my attitude about DeLorean (long)

[Soma576@xxxx]

Hello All,

This last week i had the opportunity to check out the book "Hard Driving - My 
Years With John DeLorean", written by William Haddad, a close executive of 
JZD during the early years of pre-production and the first half of DMC, 
Belfast. Previously, the only insight i had about DMC on a buisness level 
was a few random websites with brief paragraphs and i also read DeLorean's 
autobiography, which basically tells the ENTIRE story, more or less, from 
JZD's perspective. by contrast, "Hard Driving" is the exact same story, 
minus the results of John's drug bust (because the book was written before 
the trials were over, and there's only a short page about his arrest), only 
told by Haddad's point of view.

let's just say that i wonder if i were better off not reading "Hard Driving". 
ignorance really is bliss! The entire book tends to paint a positive view 
of DeLorean the COMPANY, while painting a negative view of DeLorean the MAN. 
keep in mind that Haddad fully convinced me in the book that he didn't write 
the book to tear down JZD or anything he did, he just tells the facts as he 
knew them, and voices his inner suspicions and fears. 

Simply, i was appalled by most of the book. Haddad describes JZD early in 
his GM years (he has known JZD since he was chief engineer of Pontiac) as 
brilliant, outspoken, driven, yet as always, controversial. In the beginning 
years of DMC he describes John as almost manical in his procedures to gain 
financial backing for DMC. In the middle and late years of DMC (81-82) he 
describes John as being nearly insane about his control over the company, 
resorting to wiretaps, moles in his own buisness and in the British 
government, using theft (he once ordered Dick Brown and some other armed men 
to break into the Bridgewater, NJ QAC center to steal 15 cars which were 
owned by Bank of America. the cars in the QAC were collateral on a loan they 
gave DMC, and when DMC missed a payment [when times got tough, JZD just 
stopped paying his bills and focused on selling the cars no matter what], 
Bank of America took over ownership of the unsold cars. during the night, 
the men broke into the QAC and took the cars to JZD's Bedminster Estate. 
Haddad was never able to find out what became of the cars). He describes 
JZD's public statements about the 'ethical car company' as being nothing more 
than a fascade for DMC to sell more cars to a naive public. in reality, 
Haddad claims that DMC became everything that JZD had denounced in GM in his 
book "On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors". John did not care about 
the quality of his car. he decided not to re-engineer the faulty suspension 
system during the pre-production because they were already behind schedule. 
this later resulted in at least two recalls on the car in 1981 - probably 
even more expensive to do that than it would have been to fix it before it 
happened. as far as emissions and EPA regulations - DMC manipulated the 
system and falsified their reports in order to pass it. again, he didn't 
spend the time or the money or get it resolved. There were a hundred other 
examples i could describe, but it would be best for you all to read the book 
yourselves. perhaps the worst part of the whole thing was at the end when 
Roy Nesseth was sent to confront Haddad about his severence package. Haddad 
wanted his lawyer to read the contract first, but Roy wouldn't let him. he 
wanted an immediate signature. When Haddad refused, Roy threatened that his 
children would be in danger if he didn't sign the papers. interesting. 
that's exactly what DeLorean was told by a federal 'agent' when JZD didn't 
want to sign the papers for the Columbian cocaine deal....... Haddad never 
did sign the papers.

Now make no mistake - i love my DeLorean car and it has pretty much taken 
over my entire life. it is my main hobby now for the last year since i've 
owned it, and i am proud to drive it. there isn't a single time when i sit 
in the seat and think, 'man, this is the best car i have ever driven!'. 
that feeling is further reaffirmed by the car shows that i attend, the stares 
and the cheers as i drive through the city, and every time i work on it and 
accomplish something. it's history really doesn't affect my love for the 
car. what's really special is that the car actually HAPPENED.

also, two very interesting things were revealed in the book:
1. remember last year when someone was talking about the possibility of a 
DeLorean factory in Logan, Utah? how a bunch of locals in the area said they 
remember seeing a stockpile of cars at a buisness just outside the area? 
well this story is revealed and explained in its entirity. we all know about 
the mysterious $17M that 'disappeared' from DeLorean accounting ledgers. 
well it turns out that JZD used some of this money to buy land in or around 
Logan, Utah for corporate expansion. his idea was to build SNOWPLOWS 
(remember the DMC snowplow brochure that was sold on ebay quite a while ago?) 
at this location, but he kept it secret because on the terms of his grants 
and loans from the UK, he was forbidden to spend any of the money on anything 
not directly involved with the release of the DMC-12. with all of the car 
diversions and cover-ups, i wonder if DeLorean wasn't storing any unsold cars 
here, or perhaps there were some prototypes or VIN 00000-00499? very 
interesting!

2. this will come to be most appreciated by DanRC30 (i hope you are reading 
this!!). maybe you already know the story behind your car. but i know on 
the DMCNEWS page you said that your car was painted the colors for Smokey 
Yunick? well check this out - on page 142:

"... we were to meet with Bunkie Knudsen and Smokey Yunick, a 
brilliant inventor who was working on a new engine that saved fuel by 
recycling its own heat. Bunkie and John had formed an engine partnership 
with Smokey. We were going to ride in a car fitted with the new experimental 
engine."

Then on page 144:

"Driving with Bunkie to Smokey Yunick's, i felt like it was old times again. 
John was open and friendly. When we huddled around Smokey's new engine, he 
became the brilliant engineer talking about a historic breakthrough that we 
would use in our car. Smokey had also worked out a simple solution to a 
nagging clutch problem that our engineers and consultants had not been able 
to solve. For a moment i thought it could still be fun to work for DeLorean. 
This was the ambience that had attracted me to the company in the first 
place".

somewhere else in the book it mentions that JZD was planning on using the new 
engine in one of his own cars, possibly a future model year of the DMC-12. i 
can't find that reference now though.

Anyway, i just wanted to share this book with the newsgroup. now i'm not 
really sure who to believe. was DeLorean a man with a dream who would stop 
at nothing, no matter what the cost, who he hurt, what money he spent that he 
didn't have, no matter what contracts he reworded to fit his agenda, NO 
MATTER WHAT THE COST, to see that his dream live? or was he the victim of 
jealous executives, a victim of two governements, a victim or the media, and 
a victim of a set-up? 

"Hard Driving" and "DeLorean" paint the picture with two very different kinds 
of paint. 

which one do you believe?

Andy

Soma576@xxxx
1982 DeLorean DMC-12 VIN#11596
Fargo, ND 58102


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