The DeLorean Story- The Car, The People, The Scandal

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Originally Posted by nick sutton

Please remember that without the movie BTTF our profile as a group of enthusiasts would significantly less than that it is today.It’s played a major role in keeping the image of the DeLorean Car alive.
Nick Sutton

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Oh I don't deny for a minute the impact of BTTF on the Delorean culture and popularity. My point was that not every Delorean owner/enthusiast centers their love of the car around the movie. I was a fan of the car the moment I saw the prototype in a magazine ad. When I got older, I began reading the history of the car and never really stopped..of course that desire to learn hit turbo boost after I got mine 3 years ago.

For me, it wasn't the movie that got me interested, or kept me interested, It's this history and the era in which it was set that makes the Delorean story so interesting. The movie mearly kept the general puplic's interest peaked and kept the prices higher so it would not be until I was 37 years old that I finally had the scratch to plunk down on a Delorean.....so the movie I could take or leave.

Michael,

In that case you'll be pleased to hear that it's only mentioned once in the book. It would be wrong to omit it from the script. The fact that the movie was released in 1985 and it took me twenty years to watch the film is an indication of how badly I then felt about the whole affair.

Due to several major events that changed my view I am now able to watch the movie without holding the hand of a psychologist!
Nick

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Originally Posted by Michael

I will want an autographed copy :)

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add me to the autographed copy list! :thumbup2:

During the research for the book I've come across a significant amount of history regarding the plant , the people and Lotus Cars.

In this last category I spent several months researching the Hethel Lotus site where the DeLorean car was designed, developed and tested. Hethel airfield was a USAAF base in world war II.

The attached photograph was taken on the site.

There is significantly more detail in the book.

Copyright to the photograph is Mr Fred Squires Chairman of the 389th Bomb Group Historical Society and an enthusiast in keeping the memory of the USAAF based at Hethel alive.

Nick Sutton

Looking forward to reading the rest of the book when completed!

It is great to have as many people as we do who actually were there during the inception & production of our cars who are involved/active the DeLorean community as we do. Thank you Nick for participating and sharing your knowledge & experiences. It gives me (and I'm sure others) a closer connection to the car I (we) love.

On the 29th January 1982 the Managing Director of DeLorean Motor Cars Ltd, Don Lander, announced that 1100 jobs at the factory would have to go. The balance of the workforce of 1400 were to go to short time working.This cut back also affected staff in the offices as well as operatives in the factory.They left DMCL's employment on the 12th February - a week before Receivership.

Many of those made redundant had started in July/August of the previous year to support the increase in production from 40 to 80 cars per day.

Despite what is read today about the amazement of the US sales team when they found that we had ramped up to this increased level, only five weeks previously the US were demanding the shipment of more cars at a higher rate and improved quality.

Nick Sutton

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Originally Posted by John U

add me to the autographed copy list! :thumbup2:

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I would like to say thanks for letting the members of the forum read a part of your book. I am looking forward to reading a signed copy of the book.
I appreciated the first hand account that you are writting about & find this extermely interesting.
Kirby (aka hassyfoto)

:thumbup:

Thank you all for the kind comments and encouragement. I can’t guarantee that the book will be a master piece of English literature but I can promise that it will be like no other book written on the subject. There is a lot of new material and personal accounts of my time at the company telling the story of the determination of the workforce to make the impossible dream succeed.
Thirty years ago tomorrow one thousand one hundred workers left the factory in the first wave of redundancies having been given their notice of redundancy a week earlier. The redundancy programme included office staff, factory supervisors, QC people and management.
We were then just over a week away from Receivership. All expenditure had been stopped and we had been warned that to commit to any expense with the knowledge that we couldn’t pay was a civil if not criminal offence.
There was some support for the project in Parliament from MPs who had suppliers in their constituency but in general the public and government view of our venture was hostile. After all this was Northern Ireland not much sympathy from the man in the street to anything that came from this part of the world.
We struggled on regardless to finish cars using material already in stock or by cannibalising cars for parts.

In another ten days things would change completely.

Sir Kenneth Cork arrived at the DeLorean factory in Dunmurry early morning of the 19th February 1982. His mission was to announce in person, the statement that was to be broadcast from the House of Commons at 11.00 am. This was that DMCL in Northern Ireland was to enter Receivership.
He was met at the factory by Shaun Harte the most senior of the Directors then on site – two other Senior Directors were in the US having travelled a week or so earlier; now with John DeLorean, planning the future, working on the response to the announcement to be made in Parliament
Sir Kenneth gathered the senior management and Union officials in the Training Building to make his speech which was brief. He hoped that there would be a future for the company but at a reduced scale of operations.
In the DeLorean offices in Coventry – three hundred miles away – we were unaware of the announcement made by Sir Kenneth.
Someone brought in their radio so we could listen to the planned announcement in Parliament by James Prior Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. After prayers in the House of Commons the business started. Reading of The Dogs (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill came first on the agenda of the day – as it should of course. Then James Prior stood to speak.
He announced that DMCL would enter Receivership – at least it wasn’t closure as we’d thought – a huge relief. That would come eight months later. Within hours we were asked to asset label the desks, photocopy machine and anything that had value.
Photographs of the DeLorean Car on the office wall disappeared within minutes, anything of value to the Receiver remained to closure.
There would be a silence and lack of activity for a few weeks whilst we recorded our activity over the last three years compiling data for the Receiver on what we had spent and to whom – records I hold to this day.
But what would happen next?
Nick Sutton

Sometime early last year I was approached by a man who had just purchased a gold coloured Volvo 264. It was in poor condition. But there was evidence that the car had been used at Lotus during the DeLorean period. Having failed to get any information from Lotus Cars regarding the Volvo's history he contacted me. The only thing I could recall about the model is that I had sales brochure of the Volvo 264 in pristine condition. It had been in my garage for almost thirty years - why I had it is a mystery but it came from my office at DeLorean.

Then late last year I spoke to Paul Fricker who had worked on the Delorean in particular the PRV engine. He told me that Lotus had purchased a Volvo as a comparator in fuel economy. Eventually he sent me some photographs- one of them had a gold Volvo in the background. The photograph was taken in the Lotus DeLorean Hangar at Hethel. This is attached.

Still not full evidence that it was the same car until a few weeks ago. The glove box had been locked for thirty years and the new owner had managed to open the compartment.

Inside was a map. I'll post it later.

Nick SuttonAttachment 8620