Newark, N.J. ? John Z. DeLorean, an automotive innovator who left General Motors Corp. to develop a radically futuristic sports car only to see that venture crash spectacularly as he fought federal drug charges, has died at age 80.

DeLorean was among just a handful of U.S. entrepreneurs who dared start a car company in the last 75 years.

While apt to be remembered popularly as the man behind the car modified for time travel in the “Back to the Future” movies, DeLorean left a powerful imprint in automaking built on unique, souped-up cars.

DeLorean died late Saturday at Overlook Hospital in Summit, N.J., of complications from a recent stroke, said Paul Connell, an owner of A.J. Desmond & Sons Funeral Directors in Royal Oak, Mich., which was handling arrangements.

A Detroit native, DeLorean “broke the mold” of staid Midwestern auto executives by “going Hollywood” and pushed General Motors Corp. to offer smaller models, auto historians said.

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, fondly dubbed the “Goat” by auto enthusiasts.

“John DeLorean was one of Detroit’s larger-than-life figures who secured a noteworthy place in our industry’s history,” GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said Sunday in a statement. “He made a name for himself through his talent, creativity, innovation and daring. At GM, he will always be remembered as the father of the Pontiac GTO, which really started the muscle-car craze of the ’60s.”

Started own company

DeLorean was a rising if unconventional executive at GM who many believe was destined for its presidency before he quit in 1973 to launch the DeLorean Motor Car Co. in Northern Ireland. Eight years later, the DeLorean DMC-12 hit the streets.

Visitors look at a DeLorean used in the movie Back

Its hallmarks, such as an unpainted stainless steel skin and the gull-wing doors, have been ignored by mainstream automakers. The angular design, however, earned it a cult following, and the car was a time-traveling vehicle for Michael J. Fox in the popular “Back to the Future” films of the late 1980s.

But the factory produced only about 8,900 cars in three years, estimated John Truscott, membership director of the DeLorean Owners Assn. That figure is dwarfed by the major automakers, who sell more than a million vehicles a month.

DeLorean’s company collapsed in 1983, a year after he was arrested in Los Angeles and accused of conspiring to sell $24 million of cocaine to salvage his venture.

DeLorean used an entrapment defense to win acquittal on the drug charges in 1984, despite a videotape in which he called a suitcase full of cocaine “good as gold.”

The British government lost the equivalent of $94 million over its heavy subsidies for the plant in West Belfast, granted with the hope that the venture’s 2,000 jobs would weaken support for the Irish Republican Army, which was then fighting to end British rule in Northern Ireland.

Legal issues

DeLorean was later cleared of defrauding investors but continuing legal entanglements kept him on the sidelines of the automotive world, although his passion for cars did not abate. He declared bankruptcy in 1999.

After the DeLorean car venture failed, he was involved in some 40 legal cases, including his 1985 divorce from model and talk show personality Cristina Ferrare — his third wife — after a 12-year marriage.

“I believe I deserve what happened to me,” DeLorean told The Associated Press after the divorce, which followed his drug trial.

“The deadliest sin is pride,” he said, proclaiming his faith as a born-again Christian. “I was an arrogant egomaniac. I needed this, as difficult as it was, to get my perspective back.”

Survivors include his wife, Sally DeLorean; a son, Zachary Tavio DeLorean; two daughters, Kathryn Ann DeLorean and Sheila Baldwin DeLorean; and two grandchildren.

A private burial is scheduled for Thursday in the Detroit suburb of Troy.