Customer Reviews

Dream Maker: The Rise and Fall of John Z. DeLorean

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This story of the rise and fall of DeLorean Motor Company is exhaustively researched and fabulously detailed, but the authors make no attempt to hide their loathing for the man. From the Prologue onward, snide jabs (such as "The DeLorean story warns us to be more cautious and reluctant to entrust our dreams to others") pepper the narrative.

Personally, I would have preferred the facts speak for themselves. JZD was (and remains) a complex character whose story is considerably more multi-faceted than Fallon/Srodes allow for. You can see it physically pains the authors when they have to admit John's fidelity, sobriety and work ethic. A less-biased accounting would have allowed the reader to form his or her own opinion, and there's plenty of material to support any range of opinion.

But the book is readable and fairly well organized (except for the occasional sudden appearance of important people or events that we are told figured prominently earlier on) and, as mentioned, seems to be well-researched. I give it four stars for effort, none for attitude.

With John Delorean's recent death in March, I though that it would be appropriate to read a book about Delorean Motor Company before I forgot for good. I didn't know the complete story about Delorean's dream of making a gull-winged sports car, and that's a shame. Although he never achieved this grand plan, I still think that his attempt was worthy in a market dominated by huge corporations.

But, just as Delorean Motor Company failed in the market, the book I read, "Dream Maker: the Rise and Fall of John Z. Delorean," fails, as well. It fails, because it's not genuine. Instead of letting the facts stand on their own, the authors continually ridicule Delorean. I don't know what their true intent is, but it seems that they are trying to create an arbitrary connection between Delorean's stainless steel car and Delorean's stained work ethic. Unfortunately, this type of writing doesn't offer anything new. Too often people criticize the poor decisions Delorean made, and they don't take into consideration the gravity of the situation. Also, they pay no mind that the drug charges against Delorean could have been a hoax, like some other people insist.

Overall, this type of bias undermines the somewhat decent quality of this book---the history of DMC.

The book is painstakingly researched and clearly written in flowing English, bereft of cliche and jargon. It is hard to put down once you start. DeLorean was a fine engineer, no one doubts that, but he was a hopelessly and unrealistically optimistic businessman. His "empire" was sustained by other people's money, gained through, at times, half-truth and, at other times, untruth. He had boundless energy and a passion to succeed, but he did not have the ability to bring to fruition a seriously-flawed concept car in the cut-and-thrust of the real car market of his day. The actual production cost per car actually produced was astronomical and the car was not a match for the quality sports car market in which it hoped to flourish - remember that Porsche and Mercedes made cars which did not break down, where all the parts fitted properly and where quality was built in, not fiddled in after production was supposed to be complete. I owned a Porsche of the period, the DMC 12 was somewhat of a joke compared to the German car. The authors here, true, clearly had major reservations about Delorean as a businessman, but look at the evidence, they are on much safer critical ground than the material emanating from Delorean fans. The British Government were desperate for Delorean to succeed in Belfast, they poured huge amounts into DMC but, commercially, it was a disaster, an almost-unmitigated disaster.
Delorean's rise to fame, and his undoing as a car-maker are carefully charted in this book. Read it. Read also books by Delorean and others, but don't be blind to the fact of the story, whether you feel the authors have distaste for what he did, facts remain facts. Deloeran spent just 12 days behind bars, whilst raising bail, and was acquitted when the judge threw out the case due to entrapment by US governmental agents, but a technical release is not evidence of innocence, as the man himself conceeded when, following his conversion to the Christian faith, he described some of his pre-conversion deeds as being unworthy.
I'd buy the book, you'll be gripped, I was!