Text Box: John Z DeLorean Award Text Box: The Inland Empire GTO club has created a new award for the hobby.  This award was created with the permission and support for the John DeLorean family.  The intent of this award is to keep alive the memory of John DeLorean and what he brought to the automotive industry and hobby.  From innovative engineer to imaginative manager and Executive in the U.S. automobile industry, John Zachary De Lorean (January 6, 1925 – March 19, 2005) was an American personality,  and the father of the Pontiac GTO, and the De Lorean DMC-12 sports car, which was later featured in the movie Back to the Future. John started his automotive career at Chrysler, but that lasted less than a year, when he was offered a $14,000 per year position at Packard Motor Company working for noted engineer Forest McFarland. DeLorean drew attention to himself with his development of an improvement to the company's Ultramatic automatic transmission, giving it a much improved torque converter and dual drive ranges; it was launched as the "Twin-Ultramatic". However, Packard was in serious financial trouble when DeLorean joined, and there were other opportunities for a bright automotive engineer. DeLorean, who had the opportunity to join any of the GM Divisions, accepted the $16,000 per year offer by choosing to work at the Pontiac Division as an assistant to chief engineer Pete Estes and general manager Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen. Knudsen was the son of the former president of General Motors, William Knudsen . Bunkie was also an MIT engineering graduate, and at 42 he was the youngest man to head a division of GM. John and Bunkie were to quickly become close friends, and John would eventually cite Bunkie as a major influence and mentor. Knudsen wanted to improve Pontiac's youth and performance image, and DeLorean was in the middle of the action. DeLorean's years of engineering at Pontiac were prolific and resulted in dozens of patented innovations for the company, and in 1961 he was promoted to the position of division chief engineer. John is credited with developments such as wide track wheels, torque box perimeter frame, recessed and articulated windshield-wipers, the lane-change turn signal, overhead cam six-cylinder engine, Endura bumper, and a variety of other cosmetic and structural design elements. DeLorean’s greatest contribution to Pontiac would be more conceptual than technical: The practical 1961 model Tempest, which he would later evolve into the LeMans, and ultimately become the muscle car of the 1960s. The GTO, is the car John is highly recognized for, which debuted as a Tempest/LeMans option package with a larger, more powerful engine in 1964. John later went on to become the General Manager of Pontiac and of Chevrolet before starting his own automobile company. We hope to keep the memory of John alive through the recognition of efforts that showcase John’s work. The award will be given annually to a person who has exemplified himself/herself in contributing and promoting the preservation of the products and inventions of John DeLorean. Recipients of the award to date: 2005 Alan Meyer 2006 Thomas Trafford  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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