Daughter of John DeLorean hopes new car restores father’s legacy

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The daughter of the creator of the DeLorean, the time-travelling vehicle featured in the Back to the Future films, is reviving her father’s dream by launching a sports car.

Among other things, Kat DeLorean said she is hoping to restore the image of her father John DeLorean, whose murky past overshadowed his work in the automotive industry, she told British publication The Times.

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Although he was known for making Hollywood’s favourite car, he faced public scrutiny, was entangled in a drug scandal and was accused of embezzling money.

“All I can do is change their minds by showing them the person he made me. That’s all I can do. I can tell a new story. Whatever happened, happened, and I’m OK with it,” DeLorean said.

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She is the CEO of DeLorean Next Generation, a not-for-profit company “building next generation vehicles to fund STEAMM (science, technology, engineering, arts, automotive, mathematics, and manufacturing) education alongside our industry partners, institutional sponsors and high school engineers,” it says on its website.

The new sports car will have the DeLorean name and will use a Chevrolet Corvette as its base. It will have gull-wing doors — the signature look of the original DeLorean DMC-12 released by her father in 1981.

DeLorean said she plans to launch the car next year with a price tag of around US$160,000, per The Times.

DeLorean told automotive publication Hagerty that picking the Corvette as the body of the upcoming DeLorean vehicle “allows me to finish my dad’s story. I’m building him his dream car.” Her father was promoted to head of Chevrolet during his many years at General Motors. He resigned to start his own company, which led to the creation of the iconic (and sometimes time-travelling) car.

“In 2025 my father would have turned 100 years old and we’re hoping — we’re planning; I don’t want to say hope — to have the car available for then,” she said.

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The sports car is a way to honour the memory of her father, who was accused of “embezzling British government money intended for a car plant he had established near Belfast” and was entrapped by the FBI in a cocaine-smuggling sting, The Times reported. Despite the lofty accusations and charges, he was never found guilty.

DeLorean has shared her thoughts about what happened to her father on social media.

“He did nothing wrong, other than trust the wrong people. He angered people who didn’t understand his approach and they slandered him instead. He frustrated those who didn’t understand his motives, so they sabotaged his efforts,” she wrote in an Instagram post on April 27.

“He enraged those who couldn’t manipulate his ethics, so they threw all of their resources at devastating him.”

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DeLorean said she is continuing to fight for her family name after her father’s original company, the DeLorean Motor Company (DMC), was purchased in 1983 following bankruptcy, Newsweek reported. The new DMC is also planning to launch a DeLorean vehicle next year.

Despite the competition, DeLorean said she remains focused on what she’s doing — and on her father’s legacy.

“He was just this phenomenal mind. I was able to sit next to him for most of my life and talk about the car industry constantly. Some of the things that he told me are just now being realized.”

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