PastImperfect:Hollywood made a star out of the ill-fated De Lorean
DE LOREAN - now there's a name that conjures up different reactions, depending on how old you are. Either the ill-starred product of a doomed project or the star of a trio of highly successful Hollywood blockbusters - whichever the De Lorean was for you nobody can deny it was spectacular.
At first it seemed an answer to the dreams of Northern Ireland politicians who could at last bring some sort of economic hope to Northern Ireland.
The initial announcement, made in August 1978, was that a new factory would be built on the outskirts of Belfast and a totally new company, De Lorean Motor Cars Ltd, would manufacture a new car there, the De Lorean DMC 12. It was expected that 2,000 people would be employed to manufacture 30,000 cars annually - a figure that was confidently expected to rise to 3,400 workers over time.
Alternative sites in the Republic and in Puerto Rico had also been considered, but the massive financial support of the British government ensured the project came to Northern Ireland.
Behind the project was an extraordinary figure, John Zachary De Lorean, born at Detroit in 1926, who - armed with a master's degree in engineering - went to work for Packard in 1952. In 1956, he was recruited by General Motors (GM) to its Pontiac Division.
By 1965 and aged 40, he was a vice-president of GM and the youngest person ever to head one of its divisions. During this time there is no doubt that De Lorean provided engineering leadership to Pontiac and later Chevrolet with many innovative ideas which went on to become industry standards. But then, in 1973 and to the surprise of all who had followed his meteoric career and expected him to be a future GM president, he resigned.
Shortly afterwards De Lorean formed the De Lorean Corporation, which was to be the core of the De Lorean Motor Company, and where the DMC 12 was designed.
Styled by the Italian master stylist, Giorgetto Giugiaro, the DMC had several unusual features, including a plastic body clothed in brushed stainless steel panels, a rear mounted engine and gull-wing doors.
Because of their expertise in the use of plastics as well as their chassis prowess, Lotus Cars were employed to bring the design up to production standards. Major changes introduced by Lotus were a backbone chassis and considerably altered suspension design.
Meanwhile, the factory at Dunmurry was nearing completion on a 70-acre site, and the newly-recruited workers began training to produce the DMC 12.
The first cars were shown at Los Angeles in February 1981 as well as at the Belfast and Geneva Shows. By the end of 1981 some 7,000 cars had been manufactured and 2,500 workers recruited. The cracks soon started to show, and by early 1982 it was clear there was a problem. A huge stockpile of cars with dealers caused production to be cut, and some 2,000 workers placed on a three-day week, with the company constantly blaming government delays for its problems.
Requests for more capital from the government led to a report on the company being commissioned. This recommended that no more money be invested. John De Lorean's frantic attempts to raise further capital failed, and on February 19th 1982 the receiver was called in.
The whole sorry saga finally came to an end when De Lorean was arrested while apparently trying to arrange a drug deal to raise money to regain control of his company.
And there the story would have ended if a DMC 12 had not become the unlikely star of a trilogy of Hollywood science fiction movies - Back to the Future - and caught the imagination of a whole new generation.
Today, surviving De Lorean DMC 12s are much prized by their owners - associated more with adventure and fantasy than with the failure and collapse of a once promising company.