John Z. DeLorean RIP

[RP-Motorsports]

80 yrs old. He was a criminal, but we can not ignore his contributuons to the automotive world.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=7&u=/ap/20050320/ap_on_re_us/obit_delorean

 

[Arshad]

... Also an NSX owner who had much praise for the car.

 

[Meeyatch1]

I wonder if this will have any affect on the values of the cars??

 

[The Kid]

... Also an NSX owner who had much praise for the car.

Might I add; bought new and serviced at BRIDGEWATER ACURA! :biggrin: :biggrin:

 

[Jimbo]

One of the little known contributions of DeLorean was the self-cancelling turn signal.

The story goes that he filed down one of the plastic pieces in the turn signal mechanism to build the prototype.

:biggrin: I guess he got annoyed following some geezer for miles with his turn signal on.

-Jim

 

[dynatac]

How was he a criminal?

The cocaine sting was an illegal setup by the govt.

 

[Jimbo]

Correct.

DeLorean was acquitted of all charges brought against him. Including the latter charge of defrauding investors.

 

[Dtrigg]

Sad guy. Too bad.

 

[NSXrebel]

How was he a criminal?

The cocaine sting was an illegal setup by the govt.

Can you ellaborate more on this illegal sting?

 

[dynatac]

Can you ellaborate more on this illegal sting?

If you've ever watched an episode of COPS or similar police show, you know there's certain phrases and actions that will hold up in court, others that won't. Also, law enforcement is not allowed to actually partake in the actions as they were at one time. Example: If you're going to bust a hooker, you can't sleep with her after paying (that's a crime), you just need her to make it clear she will have sex for money.


In Delorean's case, he was having hard times and got lured into a drug deal - not by drug dealers, but by actual govt agents. He actually won his case and had the charges dropped since he was caught in entrapment. His family was supposedly threatened as well if he didn't go along with it.

edit: bah! I'm no lawyer, but this explains it better:

http://www.post-gazette.com/win/day1_2a.asp

 

[NeoNSX]

Without DeLorean, we wouldn't have time-travel as we know it. We'd still be travelling through time in phone boxes.

 

[Jimbo]

Regarding the self-cancelling turn signal....

I thought about it some more and I remembered the story wrong.

What DeLorean actually came up with was the lane-change feature where you partially depress the turn signal lever without it clicking into position.

It was some part that he simply filed down (probably a detent mechanism) to achieve this.

-Jim