If you like very affordable, mid-engined two-seaters, the 1980s were being your ten years. Fiat (and, a little bit later, Bertone) presented the X1/9, Toyota bought MR2s, and even Standard Motors got into the act by creating the Fiero. Available from the 1984 by 1988 design several years, the Pontiac Fiero showed a great deal of guarantee but finished up becoming mainly disappointing, in some approaches echoing the profession of the Chevy Corvair of a couple of many years before. Present day Junkyard Gem is a as soon as-spiffy 1986 Fiero GT, found in a self-provider garden in the vicinity of Denver, Colorado.
Right after a lengthy and distressing advancement time period stretching all the way again to John DeLorean’s XP-833 Banshee (which ended up remaining a big impact driving the authentic Opel GT), the Fiero finally debuted in 1983 as a 1984 model. The top rated-of-the-product-selection GT appeared the next year.
The Fiero was crafted as a notchback coupe and as a fastback, with all the GTs currently being the latter type.
I could not get the engine lid open up, but this car would have remaining the assembly line (in Pontiac, Michigan) with a 2.8-liter V6 rated at 140 horsepower.
This car has a 5-speed handbook transmission, earning it a credible rival for Toyota’s MR2.
The 1986 MR2 was significantly less highly effective than the Fiero GT (112 horsepower vs . 140), but also scaled in considerably lighter (2,459 lbs . from the Pontiac’s 2,780 lbs). The MR2 also charge less, priced at $11,298 while the Fiero GT charge $12,875 (which is about $30,540 and $34,805, respectively, in inflation-altered 2022 bucks).
In the meantime, the $6,998 Honda Civic CRX two-seater lured away lots of prospective Fiero buyers even with currently being a entrance-engined/entrance-wheel-drive vehicle, and the $7,186 Ford EXP/Mercury LN7 also place a dent in Fiero gross sales. I cannot discover a selling price for the 1986 Bertone X1/9, but it value a tricky-to-imagine $13,990 in 1984.
GM continue to was using five-digit odometers in lots of automobiles by the middle 1980s, but this Fiero has a 6-digit unit and thus we can see that it just about realized 150,000 miles in the course of its driving job.
The 1984-1987 Fiero experienced from a pieces-bin suspension structure, with the entrance suspension borrowed from the Chevrolet Chevette and the total rear transaxle/suspension assembly lifted from the entrance close of the Chevrolet Quotation. For the 1988 design 12 months, GM eventually put in the cash to design an enhanced Fiero-particular suspension … and then instantly set a halt to production. Hugely publicized fires and top quality-regulate complications for the 1984-1987 autos had completed their destruction, and just over 25,000 of those far better-dealing with Fieros had been offered.
I utilized to see a great deal additional of these automobiles for the duration of my junkyard travels, but now my particular junkyard Fiero sightings are down to a pair for each calendar year.
I continue to see Fieros on race tracks, however, so the Fiero information isn’t all undesirable!
Here’s in-car movie from a single of the Salty Thunder Racing Fieros on the Higher Plains Raceway track.
Just like a dangle glider.
It appears like a billion francs.
When hitchhiking home from faculty, always hold out for the Fiero that doesn’t have the Iron Duke four-cylinder.