Who is the man behind the design of the GTO for GM back in the 60's and later went on to create a "futuristic" car bearing his name?

Bonus points...Does anyone know what the demise of this vehicle was (other than the obvious)?

Vicky

You mean Pontic GTO, right?

Originally posted by TomoHawk

You mean Pontic GTO, right?

Yes, sorry. He worked for GM back then and Pontiac is a division of GM, so yes, "Pontiac GTO".

Come on Tomohawk you know all these answers

Vicky

Geez, that's and easy one... John DeLorean... his car company died when he was caught in a cocaine sting operation, trying to help finance his struggling company.

I know, I know...it was easy. But I do believe there was more to the downfall of that car then just the cocaine bust. That is why I asked. Wasn't ther some kind of defect in the car?

Vicky

Originally posted by Zrush

Come on Tomohawk you know all these answers

Well... Wasn't there a program about the Pontiac GTO on the History channel last week?

FYI- GTO stands for 'The Great One."

When we were kids, my dad used to tell us that it stood for "Gas, Tires and Oil".

Vicky

Don't remember there being a major defect in the car, other than the fact it was not well received in the showrooms because of the price, and the stainless steel body. That plus the fact it was powered by an anemic 2.8 V-6..... hardly what you would call a powerful sports car.....plus it was a bit ugly to boot.:devious:

DeLoreans aren't ugly. A little boxy, and plain. Rides like a tank (stiff). and I don't think the engine lacks power.

What can you expect from the first car of a new auto company?

It's funny how the DMC-12 and the new "stuff" from Cadillac all have the same chiseled, squared off corners..... hmmm???

As far as power goes, 130hp in a car that weighs 2712lbs isn't what I'd call a good power to weight ratio, after all, the 280's weighed almost the same with 40hp more, and everyone wants more in a 280 because they feel so much slower than the 240's.

http://www.delorean-owners.org/legend/index.html

The worst thing about the car is the stainless body, it's just plain dull, made especially worse if the owners didn't clean it properly. If it were in an accident, the body panels can and do crack and split. In fact, they used 2 or 3 different hoods when they were making them because the hoods kept cracking because the stainless doesn't lend itself to tooling like carbon steel does. Trying to repair those body panels would be a body shops worst nightmare....

2ManyZs

That's why I thought there was more to the demise then just the cocaine fiasco. From your last reply it seems that the car was almost a "flop". I always thought they looked kind of cheap. But Delorean did produce an auto that was a little ahead of it's time compared to many of the cars made in the 80's. The K-car seems to come to mind and all the other cheapos that were pumped out in that decade.

Can you image if someone tried to polish that stainless steel body to look like chrome. That would be sort of be wild.

Vicky

Yeah, I remember seeing pics of a few in magazines that the owners polished the bodies on, which had a lot of swirl marks in them.:sick: Unfortunately, stainless is a lot tougher to polish than aluminum. I remember one that the owner had painted it in a nice Ferrari red. I like it a lot better painted...

There's one here in the neighborhood, or at least he still had it a few years ago. I looked at it close up not long after he bought it and the body had taken on a really dull "patina". I remember thinking when I was looking it over, that those doors could cause a skull fracture on a tall person if they had one too many at the local "watering hole" and got in a hurry trying to get in it.

If I remember right, the guy traded his almost new Porsche 928 for the Delorean.....Many years later I had a bit of a run-in with him at his father's truck dealership, and realized why he had done something like that...:stupid: :stupid: :stupid: he's one of "those", if it weren't for "daddy", he probably be managing at McDonalds........ :devious: