DeLorean Motor Company

John Zachary DeLorean was the youngest division head in General Motors history, running Pontiac and then Chevrolet. He was the cool executive — long sideburns, Italian suits, a celebrity lifestyle that clashed with GM's gray-flannel culture. He left GM to build his own car, and he convinced the British government to fund a factory in Northern Ireland with $100 million in grants and loans.

The DMC-12 was a stainless steel, gullwing-doored sports car that looked like nothing else on the road. It was also underpowered, overpriced, poorly built, and late to market. Only about 9,000 were produced. The company hemorrhaged cash.

In October 1982, DeLorean was arrested in an FBI sting operation for conspiring to smuggle $24 million worth of cocaine to save his company. He was acquitted on entrapment grounds, but the company was done. Three years later, the DMC-12 appeared as a time machine in 'Back to the Future,' and the car that failed as a product became one of the most recognizable automobiles in history.