John DeLorean was a trailblazing automobile executive who rose to prominence at General Motors by engineering iconic muscle cars like the Pontiac GTO and Firebird. In 1975 he struck out on his own and founded the DeLorean Motor Company (DMC), aiming to build a futuristic sports car—the DMC-12 with gull-wing doors and stainless steel panels. Unfortunately, despite early hype, DMC’s production launch in 1981 suffered cost overruns, delays, and poor market timing, and by 1982 the company was insolvent. In a desperate bid to save his enterprise, DeLorean became entangled in a high-profile FBI sting involving drug trafficking.
