Drive to oblivion

It sounds like something straight out of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. Back in 1982, a disastrous multi-million dollar cocaine deal was set up in a last ditch effort to save a car factory in Belfast from going bust.

In what can only be described as a moment of insanity, presumably brought on by sheer desperation, the eccentric tycoon John DeLorean attempted to orchestrate an elaborate drugs deal that would reportedly have netted a profit of a staggering $24million.
DeLorean – who was regarded as a high-profile media celebrity – turned up in the flesh to meet drugs barons in a Los Angeles airport hotel room.
It was a huge mistake. The FBI knew what was going on. They had the room bugged. After making the deal, DeLorean raised his glass of champagne. He is heard, on the surveillance recording, jokingly describing the high-grade coke as “good as gold – (but) gold weighs more than this, for heaven’s sake!” And he adds: “Here’s to a lot of success to everyone.”
As soon as the words came out of his mouth, FBI agents stormed in and nicked DeLorean with a suitcase of cocaine, literally, in his hand. It appeared like an open and shut case, but America is a different country in many ways. DeLorean was found not guilty on grounds of entrapment, with his legal team successfully arguing that the police had asked him to supply the money to buy the drugs!
The drugs bust incident may not have resulted in a jail sentence – but it was the proverbial nail in the coffin of his DeLorean motor company. It was also a life-altering experience for DeLorean, who apparently become a born-again Christian as a result.

“I’m sure it didn’t do his reputation any good, but every story about John DeLorean revolves around the drugs deal – and yet this was a very minor part of the whole episode of setting up the DeLorean factory,” says Brian Beharrell, who is possibly the last surviving director of DeLorean.
Up until now, the 68-year-old Englishman has never spoken publicly about the DeLorean saga. Beharrell, a former missile scientist, was one of the key players behind DeLorean’s brief epoch in Belfast. He was also a trusted confidant of the motoring tycoon, who was eventually declared bankrupt in 1999.
Speaking exclusively to Hot Press, Beharrell explained why he was prepared to talk publicly now about his experiences.
“I’m speaking now because it’s about time that somebody gave an alternative message to some of the rubbish that has been put out,” he says. “The biggest one was that John DeLorean was just ripping everybody off on all fronts. I don’t think that’s true. He was certainly getting money where he could – but he was working on several projects, some of which very few people know about.
“For example, one was to produce a sedan version of the DeLorean. He also had plans to produce an environmentally friendly bus – which was to be way ahead of its time in terms of emissions, low noise, and also to improve wheelchair facilities. There had been drawings and initial engineering going on with that project.”
It’s clear that Beharrell thought highly of John DeLorean. He confesses that he was very puzzled when he heard about the drugs bust. He recalls: “I was totally surprised and dismayed because it didn’t fit in with my knowledge of the man. It did not make any sense. I got along with him very well. I was one of the few people from Northern Ireland who spent quite a bit of time in New York, and met with him on those occasions. He didn’t drink, he didn’t smoke, he lived a very, very conservative life, he didn’t party a lot.
“There was a theory – this is not my theory – that it could have been a set-up. The only thing we can say with any certainty is that it is a very strange situation when John DeLorean was photographed handling massive amounts of drugs – and then gets off in court. There were a lot of people – particularly in the British government and their supporters – that, if some of the things had come out in open discussion, maybe it would have been more than embarrassing for them. It was about the wheeling and dealing that may have gone on between DeLorean and the British government. But I don’t know, because I was not party to it.”
There were three key contributing factors to the closure of the DeLorean planet in Belfast, according to Beharrell. He cites the sudden increase in the value of Sterling, making the car an exorbitant price for the American market. He also mentions unlucky timing: the car was launched during one of the worst recorded winters in North America, resulting in a dramatic slump in sports car sales. And, thirdly, Beharrell is convinced that DeLorean’s ego contributed to the downfall of his car empire.
“John had promised that he would produce 80 cars a day,” he proffers, “and we actually got the factory up to that level but, unfortunately, in the US – which was virtually the total market – we were only selling, let’s say, about 40 cars a day. The net result is very simple – you run out of cash. When we were running into cashflow problems, John said, ‘We are going to keep building 80 cars a day because the British government will never close this factory’.”
DeLorean thought that the British government would save the day because there was 2,500 jobs at stake in Belfast. But, according to Beharrell, he’d misread the change in the political scene.
“I’m sure that if Jim Callaghan (former Labour PM) had still been in power he’d have probably been bailed out. I have an impression that Thatcher disliked DeLorean – but she disliked everybody! Seriously. Anyhow, the finance people made an approach to the British government to get more funding. Thatcher pulled the plug – no more funding – and the receivers were called in.”
The British government had pumped £85 million into the company. In the book DeLorean, co-written by Irish journalist Ivan Fallon, it was argued that the Belfast car factory was a complete waste of the taxpayers’ money. Not so, argues Beharrell.
“First of all, at the peak there were probably 2,500 people working in the factory. I would say 2,000 of those had been taken off the dole, which the British government were paying for anyway,” he states. “On top of that, it is an accepted ratio that for every worker in an auto motor factory there are three jobs outside. Seats and other components were being produced by subcontractors in Northern Ireland; there were some mechanical components being produced in the UK; and – ok, it didn’t do much for the British government – but the sheet metal was being produced in Southern Ireland. If you work on a three-to-one ration, that means that probably 6,000 or more jobs were actually created.”
And lost...

The gull-wing car is now an iconic object of the 1980s, largely thanks to the Back To The Future trilogy of movies. Unfortunately, the film came out almost three years after the factory in Belfast had shut down. But Beharrell doesn’t believe that the film, if released earlier, would have boosted sales.
“I doubt if it would have saved the company because that film was not appealing to the customer base the car was aimed at – Yuppies! The car was aimed at the up-and-coming young executives. The main market – 70%, I think – would have been the West Coast, California.”
The Delorean car is a collectors item now, fetching prices as high as e30,000 or more. There are an estimated 100 of the cars on this island and DeLorean enthusiasts have started up a club and website. What does Beharrell make of all this?
“It was 1981 when the first car left the factory. But the fact that we still have them running around today with the same under body, the same engines, the same electricals, and the same external bodies tends to indicate that the car achieved what John was trying to do, which was to build a car that would survive and would be eco-friendly.”
So now you know: John DeLorean was way ahead of his time...

The Irish DeLorean club’s website is: www.delorean.ie. They can be contacted by emailing [email protected]