DeLorean: Back from the Future

[SpeedBash]

New BBC documentary airs Wednesday 27 January 2021 @ 21:00 on BBC2.

BBC said:

John Z DeLorean’s extraordinary and doomed attempt to build the sports car of the future in 1980s Northern Ireland is the stuff of legend. A buccaneering American entrepreneur, DeLorean had film star looks, a famous fashion model as a wife and an enormous ego that drove him to rival the giants of the US car industry.

Millions of pounds of British tax-payers money later, an unprecedented social experiment where Catholics and Protestants worked side by side in relative harmony in West Belfast ends in a trail of corporate waste, greed, fraud and, incredibly, an FBI cocaine-trafficking sting.

Using rare and unseen footage filmed by Oscar winning directors DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, and through colourful news archive documenting his life and career, this is the first in-depth psychological profile of DeLorean, a man who rose from the ghettos of Detroit to build his American dream in war-torn Belfast. A dream that quickly went up in smoke...

[DSLiverpool]

Thanks for the heads up, looks interesting. The actual investment at the time was still pocket change in comparison to the big boys but could it have ever succeeded? I think Maggie wrote it off to keep NI off her radar for a while.

[sgtBerbatov]

DSLiverpool said:

Thanks for the heads up, looks interesting. The actual investment at the time was still pocket change in comparison to the big boys but could it have ever succeeded? I think Maggie wrote it off to keep NI off her radar for a while.

The longer time goes on, and the more documents come out, Thatcher's and the establishment's involvement with Norm Iron get more and more interesting and intriguing.

But, there was already a fairly well done documentary about DeLorean about 10 years ago (with Edmund Irvine driving one), and the story's been done to death. I'm not sure how much new information you're going to get from this.

[SpeedBash]

sgtBerbatov said:

The longer time goes on, and the more documents come out, Thatcher's and the establishment's involvement with Norm Iron get more and more interesting and intriguing.

But, there was already a fairly well done documentary about DeLorean about 10 years ago (with Edmund Irvine driving one), and the story's been done to death. I'm not sure how much new information you're going to get from this.

This BBC documentary is newly commissioned and has input from filmmakers who followed DeLorean at the time so, in theory, has the potential for some new information and/or insights.

There were even a couple of movies released a few years ago: Framing John DeLorean & Driven.

[Chrishum]

Looks like an interesting documentary

[remedy]

Thanks! We are almost 100% Netflix at the moment so glad for the heads up.

[Johnspex]

O/T a bit. Wasn't it obvious that a car that looked as awful as that and had an exotic Renault V6 could ever succeed notwithstanding what went on behind the scenes. Even if I could have afforded one I wouldn't have even considered it.

[KR158]

Johnspex said:

O/T a bit. Wasn't it obvious that a car that looked as awful as that and had an exotic Renault V6 could ever succeed notwithstanding what went on behind the scenes. Even if I could have afforded one I wouldn't have even considered it.

How dare!! You!?

I have a mild obsession with these things, not owned one (yet) and, in spite of a deserved reputation for being terrible & all the common sense in the World, I still want one. Still find the story fascinating. Like so many others, my "illness" started as a small Boy, in a Cinema sometime around 1985, it has never left me.

Thanks for the Heads up

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Johnspex said:

Wasn't it obvious that a car that looked as awful as that

It looked bloody amazing, then and now.

[Skyedriver]

Is this a different 2 hour program to the one on TV about a month ago.?

[cuprabob]

Skyedriver said:

Is this a different 2 hour program to the one on TV about a month ago.?

Are you referring to the one "Framing John DeLorean" that is available on Sky? If so, yes it's a different one.

If you haven't seen it, the 2018 film "Driven" is worth a watch. Not to be confused with the 2001 Stallone film with the same name

[Triumph Man]

KR158 said:

Johnspex said:

O/T a bit. Wasn't it obvious that a car that looked as awful as that and had an exotic Renault V6 could ever succeed notwithstanding what went on behind the scenes. Even if I could have afforded one I wouldn't have even considered it.

How dare!! You!?

I have a mild obsession with these things, not owned one (yet) and, in spite of a deserved reputation for being terrible & all the common sense in the World, I still want one. Still find the story fascinating. Like so many others, my "illness" started as a small Boy, in a Cinema sometime around 1985, it has never left me.

Thanks for the Heads up

I saw one drive past me as I wandered up to my local Co-Op a few weeks ago. I knew there was one about locally, but to see it drive past me was quite surreal...

[21st Century Man]

I only caught the last half hour or so and it was excellent, so much more than previous documentaries on the subject. I will watch in full on iPlayer. He seems to be a lot more unpleasant a character than I thought, behind the charming facade. Great story, iconic vehicle.

[wiggy001]

Love the cars and the story but this documentary is boring as hell.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

He was certainly a thoroughly unpleasant individual, but you have to give him credit for his great idea, which wasn't the DeLorean car, but the 1963 Pontiac GTO. The man, for all his flaws, invented the muscle car, when everyone around him at Pontiac thought he was bonkers. Sticking a huge powerful 6.4 V8 in the humdrum Tempest, who would buy such a thing. Certainly not the blue collar 50+ driver, who was Pontiacs target market. He kept it under the radar of GM board because he knew they'd never go for it, and bent the GM rules to get it done, by claiming it wasn't a new model, but a trim/spec change on an existing model.

Without that moment of genius (or luck) the future of the motor industry would have been totally different. It's even debateable if we would have had the Golf GTI and the hot hatch era, has someone not proved that high performance family cars could be a big seller.

So hats off to him for that. But he was still a nasty piece of work.

[dandarez]

Skyedriver said:

Is this a different 2 hour program to the one on TV about a month ago.?

Didn't know there was another Beeb one recently, there have been lots of documentaries on the subject inc Sky etc, unless it's this Beeb one from many years ago?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMUXZaROJKM&fe...

Last night's programme was its first airing and new.
I thought it was pretty good and watched it right to the end (and most reviews I've read in the media and press today also thought so).

Took me back in time. So easy to forget want went on back then. The human side to the story with his family and all those involved, and not forgetting the NI factory where the almost 50 per cent prots and caths workforce worked in harmony together. Some of the old footage is great and makes you wonder if the dreadful winter of 81 in the USA had not been so terrible whether more cars would have sold there.

A certain J. Paxman appears as his youthful and less pompous self back then.

Roy Hattersley also appears as he is currently (he's gotta be heading towards 90?) -
his trousers waistline appears to be now 'just' inches from his neck!

[sgtBerbatov]

Triumph Man said:

KR158 said:

Johnspex said:

O/T a bit. Wasn't it obvious that a car that looked as awful as that and had an exotic Renault V6 could ever succeed notwithstanding what went on behind the scenes. Even if I could have afforded one I wouldn't have even considered it.

How dare!! You!?

I have a mild obsession with these things, not owned one (yet) and, in spite of a deserved reputation for being terrible & all the common sense in the World, I still want one. Still find the story fascinating. Like so many others, my "illness" started as a small Boy, in a Cinema sometime around 1985, it has never left me.

Thanks for the Heads up

I saw one drive past me as I wandered up to my local Co-Op a few weeks ago. I knew there was one about locally, but to see it drive past me was quite surreal...

I think with the DeLorean, it isn't a good looking car really. But it's the fact it's relatively rare and everyone knows about the car through the BTTF films, it's what makes them so iconic. So it's a head turner for the fact it's an iconic object out of a film that's there on the road in front of you.

Then it's what it means to people personally. To those who love a hard luck story, DeLorean fits the bill. To those who saw Thatcher for what she was, it's iconic for pulling the wool over her eyes and showing her up. To those in and round Norm Iron when it was being built, it was a symbol of what could be achieved without the bloodshed and sthousery going on between the IRA, UVF/UVA and the British Government.

It means different things to different people, and each thing is equally important to those people. Because of that, the DeLorean is looked at with more affection than not.

But it definitely isn't looked upon affectionately for it's looks, it's build quality, or driving abilities!

[TwigtheWonderkid]

sgtBerbatov said:

To those who saw Thatcher for what she was, it's iconic for pulling the wool over her eyes and showing her up.

I couldn't stand Thatcher, but that's not really true. It was the labour govt who invested the initial £60m or whatever, but by the time he was coming cap in hand for an extra £14m, the Tories were in charge. Thatcher was not in favour of giving any more taxpayers' money, but she was really stuck between a rock and a hard place. £60m had already gone in, and Jim Prior, the NI Secretary, was desperate for the factory to continue. So I think the money was handed over reluctantly. But when that was spunked up the wall, Thatcher pulled the plug. Hence he had to find outside investors, that led to the whole drugs deal thing.

[98elise]

Triumph Man said:

KR158 said:

Johnspex said:

O/T a bit. Wasn't it obvious that a car that looked as awful as that and had an exotic Renault V6 could ever succeed notwithstanding what went on behind the scenes. Even if I could have afforded one I wouldn't have even considered it.

How dare!! You!?

I have a mild obsession with these things, not owned one (yet) and, in spite of a deserved reputation for being terrible & all the common sense in the World, I still want one. Still find the story fascinating. Like so many others, my "illness" started as a small Boy, in a Cinema sometime around 1985, it has never left me.

Thanks for the Heads up

I saw one drive past me as I wandered up to my local Co-Op a few weeks ago. I knew there was one about locally, but to see it drive past me was quite surreal...

My brother has one and it's quite an event to be out in it. He used to drive it regularly and would have crowds gathering whenever he came back to the car! It spends a lot of time in his garage these days, which is a shame.

[miniman]

It was fairly interesting, but I don't think it was any better or more insightful than the 2004 one (linked above) featuring Eddie Irvine.