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

by Ivan Fallon

Hardcover: 455 pages Publisher: Putnam Pub Group (T); 1st American ed edition (November 1, 1985) Language: English ISBN-10: 0399128212 ISBN-13: 978-0399128219 Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.6... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399128212
• ISBN13: 9780399128219
• Release Date: November 1985
• Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
• Length: 455 Pages
• Weight: 1.87 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Biased, or merely objective and thus offensive to the uncritical?

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!

Exhaustive But Biased

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.