John DeLorean was General Motors’ golden boy. For god sake, he created the GTO by sneaking it past the same executives he knew would frown upon putting a big block motor in a mid-size framed car & definitely would not approve this project, so he did what he always did - he found a way around the problem - & made the GTO an option on the Pontiac Tempest.
â–´2 - â–´3 Everything DeLorean touched at GM turned into gold, but he took a risk & left GM to start his own car company, DMC - DeLorean Motor Company. Raising $17.5 million dollars from private investors, he selected on North Ireland as the location to build his cars, which was supported by the fact that the British government, which North Ireland was a part of, matched his $17.5 million investment to acquire his business. Production was delayed, but cars began trickling into the states.
The perfect storm of an American recession, a fiscally conservative British prime minister, & an overpriced under performing product sacked DeLorean quickly. Cars sat in lots & the company fell into bankruptcy.
DeLorean found himself involved himself in a federal drug related entrapment case, which ruined his legacy for good. After being acquitted, the $17.5 million dollars he privately raised had been embezzled during DMC’s partnership with Lotus.
Over its 24 month lifespan, DeLorean manufactured around 9000 DMC units. There are 2 confirmed extremely special & rare versions of the DMC that are GOLD plated. Why?
▴4 - ▴10 Well, American Express Magazine wanted to sell 100 gold plated DeLoreans at the price of $85,000 ($250k in today’s money) each. 7 were ordered, but only 2 ever made it out - one went to San Francisco & the other to Texas. They were regular DeLoreans, but plated in 24 ct gold. The 80’s baby!
There’s been rumors of a third gold plated car that was assembled with spare gold parts, but it has yet to be publicly shared.
📸Sources: | wikipedia | Donut Media |