John Zachary DeLorean ( də-LOR-ee-ən; January 6, 1925 – March 19, 2005) was an American engineer, inventor, and executive in the U.S. automobile industry. He is widely known as founder of the DeLorean Motor Company, as well as for his work at General Motors.
DeLorean managed the development of several vehicles throughout his career, including the Pontiac GTO, Pontiac Firebird, Pontiac Grand Prix, Chevrolet Cosworth Vega, and DMC DeLorean, which was featured in the 1985 film Back to the Future. He was the youngest division chief in General Motors history and then left to start the DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) in 1973. Production delays meant that DMC's first car did not reach the consumer market until 1981, when a depressed buying market was compounded by lukewarm reviews from critics and the public. After a year, the DeLorean had failed to recover its $175 million investment costs, unsold cars accumulated, and the company was in financial trouble.
In October 1982, DeLorean was charged with cocaine trafficking after FBI informant James Hoffman solicited him as financier in a scheme to sell 220 lb (100 kg) of cocaine worth approximately $24 million. DMC was insolvent at the time and $17 million in debt. Hoffman had approached DeLorean, a man he barely knew with no prior criminal record, and DeLorean was able to successfully defend himself at trial under the procedural defense of police entrapment. The trial ended in a not guilty verdict in August 1984, by which time DMC had filed for bankruptcy and ceased operations.
DeLorean was born in Detroit, the eldest of four sons of Zachary and Kathryn (née Pribák) DeLorean. His father, a mill worker, was Romanian, born Zaharia DeLorean (Romanian pronunciation: [deloˈre̯an]) in the village of Sugág, Alsó-Fehér County, Austria-Hungary (currently Șugag, Alba County, Romania) and immigrated to the United States when he was 20. He spent time in Montana and Gary, Indiana, before moving to Michigan. By the time John was born, Zachary had found employment as a union organizer at the Ford Motor Company factory in nearby Highland Park. His poor English skills and lack of education prevented him from obtaining higher-paid work. When not required at Ford, he occasionally worked as a carpenter.
DeLorean's mother was a Hungarian citizen of Hungarian origin. She was employed at the Carboloy Products Division of General Electric throughout much of DeLorean's early life. She took work wherever she could to supplement the family's income. She generally tolerated Zachary's intermittent episodes of erratic behavior; but during several of his more violent periods, she took her sons to live with her sister in Los Angeles, where they stayed for a year or so at a time. DeLorean's parents divorced in 1942. John subsequently saw little of his father, who moved into a boarding house and became a solitary and estranged drug addict.
After attending Detroit's public schools, DeLorean was accepted into Cass Technical High School, a school for Detroit honor students, where he signed up for the electrical curriculum. He found it exhilarating and excelled at his studies. His academic record and musical talents earned him a scholarship at Lawrence Institute of Technology in Highland Park, today Lawrence Technological University in Southfield. The small college was the alma mater of some of the automobile industry's best engineers.
World War II interrupted his studies. He was drafted for military service and served three years in the U.S. Army. He received an honorable discharge in 1946 and returned to Detroit to find his mother and siblings in economic difficulty. He worked as a draftsman for the Public Lighting Commission for a year and a half to improve his family's financial status then returned to Lawrence to finish his degree. While back in college, he worked part-time at Chrysler and at a local body shop. He graduated in 1948 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering.
Instead of immediately entering the engineering workforce, DeLorean sold life insurance. He developed an analytical system aimed at engineers and sold "about $850,000 worth of policies in ten months". He found the work boring and moved on to work for the Factory Equipment Corporation. DeLorean stated in his autobiography that he sold life insurance to improve his communication skills. Both endeavors were successful financially, but these areas held little interest for him. A foreman at Chrysler's engineering garage recommended he apply for work at Chrysler. Chrysler ran a post-graduate educational facility, the Chrysler Institute of Engineering, which allowed DeLorean to advance his education while gaining real-world experience in automotive engineering.
DeLorean briefly attended the Detroit College of Law but did not graduate. In 1952, he graduated from the Chrysler Institute with a Master of Science degree in Automotive Engineering and joined Chrysler's engineering team. He graduated from the University of Michigan with an MBA in 1956.
DeLorean was at Chrysler for less than a year. In 1953, he was offered a salary of $14,000 (equivalent to US$168,470 in 2025) at Packard Motor Company under the supervision of engineer Forest McFarland. DeLorean quickly gained his new employer's attention with an improvement to the Ultramatic automatic transmission, giving it an improved torque converter and dual-drive ranges; it was relaunched as the Twin-Ultramatic.
When DeLorean joined Packard, it was experiencing financial difficulties because of the changing postwar automotive market. While Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler had begun producing affordable mainstream products designed to cater to the rising postwar middle class, Packard had retained its prewar notions of high-end, precisely engineered luxury cars. This had a positive effect on DeLorean's attention to engineering detail, and after three years at Packard he became McFarland's successor as head of research and development.
While still profitable, Packard suffered alongside other independents as it struggled to compete when Ford and General Motors engaged in a price war. James Nance, Packard's president, decided to merge the company with Studebaker Corporation in 1954. DeLorean was considering keeping his job and moving to Studebaker headquarters in South Bend, Indiana, when he received a call from Oliver K. Kelley, vice president of engineering at General Motors, whom DeLorean greatly admired. Kelley offered DeLorean his choice of a job in any of GM's five divisions.
In 1956, DeLorean accepted a salary offer of $16,000 (equivalent to US$189,474 in 2025) with a bonus program, choosing to work at GM's Pontiac division as an assistant to chief engineer Pete Estes and general manager Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen. Knudsen was the son of the former president of GM, William Knudsen, who had been called away from his post to head the war mobilization production effort at the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Knudsen was an MIT engineering graduate and at 42 was the youngest man to head a GM division. DeLorean and Knudsen quickly became close friends; DeLorean later cited him as a major influence and mentor. DeLorean produced dozens of patented innovations for the company and in 1961 was promoted to division chief engineer.
DeLorean became widely known at Pontiac for the Pontiac GTO, a muscle car named after the Ferrari 250 GTO. The Pontiac brand reached third place in annual industry sales in the United States. To highlight the brand's performance emphasis, the GTO debuted as a Tempest/LeMans option package with a larger and more powerful engine in 1964. This marked the beginning of Pontiac's renaissance as GM's performance division instead of its previous position with no clear brand identity. The car and its popularity continued to grow in the following years. DeLorean received almost total credit for its success—its conception, engineering, and marketing—and was rewarded with a 1965 promotion to head of the Pontiac division.