88 facts about the DeLorean

[gaztruman]

Found this on Back to the Future day and absolute love it. Thought the community would enjoy it too.

My personal favourite which I didnt know was that 3 gold DeLoreans were produced.

Check it out here: https://www.thecarbuyingservice.co.u...ts-infographic

Which facts did you enjoy?

[Michael]

Two things I thought were not right

The stainless had a 25 yr. guarantee, not 20. That's the way I remember it anyway.

The way they worded it, "he was arrested with a briefcase of cocaine" made it sound like it was his.


Oh and the 0-60 times seemd a bit slow even for an automatic

[Dangermouse]

So it isn't really 88 facts about the car, is it.

It's some facts about the car, some about JZD, some about fans and anything else the creator can throw in there

[Jonathan]

Yep, 88 facts about the car is a bit of a stretch. Shows you how you can slant anything the way you want to. I thought it was too "headline" grabbing or negative on the car. But hey, that's how people do things with these kinds of links.

Not unique to this list, but I don't think you can call it a "failure" or a waste of taxpayers money. Not because of car sales, good or bad, though. But because 2,500 people local to Northern Ireland got work from the car's creation. Not to mention the construction contracts to build the facility initially. That's not a failure.

Sure, 80 million pounds went into it, but you also had people working that never did before, and having money to spend locally on food, clothing, housing, or whatever. Not to mention not killing each other over religion for a short time.

That doesn't make as good a headline though I guess. There are many similar examples since then in the US where government money is put into something to bring jobs to people, where what they are doing or building or selling doesn't match up dollar for dollar with what went in.

I thought the first car rolled off the production line in April and not January?

[DMCVegas]

Two things I thought were not right

The stainless had a 25 yr. guarantee, not 20. That's the way I remember it anyway.

Same here. Though in all fairness, I'm not sure that the 25 year anti-perforation warranty actually got initiated with the sales of cars. I think it was something that JZD was pushing for, but others were scared of, and delayed it's introduction.

The way they worded it, "he was arrested with a briefcase of cocaine" made it sound like it was his.

Not only was it NOT *his* cocaine, it didn't even belong to anyone in the room! It was already property of the DEA. The drugs were confiscated prior to that day when the DEA arrested William Morgan Hetrick for smuggling them. James Hoffman, the informant that pressured JZD into the deal, was the one who helped arrange the importation of narcotics, and then the scheme to distribute them, which Hoffman had dragged JZD into.

When Hetrick was arrested and subsequently pleaded Guilty along with all of his asset forfeiture and a promise to testify against De Lorean, it was apparently a plea deal he made to keep his own sons out of jail as well as to avoid a potential life sentence in prison for himself. But still, the drugs that were confiscated as evidence for Hetrick's arrest were then used as props in the arrest of JZD.

Which again are some pretty significant facts that exonerate De Lorean:

• The cocaine in the room didn't belong to De Lorean, and all responsible parties involved in it's illegal procurement were already in jail, or were already exempt from prosecution.
• De Lorean brought absolutely NOTHING except the clothes on his back to this meeting. No cash, no money, nothing of any monetary value.
• The actual illegal acts of narcotics distribution & money laundering were all agreed to be carried out by the DEA's representatives Hoffman & Benedict Tisa.
• Since no physical money ever changed hands, and the final processing at the Palm Springs, Ca S&L never occurred, no tax evasion crimes were ever even given the chance to be committed.
• According to Benedict Tisa's own testimony during the De Lorean criminal trial, the idea that JZD was going to willingly participate in anything drug related was not because De Lorean made a clear commitment and intention to do so, but because it was merely Tisa's own personal, and the DEA's opinionated "interpretation" of conversations. Which gels perfectly with the De Lorean's autobiography claiming that he was speaking of corporate financing through "floor planning", and not narcotics. Even in the recorded conversations the DEA had where he keeps steering the conversations away from drugs and back to corporate operations and finances. https://books.google.com/books?id=qE...isa%22&f=false

[David T]

Same here. Though in all fairness, I'm not sure that the 25 year anti-perforation warranty actually got initiated with the sales of cars. I think it was something that JZD was pushing for, but others were scared of, and delayed it's introduction.



Not only was it NOT *his* cocaine, it didn't even belong to anyone in the room! It was already property of the DEA. The drugs were confiscated prior to that day when the DEA arrested William Morgan Hetrick for smuggling them. James Hoffman, the informant that pressured JZD into the deal, was the one who helped arrange the importation of narcotics, and then the scheme to distribute them, which Hoffman had dragged JZD into.

When Hetrick was arrested and subsequently pleaded Guilty along with all of his asset forfeiture and a promise to testify against De Lorean, it was apparently a plea deal he made to keep his own sons out of jail as well as to avoid a potential life sentence in prison for himself. But still, the drugs that were confiscated as evidence for Hetrick's arrest were then used as props in the arrest of JZD.

Which again are some pretty significant facts that exonerate De Lorean:

• The cocaine in the room didn't belong to De Lorean, and all responsible parties involved in it's illegal procurement were already in jail, or were already exempt from prosecution.
• De Lorean brought absolutely NOTHING except the clothes on his back to this meeting. No cash, no money, nothing of any monetary value.
• The actual illegal acts of narcotics distribution & money laundering were all agreed to be carried out by the DEA's representatives Hoffman & Benedict Tisa.
• Since no physical money ever changed hands, and the final processing at the Palm Springs, Ca S&L never occurred, no tax evasion crimes were ever even given the chance to be committed.
• According to Benedict Tisa's own testimony during the De Lorean criminal trial, the idea that JZD was going to willingly participate in anything drug related was not because De Lorean made a clear commitment and intention to do so, but because it was merely Tisa's own personal, and the DEA's opinionated "interpretation" of conversations. Which gels perfectly with the De Lorean's autobiography claiming that he was speaking of corporate financing through "floor planning", and not narcotics. Even in the recorded conversations the DEA had where he keeps steering the conversations away from drugs and back to corporate operations and finances. https://books.google.com/books?id=qE...isa%22&f=false

While all of your facts may be correct all that the common person on the street remembers is the video and seeing a suitcase full of drugs. Guilt by association. That is all it was meant for, the camera. Never mind the charges were money laundering which can be complicated and hard for lay people to understand. To this day people will come up to me at car shows and ask if JZD is still in prison.

[DMCVegas]

While all of your facts may be correct all that the common person on the street remembers is the video and seeing a suitcase full of drugs. Guilt by association. That is all it was meant for, the camera. Never mind the charges were money laundering which can be complicated and hard for lay people to understand. To this day people will come up to me at car shows and ask if JZD is still in prison.

It's not just what people see, and it's not just that as James Espy once correctly pointed out about how being arrested was front-page news, where an acquittal ends up being buried back on page 8 where no one will see it. It's also a matter of people being outright lied to.

This is an archived article from the NY Times in 1983: http://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/14/us...a-bargain.html

In this article we have quotes such as, "On Oct. 18 he (De Lorean) was videotaped and arrested for receiving a package of cocaine. Prosecutors said they were investigating Mr. Hetrick, who has been described by drug agents as one of the largest cocaine dealers in the area, when Mr. DeLorean unwittingly contacted the informer."

Both of those statements are outright lies. First and foremost of course is the fact that John Z. De Lorean NEVER EVER received any narcotics, or anything else at any time. Second is that De Lorean "unwittingly" contacted Hetrick. According to Tisa's testimony under oath, HE arraigned for Hetrick and De Lorean to contact one another.

Now I get why the DEA ran the investigation like they did. The point of all this was to get Hetrick to move the cash he had hidden in offshore bank accounts into the DEA's jurisdiction where they could seize it under forfeiture, potentially for their own personal gain according to law. De Lorean & DMC were just the vehicles to get that going. Hetrick thought he had a buyer for cocaine, and De Lorean thought he had an investor. So they were both talking about money, but didn't know what they other wanted it for about during their meeting.

And financially it worked! Going for a measly $400K, they DEA wound up seizing over $3,000,000 from Hetrick alone!

But the problem was, and still is public opinion. When Larry Flynt released the DEA's video to CBS News, it backfired against the DEA. As one caller on Larry King's show once stated, he recently lost his job and wished his boss had been brave enough to go to such means to save the company. And then still too there was a whole lot of natural distrust of both the government, and the conspiracies of General Motors and everything else that started up. The DEA absolutely HAD to regain credibility with these flase statements. De Lorean was as much of a fall guy as the prosecution was. The DEA got the cash that they wanted, and didn't care how.

And you're right, Dave. Not many people do care other than what they've seen and how they've been told to interpret it. And without discussing politics or especially religion, the early 1980's political climate was allot different than it was today in some terms, and just as crazy in other aspects. But that change is a good thing. I think that right now John Z. De Lorean's innocence and abuse from the government is really the next thing we should push for. The public's trust in the government, no matter which side of the political fence you're on, is shaken. This is the perfect time to start bringing this up. BTTF is over and done with. It's nostalgia. Revisiting the trial and now bringing out these facts in a new age of mass communication can do WONDERS to help bolster the marque even further. But more importantly, I think that the new generation is far more receptive to hearing the truth as it should be told. We can really blow the lid off of things in the public realm. People are now calling for an end to asset forfeiture. Connecting De Lorean to this cause would be a boon in terms of positive public opinion for us.

Or to put it another way, if you want to further increase the value of the DMC-12, the next thing is to shake off the fallout from the scandal and finally separate the car and the man from the public's ignorance. Do this buy showing them the truth: They've been lied to, and are just as victimized.