year career at General Motors. When he walked away from GM unexpectedly in 1973, he was group executive in charge of the Car and Truck Group and a member of five of the Corporation's top policy groups. His best known work for General Motors was development of the Pontiac GTO.

Born in Detroit on January 6, 1925, DeLorean grew up in Michigan and southern California. He graduated from Lawrence Institute of Technology in 1948 with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering. In 1952, he received a master's degree in automotive engineering from Chrysler Institute. Later he earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of Michigan.

DeLorean was recruited by General Motors and joined the corporation in 1956 as director of advance engineering for the Pontiac Division under general manager Bunkie Knudsen and chief engineer Pete Estes. Prior to being appointed to this position, he had eight years of engineering experience with Chrysler and at Packard Motor Company where he was director of research and development.

He was promoted to assistant chief engineer of Pontiac in 1959 and made chief engineer in 1961. In these positions, DeLorean was responsible for many of the division's engineering innovations, including the Wide Track principle, the overhead cam six-cylinder engine, the concealed and articulated windshield wiper, the torque box frame, the Endura bumper, and the windshield antenna. His greatest achievement at Pontiac was the development of the GTO, the car the ushered in the “muscle car” era. The GTO evolved from the smallish 1961 Tempest and was first introduced as a performance option package on the 1964 Tempest LeMans. As “father” of the GTO, DeLorean is credited with helping Bunkie Knudsen to create the youthful image of Pontiac that propelled it to the Number Three sales position in the industry.

DeLorean was rewarded for his achievements in 1965 when he was named general manager of the Pontiac Motor Division. At 40 years of age, he was the youngest person ever to become division head at General Motors. As general manager, DeLorean continued his string of successes with the introduction of the 1967 Firebird in the so-called “pony car” segment and the completely restyled Grand Prix in 1969.

Despite his frequent clashes with top GM leaders over his ever-increasing social agenda and newfound youthful appearance and demeanor, DeLorean was promoted again in February 1969. This time he took the reins of the Chevrolet Motor Division, GM’s flagship brand. At 44, he was the youngest of the then 10 general managers who had headed the nation's top car and truck producer in the division's 60-year history.

GM president Ed Cole brought DeLorean into Chevrolet to correct that division’s organizational and financial troubles. He responded to this challenge by reducing Chevy’s production overhead and assembly costs. DeLorean directed the engineering, building and marketing strategy for several new or completely redesigned Chevrolet products, including the Vega 2300 which entered the small car market in the late summer of 1970. He also saved money by rearranging the production schedule for the redesigned Nova (which was supposed to be released for the 1970 model year) and simplifying the updates to the Corvette and Camaro. Under DeLorean's leadership in 1971, Chevrolet became the first individual manufacturer to sell more than 3 million cars and trucks in a single year.

On October 1, 1972, DeLorean was named group executive in charge of the Car and Truck Group but his clashes with the other leaders at General Motors continued and worsened. By this time, he fancied himself part of the jet-set, hanging out with Hollywood celebrities and spending much of his leisure time travelling. DeLorean refused to conform to the GM leadership idea of how a highly-paid executive should look and behave. He had gained a reputation as a maverick within the traditionally ultra-conservative automotive industry. Six months later on April 2, 1973, DeLorean announced his resignation for General Motors to pursue other interests. This was quite unexpected as it had seemed to many onlookers that he was on the fast track to GM’s presidency.

After DeLorean left General Motors, he started his own automobile venture, the DeLorean Motor Company (DMC), which showed a prototype two-seat sports car in the mid-1970s and manufactured its first production car, the DMC-12, in 1981. The DMC-12 was a two-seater powered by Renault-built and engineered V6 engine. It featured a unique stainless steel body and gull-wing doors. It was manufactured in war-torn Northern Ireland, Poor financial decisions left the company in dire straits and soon the company was in receivership and the plant closed by the British government.

In an attempt to secure a new funding source for his company, DeLorean entered into negotiations with a former drug smuggler and CIA informant who came to him with an illegal investment opportunity. This deal led to DeLorean’s arrest on cocaine trafficking charges in October 1982. Defending himself in court, he was acquitted of all charges due to entrapment in August of 1984.

John DeLorean died of complications from a stroke in 2005. He was immortalized when his namesake car was used in the movie Back to the Future (and its sequels) in 1985.

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