John Z, the Delorean & Me: Tales from an Insider

John Z, The DeLorean & Me is an insider's view of the longest serving employee, director of purchasing and last CEO of DeLorean Motor Cars in Northern Ireland, author Barrie Wills. It is a near history of the DeLorean project with much of the hard work, effort and inspiration contributed by so many written about for the first time. It is illustrated by hundreds of photographs, many for the first time, showing why so many employees considered the project the best of their working lives. It heralds the record 28 months in which the car was engineered, developed and built, whilst a state of the art factory was designed, built, equipped and staffed in West Belfast at the height of The Troubles. It recognizes the pioneering of advanced technology in Europe and the introduction into the UK of simultaneous engineering - now the global norm. It introduces the good humour and camaraderie within the project's different nationalities and between its workforce, drawn evenly from the Loyalist and Republican factions. The fine detail of the receivership and what the receiver called the first sensible business plan he had seen are disclosed. It highlights what might have been had a restyled Triumph TR8 (rebranded as Healey 3500) been built alongside the DeLorean rebranded as the Healey Gullwing. It describes how the bad listener in Margaret Thatcher thwarted that British rescue through her habitual micro management.

Money, power, politics, drugs, scandal, and fast cars. The incredible story of John DeLorean is the stuff of a Hollywood screenwriter’s dreams. But who was the real John DeLorean? To some, he was a renegade visionary who revolutionized the automobile industry. To others, he was the ultimate con man. For the first time, Framing John DeLorean recounts the extraordinary life and legend of the controversial automaker, tracing his meteoric rise through the ranks of General Motors, his obsessive quest to build a sports car that would conquer the world, and his shocking fall from grace on charges of cocaine trafficking. Interweaving a treasure trove of archival footage with dramatic vignettes starring Alec Baldwin, Framing John DeLorean is a gripping look at a man who gambled everything in his pursuit of the American Dream.