Mr. Delorean: Crazy, Brilliant Egomaniac With a Bitchin' Car

John Z. Delorean. He was 80 years old. Now, he's not. His death was announced in the LA Times today.

The creator of the Delorean. It's really sad. It's the end of an era--80s excess combined with unique engineering. The guy was a revolutionary; sort of like "Che" Guevara to the auto industry. He was leading a normal life as a model GM executive. Then one day, I suppose he realized his powers and abilities and just started doing as he pleased. I read he started driving a Maserati sports car rather than a Corvette; this was a General Motors executive driving an Italian vehicle. The guy had brass balls.

I just drove by La Puente Mall this past Wednesday where they shot parts of Back to the Future: where we see the modified Delorean, and when Einstein is put in the driver's seat and the time machine is tested for the first time. Of course, in the movie it's called Twin Pines Mall. I was with my territory manager. Though I begged, she was uninterested in doing 'time-travel' laps through the mall's parking lot. It was mid-day and quite crowded, so I'd have had to do much slower than the 85 required to time-travel (though my car is not equipped with the flex-capacitor option--oh, that would be so fucking bitchin'!).

My territory manager seemed to lack that sense of adventure, so to try salvaging this "Back to the Future moment" I called her Marty and started talking about the Libyans and plutonium. She seemed scared. Kind of like Marty in the movie. It was so life-like! I was glad she played along. And when I pretended they were right behind us with a rocket-propelled grenade (JUST LIKE IN THE MOVIE!) and started swerving all over the road (again, JUST LIKE IN THE MOVIE!), she seemed genuinely scared. I was amazed; she hadn't even announced herself as a fan of the movie.