John DeLorean interview on the Dick Cavett Show

[Gregadeth]

This 18-minute interview from 1985 was just posted on Youtube

[AugustneverEnds]

Nice, thanks for posting.

[Michael]

Looking forward to watching this. I guess any lost footage will have the right environment to flourish with the two movies out this year.

[Michael]

That was a very interesting interview. I felt Dick was being a bit of a dick and to JZD's credit, he was humble, magnanimous and he batted those questions right back to him with very good answers.

Not going to say that I think JZD was a saint and even he would be quick to say the same, but I think as far as the last few months of DMC that he at least deserves the benefit of the doubt and even his detractors would admit that the way the government pursued him was suspicious (both in inception and execution) to say the least.

[opethmike]

Who?

[Col Bennett]

I felt Dick was being a bit of a dick.

Totally.

[Riley88]

No man in a position he held was ever really a saint. After all the harassment he went through especially. In the end, he tried to do what not many had done and failed due to a mixture of many reasons. But without out there where would be we be without these great cars today

[Timeless]

No man in a position he held was ever really a saint. After all the harassment he went through especially. In the end, he tried to do what not many had done and failed due to a mixture of many reasons. But without out there where would be we be without these great cars today

Did he fail? Designed and built a car and factory ready in 28 months? The good is they tooled up for a lot more cars to be produced offering enthusiasts today a plethora of parts to keep these cars on the road.

[CFI]

Did he fail? Designed and built a car and factory ready in 28 months?

That’s not a good thing. The car was rushed into production before it was ready which had all sorts of consequences. A little more than two years later the entire plant was being auctioned off piece by piece. That doesn’t exactly scream SUCCESS.

[AugustneverEnds]

It seems like people use the phrase "he wasn't a saint" quite a bit to qualify their opinion about JZD. I really think it's pointless to do that. JZD started a company that manufactured and sold cars to turn a profit, no different than any other. I feel when the company hit hard times and was placed in receivership JZD really began to push the helping Northern Ireland angle into the forefront like the company was designed first to do that and to make money second which is absurd. The best thing DMC could have done for Northern Ireland was to be a success. Perhaps JZD inadvertently brought the saintly comparisons onto himself.

Setting aside the bar for sainthood I feel DeLorean was really about par for an entrepreneur/businessman, so many grandly wonderful ideas, a flair for promotion, immaculate attention to detail and styling, but some what of a short attention span, and a propensity to spread his energies a bit too far. Where I feel JZD really belongs is in the category of visionary artists a lá Ettore Bugatti. Bugatti never made a cent building his own cars but he left such powerful legacy and probably helped launched some many other people's dreams.