Kalikow on Delorean
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Interview by Matt David

DMC was bleeding to death. Placed on the temporary life support of receivership in May 1982, John Z. Delorean (JZD) set out on massive, but ultimately failed, campaign to find a white knight to save his failing motor company. The search led JZD across the globe, meeting with sheiks, captains of industry and other masters of the universe. The terse communications between Delorean and the U.K. receiver always alluded to several parties that were moments away from stepping in with hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and transforming DMC into a lean phoenix that would instantly rise from the ashes and save thousands of jobs in Belfast. If there was ever one single man who had the experience, credibility and cash on hand to keep DMC a going concern, it was New York property magnate and world-famous car collector Peter Kalikow. Unfortunately, it was understood that Delorean was likely to say or do anything to keep the receiver at bay – including invoking Kalikow’s name. What turned out to be serious one moment was dismissed or discredited the next. After enticing the receiver with news of Kalikow’s interest, JZD subsequently dismissed Kalikow as never having been a main contender, and announced he already had another backer instead. Who is to be believed? Was Peter Kalikow ever really interested in saving the Delorean Motor Company? If so, how far did he get? Was DMC beyond saving? What did Kalikow think of JZD and the DMC-12? After months of requesting an interview, persistent interviewer Matt David prevailed and was invited to speak with Kalikow on August 26, 2015 to set the record straight.

Wednesday, 8/26/2015
10:30 am

MD (Matt David): Mr. Kalikow, according to a May 17, 1982 Telex, John Delorean claimed you wanted to become the distributor of the DMC-12 with an option to acquire the Belfast plant. You were actually interested in selling the DMC-12 and keeping the plant open?

PK (Peter Kalikow): Right.

MD: That’s true?

PK: That is true.

MD: Well, let’s go back. When did you first meet John Delorean?

PK: I first met Delorean in 1972 or 73 when I was building the Momo Mirage and he came on my stand at the New York show. He looked at the car and said, ‘Nice car, you’ll never make any money building it.’ And I thought to myself, ‘Well, at least he said hello to me.’ Right?

MD: [Laughs.] So, you met John initially at the Auto Show, then?

PK: Yeah, but I believe he was the guy in charge of North American car and truck production and I was just a guy trying to build a car. We were in the same business tangentially. I also met him—now I remember—there was a luncheon club I threw every day at 280 Park and he had his offices right below there, at the second to the top floor at 280 Park. I would see him there, and once in a while he would nod ‘hello.’ But then I was having lunch with my friend, who knew him, and then he came over and said ‘hello.’ So I guess he knew me. I dunno.

MD: When did you first get interested in the car itself, the DMC-12?

PK: Yes. Well, I was following [trails off]… he had invited ten or fifteen people in the early to mid-70s, I can’t remember, to attend an – I don’t know what you call it, but to try and get us to be investors. And he was explaining what his plan was and how he wanted to do it. ….It went from a mid-engine car to a rear engine car. Every year it was gonna come out next year… The plan for a mid-engine car, to me, was more exciting than a rear engine car, because to me, the handling characteristics of a mid-engine car, unless you have someone like Porsche do it for you, you’re probably going to get it wrong. If you remember, he was there when they did the Corvair, so he had a bad experience with rear engine cars. So that’s why I think he wanted to do a mid-engine car to begin with, and then you remember he hired Lotus to do the engineering for him, and they worked out that the mid-engine car wouldn’t work; I actually don’t know or don’t remember any of the details. …[Ultimately] he had designed the car, and this was the third or fourth iteration of the car… His original vision is not what he ended up doing… But I thought it was an attractive car. And in those days, horsepower was modest in every car, including Ferraris and Corvettes. None of them came above 200 horsepower. You know, I liked it. I liked the gull wings. It was kind of exciting. And if the quality was there, it might be something that could be exciting.

MD: Did you think DMC would be successful?

PK: The more I learned about the way GM works, the more doubtful I was that he was going to be able to pull this thing off. What happens in GM is, at least in those days, let’s say you wanna build a plant to make, I dunno, engines. So if it was a good idea, you’ve made your case and all your arguments, you put it to the finance committee at GM, if they said ‘yes,’ you never had to worry if the plant was going to be paid for or the building was going to be built, it just happened. Well, Delorean was a whole different story than that. I understand what it takes to run a small business. I think he had no clue.

MD: So, how were you approached about getting involved at the time of the May 17, 1982 Telex?

PK: When the company was running into trouble, a friend of mine who represented John asked if I would like to meet with him and talk about the company and I said ‘of course.’ We talked about what his plan was. [At the time of the shutdown] they were building these cars one day a week. That’s not a thing that’s going to guarantee good quality. When a guy gets a paycheck for one day out of a five day week. I was worried whether they could build a quality product. He called me and asked me if I wanted to take over the company. I said, ‘before that, I would like to be the distributor of the cars that you would make.’ I don’t think they would come anywhere in the world but America. So we would be the sole distributor, and it was just so I could see how… what it took to run as a stand-alone business while assessing the value of the product. The best way to do that was to try and sell cars. So that’s a long winded answer of how that Telex got written and why. It wasn’t because I said I wanted to be the distributor of that car, I said, ‘I want to buy the company,’ but before I did that, before I was going to risk any money, I wanted to see if it could be a viable company, and if the cars were of good quality and what could be made, on the basis of if it could be profitable. Remember, they could only be one color. Frankly, I thought that was something that was going to hinder their sales. So one of the things we talked about was coming up with a way to paint them. And we were going to do that in America. Paint six or eight colors, stainless steel would be one of them. And paint them to customer order.

MD: You stepped away from this deal, so we’re clear, because you determined the car would not be profitable?

PK: No. I stepped away …they had this receiver, an English guy… who, by the way, always walked with an umbrella. [Laughs] It could be a beautiful day, this guy came in with an umbrella! In England, the receiver, in a bankruptcy he takes away the rights from the debtor. The Debtor doesn’t have any right to rehabilitate himself. When we looked at the company, the more we looked at it, it wasn’t any more reason than, it was just too complicated to do. [The receiver] didn’t want to sell it on any basis other than where we would agree to build one day a week cars, they didn’t want to put in any money, they weren’t going to deal with any of the issues that had to be done as far as capital investments, they just wanted to have somebody come in and buy it. And it wasn’t a going company that had what it needed to have, and that’s one of the reasons why we stepped away from it.

MD: One of the things that you considered to be a negative was that it came in a stainless steel color.

PK: Right. I thought that would be a hard sell. I’m not saying that having stainless steel as one of the colors wouldn’t have been good, but having that as your only choice was not good, and by the way, because of the stainless steel, the body panels were so good that painting would have been relatively easy. I mean, one of the things I didn’t like about the car was there was no window! Couldn’t get the window down. You know, they had one of those little pass through windows to pay the tolls? If you wanted to talk to someone outside the car, you couldn’t talk to them. Because of the architecture of the car, you couldn’t put real windows in there, because of the angle of the door.

MD: Knowing what you know now about the DMC the company, the car, if you could go back and invest, would you?

PK: No. (Laughs.) Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t have gone to the second meeting!

MD: Wow, okay. Certainly answers that. Would you say there’s a side to the whole affair of building this car, closing the plant, or even John Delorean himself, that most people don’t know?

PK: Well, I was amazed… he was very personable, I want you to know that. But what I was amazed at… in those days, you know, money wasn’t like it is today. He spent $220 million dollars! He couldn’t make a plant and an operation that was successful. I think that was his downfall, and I think he wasn’t a good businessman. I think he was a good organization man, but he couldn’t run a small company. And I think that’s what a lot of his problem was. I mean, he spent $220 Million dollars on that! Spent a lot of money. It would be like spending… I’m thinking… $10 billion dollars? If made a company and spent $10 billion dollars and couldn’t make one successful car… or ten successful cars, I would be ashamed of myself.

MD: Last question, Mr. Kalikow, as a renowned car collector, if you were Steven Wynne today, who is the currently owner of the reformed Delorean Motor Company, what would you do to promote the car and the company?

PK: I think it could be some kind of business… I mean, it’s alright. I think the car, considering what’s out today, is … I gotta watch my words…

MD: (Laughs.)

PK: I think the car is a little bit behind the times. That’s the best way I can put it. It’s probably too noisy today to get certified. If you wanted to make them. It’s an old design, you know.

MD: What can you say generally about the effort to preserve the cars themselves?

PK: It’s worthwhile. You’ll never make any money out of it, but it was an interesting piece of automotive history. If they didn’t make Back to the Future, nobody would remember the car today. I guess that helped them. The idea was a good idea. It was well-conceived. Badly thought-out and badly executed. But I think it’s worthwhile to try to save those. A lot of people drive them and like them.

MD: Thank you very much this has been a pleasure.

PK: Thank you.

Peter Kalikow remains one of the world’s foremost car collectors, and is known for his extensive collection of Ferraris, including some bespoke examples, due to his long-lasting relationship with the Ferrari Family. Once he acquires a car, he does not sell it. After his brief stint as an auto manufacturer with the Momo Mirage, he continued his successes in New York real estate, is a prior owner of the New York Post and a former head of the Metropolitan Transit Authority. –Ed.

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