John Zachary DeLorean - If an idea was clear in his mind, it was done

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	BARRIE WILLS recalls his time working with the charismatic car maker as an amazing four and a half years - painful towards the end, but very, very educational... I should have nothing but bad feelings for 'JZD', whose company DeLorean Motor Cars Limited, I worked for from October, 1978, until February, 1983. Despite having to "pick up the pieces" as chief executive during the receivership and liquidation period that commenced in February, 1982, I still have a grudging respect for the most inspirational person I have ever met. The Northern Ireland Development Agency contacted me almost immediately after finalising its investment in the DMC12 project in September, 1978. I was "between jobs", after resigning from the board of Reliant in the wake of a hostile takeover earlier that year. And I had done the rounds of the executive search consultancies - the head-hunters. I was invited to meet the great man in Belfast. At the first 'interview' he offered me the role of director of purchasing. I turned it down, not because the job did not appeal - I had been a student of his achievements as the youngest ever vice-president of General Motors, his resignation from the corporation and his search for funding in Puerto Rico, Eire and elsewhere over the previous months - but because of a concern about moving my wife and daughters to Northern Ireland during the height of 'The Troubles'. An immediate improved offer followed, which I again rejected. This was followed by another offer of a meeting in Belfast as John had "sorted out a solution". The resultant meeting took place in The Crawfordsburn Inn to the north of Belfast in a village that fitted Hollywood's image of rural Ireland - thatched cottages and narrow lanes. We had lunch together - not alone - but with the lovely Mrs DeLorean in company. Christina Ferrare was then a top US model who at 28 years of age was 25 years younger than John and a mere five years junior to me. To say that I found her attractive would be a major understatement. John's solution was typical of the manner in which he addressed other tasks that he felt he needed to win. Another increase in salary, of course! But then - the pièce de résistance! By this occasion, the now-infamous GPD-Lotus deal was about to be struck with Colin Chapman for Lotus to engineer the car. John knew from Chapman that I had a good relationship with Lotus. In common with Chapman's Number 2 Mike Kimberley, I had been a Jaguar apprentice, and he had also learned that Lotus had been trying to hire me since I left Reliant. John took me into his confidence about Lotus. He took a map of UK out of his pocket and with a twinkle in his eye, asked: "Tell me, Barrie, where are Belfast, Norfolk, and Coventry (my then home) on this map?" I showed him. "Ah, so Coventry is about half way between us and Lotus!"   His solution to my dilemma was to offer me the opportunity to establish the DeLorean purchasing office in Coventry, select the location and the building, and choose my own team out of the Midlands industry - a very sensible move that allowed the project to get off the ground with a running start. With Christina staring into my eyes, I crumbled and accepted the job on one condition: that I should first meet Charles K Bennington, the managing director designate, to whom I was to report, before confirming my acceptance. Bennington and I hit it off at our first meeting a week or so later on the day the bulldozers moved onto the Dunmurry 'cow patch' and we both started work on that same day in early October, 1978.   John's determined approach was typical of all his subsequent actions that I was party to. If an idea was clear in his mind, it was done. It fell to us troops to implement it, however crazy it might be!
JZD with wife Christina
DMC12: dream car that became a nightmare

The 'gold cars' were typical of this. During the 1970s, the Christmas edition of the American Express mail order catalogue had the widest and largest circulation of any in the USA - from the east coast to the west. To feature on the front cover was a prize coveted by most of America's manufacturers of luxury consumer products.

At this stage, with Lotus, we had not finalised the bill of materials, let alone built a definitive prototype. In John's mind, however, the car was "done" and, therefore, it was a simple job for him to do a deal with American Express through which they "coloured in" gold the stainless steel panels on a front cover picture of the car.

To our utter horror, inside was an offer of a limited edition of gold-plated cars at a premium price, in the order of $75,000, compared to the then $18,500 promoted target price of the 'regular' car. Delivery was to be soon after the first sales of the car in the US market. We prayed that no-one would be fool enough to spend such a sum on a sports car with such a finish. John's 'star' reputation in USA triumphed, of course, and American Express took two orders.

By a form of near miracle, in our 'spare time' and with the considerable help of Degussa, the German chemical company, from whom we rented the 'vats' in which the gold was deposited, the job was done.

The biggest non-technical task was cash flow. We had to purchase - and pay for in advance - sufficient gold to fill a 'vat' deep enough to take the largest panel, which in the case of DMC12 was the door assembly - remember that each took up a third of the roof space as well as being the closure down to sill level. After the gold was deposited on three car sets of panels - we took the precaution of doing a spare set - a refund was made to cover the residue in the 'vat'.

Once built and fitted with matched gold painted front and rear bumper covers, wheels and accessories along with 'saddle tan' leather seats and soft trim, these cars were breathtaking, especially under a bright blue sky. JZD triumphed again, and all he did was the deal with American Express. It was us troops who did the impossible.

There were a number of other JZD tasks that we managed to thwart. These included the Park Avenue 'boutique' to be filled with a range of Guigiaro-styled Porsche-like accessories, and the 'push-me-pull-you' twin boxer-engined sports car - to be smaller than DMC12 and similar in concept to Alec Issigonis's twin-engined Mini Moke - about which John had talked to a fully convinced and enthusiastic Alfa Romeo management.

Then there were the bus project, and the acquisition of my old company Reliant, through which to develop a range of three wheelers designed by the legendary American industrial designer Brooke Stevens as fuel efficient commuter vehicles for use on the cycle paths alongside highways in California.
And, remember, this was the early 1980s - long before Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
It was hardly surprising that we did not find the time to fulfil all these wonderful additional dreams for John.

It was time consuming enough for us and Lotus to bring a car from 'scratch' to Californian certification in 28 months, still a world record, albeit 10 months later than the timing that John 'sold' to Jim Callaghan's Labour government.

The fate of the company, the product and the unfortunate Northern Ireland workforce, around 50 per cent of whom had held paid jobs for the first time in their lives, is exhaustively recorded - much of it inaccurately as the critical British press coverage of the project and the car contrasted significantly with that of its US counterpart.

It could be argued that the careers of Steven Spielberg and Michael J Fox benefited most of all - from the car's starring role in the subsequent 'Back to the Future' trilogy of movies.

What a charismatic man JZD was. The word 'charisma' might have been invented especially to describe his unique personality.

Through his introduction, I had the privilege of working with industry legends and other high-profile figures.

They included Giorgetto Guigiaro; Colin Chapman; Tony Rudd - Lotus engine designer, Gene Cafeiro - Lee Iaccoca's predecessor as Chrysler Corporation president and CEO, Don Lander - former Chrysler Europe president; and Zora Duntov - father of the Corvette, who advised on ride and handling for the US market.

Also among members of this extraordinary cast were James Prior MP - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and Sir Kenneth Cork - the 'master receiver' who developed 'The Cork Report', based to a considerable extent on his experience of the DeLorean receivership and his businesslike approach to it.
This was later adopted by the Thatcher government, which introduced the concept of administration into British company law as a more constructive approach to corporate insolvencies than receivership and liquidation.

Thank you, John - it was an amazing four and a half years - painful towards the end, but very, very educational.