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John Z. DeLorean, was a man born after his time, or perhaps before.

His namesake company reportedly built just 8,900 cars and lost millions, but he lived like a king, dated models and movie stars and is the subject of at least five books.

Had he been born 50 years earlier, he might have built one of the many U.S. car companies that have now devolved into the Big Three. Had he been born a generation later, he might have skipped the whole idea of production and focused on his genius for hype.

As it stands, the car DeLorean built is still remembered today, no doubt because it was a prop in Back to the Future, the 1985 Michael J. Fox movie. Who can doubt that this association makes it the most successful product placement of all time? He also stands as one of history's most successful criminal defendants. Most famously he beat a federal drug indictment. But he also beat back fraud and tax evasion charges.

John DeLorean was born in 1925 as the son of a Ford Motor (nyse: F - news - people ) foundry worker. His rise in the business world followed engineering and business degrees. In 1952, he became an engineer for Packard, and for General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ) when Packard was bought by Studebaker. Packard and Studebaker are now both defunct, though they were major car companies in their day, and their brands are still remembered. In an earlier time, DeLorean might have been a James Packard or Robert Studebaker, whose cars were sold widely for decades.

DeLorean's DMC-12, was basically a novelty, though well known: Though fewer than 9,000 were produced, there is still an enthusiast's market for them, and as of this morning, nearly a dozen were being advertised on eBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ) and Autotrader.com.

DeLorean, it is often said, had a genius for auto design and is credited with the invention of recessed and articulated windshield-wipers, the lane-change turn signal and the elastomeric bumper, according to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. But he became famous first for the introduction of the Pontiac GTO, the famed muscle car in 1964.

Can anyone imagine today an auto executive dating Ursula Andress and Raquel Welch, which DeLorean did? He also married supermodel Christina Ferrare. While auto company heirs like Bill Ford are known to own sports teams, DeLorean owned a piece of the San Diego Chargers while a mere executive.

DeLorean broke the mold when founded his own DeLorean Motor Company in 1975. While he started it in Detroit, he wound up with a plant in Northern Ireland, financed by the British government, and fancy offices in New York. Johnny Carson was an investor. The idea was to build a $25,000 sports car.

As a business venture, the idea could only be described as a spectacular failure. The company's plant started producing cars in 1981. By 1982, the company had announced it would close. DeLorean wound up the target of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission inquiries and dozens of investor lawsuits.

His real legal problems started in 1982 when DeLorean was arrested and charged with conspiring to distribute 55 pounds of cocaine. Though he was captured on an FBI videotape, he contended that he had been entrapped and was acquitted by a Los Angeles jury in 1984.

For all his debts, DeLorean managed to spend well. Just before the cocaine charges surfaced, he purchased a 434-acre farm in Bedminster, N.J. At one point he tried to turn it into a golf course and country club; he tried to sell it to his Donald Trump, his spiritual heir, among others, according to the Newark Star-Ledger. That never happened, but Trump wound up owning the property, which he turned into the Trump National Golf Club.

Reportedly 6,000 DMC-12s survive, a huge percentage compared to the number built. Based on the mileage of the cars for sale today, they seem to have turned into collectors items early on. A company in Texas bought the remaining orig

 

I always loved the looks of those DMC-12s

He also designed for GM this iconic automobile of the 70's
(BTW, this is the year I graduated from High School)