One of the greatest automotive innovators of all time, John DeLorean, has died:

John Z. DeLorean, the innovative automaker who left a promising career in Detroit to develop the stainless steel-skinned, gull-winged sports car bearing his name and was acquitted of charges he planned to sell $24 million worth of cocaine to support the venture, has died at the age of 80.
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DeLorean, whose namesake car was turned into a time machine in the "Back to the Future" movies, was among just a handful of U.S. entrepreneurs who dared start a car company in the last 75 years.
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While at GM, he created what some consider the first "muscle car" in 1964 by cramming a V-8 engine into a Pontiac Tempest and calling it the GTO.

Almost everyone remembers the gull wing wonder he created... Back to the Future is on TV practically every week making it hard to forget. However, few people realize that he also is the creative force behind that first great American muscle car... the GTO. The funny thing is that the GTO was never supposed to exist. Back in those days, they only put the powerful V8's in the big boat's that only older people could afford... the people who could never appreciate nor use that kind of power. John thought differently. He designed it from spare parts on the weekend by taking a big engine, and putting it in a small inexpensive car. He instantly had a hit on his hands.

GM still wasn't convinced though. That first year, they gave each dealership only a single GTO to sell. Executives in Detroit didn't think they would even be able to sell those. Dealerships were begging for more after the first weekend they had them. In the end, only the gas crisis of the 70's could bring down the powerful GTO, but the name now lives on in another car he didn't create.

His car company wasn't nearly as successful as some of his designs... and the controversy that surrounded it's management will always be attached to his name. But no matter how people remember his company, people will always remember his cars.