DMC and conspiracy theories (long)

[James Espey <james@xxxx>]

I can understand the sensitivity to the 'conspiracy theories', and I imagine
it must be doubly difficult for the UK owners, getting it from both the
Americans who blame the Conservative government for the downfall of DMC, as
well as the UK citizens, who think of DeLorean as a 'carpetbagger'.

These days, I am more interested in the history of the original company, but
am afraid that as more time passes, the truth becomes more and more cloudy.
In spite of the fact that I truly believe JZD (at least the JZD that I have
met a few times) is a really nice guy, in regards to the downfall of the
original DMC, he was his own worst enemy. However, its' clear that the
British government was informed by the FBI that DeLorean was the subject of
a drug investigation, which may have influenced their decision in some way
to cut off funds to the company. Think of the embarrassment should the
Conservatives be associated with financing a company that was partly
financed by drug money. I also do not doubt for an instant that so intense
was the desire of the US agents involved to "get" a high-profile name like
"DeLorean" that they would feed misleading information in order to "cut-off"
any help that might have been forthcoming from the government OR any private
sector investors, as well.

I think that anyone who really reads the books relating to the company, and
excerpts from other books ("Cork on Cork" by Kenneth Cork and "Balance of
Power" by Jim Prior are two that come to mind) will see that there was some
behind the scenes activity. One can certainly see the skullduggery involved
in JZD's trial by the prosecution.

A question that often comes up, with several theories bandied about, is
exactly who made the decision to sell the dies as scrap? My understanding of
the time was that the American arm of DMC had some title to the machinery,
tooling and equipment actually in the factory, and the UK government had
some title to the land and buildings. In effect, this would allow JZD as the
majority shareholder in the American company, to move the equipment to any
building in the world (any city/state/country looking for jobs for their
citizens) and re-start production, leaving the Conservative UK government
with insult added to their already significant financial injury.

JZD certainly intended to re-start production of the car SOMEPLACE. Looking
through the files here from KAPAC and speaking with people involved back in
the 1983-1984 timeframe, the plan was to use the remaining inventory to
build more DeLoreans, whether they be stock cars or the rumored Firestar
500. I have read telexes here from Marvin Katz (KAPAC) trying to locate and
purchase the dies, specifically the left front fender die, from the
receiver. I have an article from the Detroit Free Press on this subject
dated 20 Oct 1985, as well.

I would love to hear the thoughts and any documents which validate or
invalidate any of this from the UK club members...

James

PS - As an aside, it's no secret that JZD has no love for the DOA, and a
discussion that took place at the DOA Expo in Oregon which was relayed to me
seems to explain part of this. It seems that in the mid-1980's, about the
time that JZD was searching for the dies and sending divers to look for
them, he approached a DOA board member at the time about joining in a
lawsuit against the UK for scrapping the dies, as that action allegedly
created insurance, repair and future value problems for all DeLoreans. The
board member rebuffed JZD, and to this day, JZD is reluctant to have any
dealings with the DOA or their events. This is all second-hand information,
but comes to me from a reliable and trusted person closely involved with the
DOA and the board member in question, who is still active on the DOA board.



> From: "Chris Parnham" <cp@xxxx>
> Reply-To: doc-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2002 10:11:01 +0100
> To: <dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: "Doc-Uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <doc-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [doc] RE: [DML] Re: Downfall of the DMC?
> 
> Its very refreshing for me to read such considered and thoughtful replies to
> this often referred to subject. Living in the UK I get very sensitive to all
> the " conspiracy theories" often put about on this subject.