CLASSIC AMERICAN PEOPLE ‘Motortown Marverick - The John DeLorean Story’ Fourteenth Floor and Back to the Future
On the morning of Monday, April 2, 1973, John Z DeLorean walked out of the New York offices at the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan for the last time. That day would mark the first time in 25 years that he had not been employed in the automotive business. He had come to GM 17 years earlier, as an engineer with the Pontiac Division, helped turn Pontiac around and then, as general manager of Chevrolet, had brought that division back under control, making good profits for the corporation.
In October 1972, he was promoted to group executive in charge of the GM Car and Truck Group, with an office on the prestigious Fourteenth Floor at GM’s World Headquarters in Detroit. At age 48, he had raced up the GM promotional ladder faster than any other GM executive. Most people would be envious of his position in one of America’s most powerful corporations. His salary at that time, including bonuses, was around $650,000, but in the spring of ’73, John DeLorean threw all that away.
His decision to quit GM came with the
