A Proud American Sports Car

            For years the executives at General Motors fought against producing a two seat sports car that would compete with Chevrolet’s hugely popular Corvette. And with good reason. Why would this huge company with an array of different badges want to go up against itself? GM had always been of the mindset that each of the different marques under its umbrella would cater to a different market. That way they could concentrate on competing against the other offerings out of Detroit.

            But their thinking began to change near the end of the 1970s. It was that decade that brought in the first oil crisis and with it, a slew of new government rules and regulations. Many feel that the 70s killed the muscle car, or at least changed it into something a bit tamer.

            What if, the brains at GM thought, we could come up with a fuel efficient car with sporty good looks and zippy handing? With this in mind the project was turned over to Pontiac and the result was one of the most innovative cars to come out of Detroit, the Fiero.

            Stealing a page from some of the European designers, particularly those from Italy, the Pontiac engineers set about creating a mid-engine machine based around what they saw as a zippy 2.5 liter four cylinder engine. The “Iron Duke” as it was dubbed, was capable of 27 mpg in the city and just about 40 mpg on the highway. With that the fuel efficient end of the equation was pretty well in hand.

            While the car got some positive reviews for its handling, it suffered from not only some design problems but also some expectation. The increased fuel efficiency naturally meant that the car would possess less power. Add to that the fact that Pontiac was “raiding the bin” of other GM materials to keep costs low and the Fiero’s sports car factor suffered. By sharing such elements as suspension and powertrain with existing cars that lacked sports car performance, critics gave the car some early thumbs down reviews. Still, the novelty of a mid-engine American car drove to sales of over 130,000 in 1984, the first year of the Fiero’s release.

            But a mid-engine car of the 1980s was going to be compared, though unfairly, with the machines rolling out of Europe, such as the 400 horse power V8 Ferrari 288 GTO. Though the Fiero was never marketed as an American supercar, only as a fuel efficient sporty car, buyers simply expected more. Of course by the Fiero’s second year the oil crisis was a thing of the past and cars with a bit more zip were experiencing a mild comeback.

            To try to alleviate this problem a little engineers shoe horned a larger 2.8 liter 140 horse power Chevy V6 that could generate 160 foot pounds of torque into the middle of the Fiero. The result was a quicker car that, when coupled with an Isuzu five speed transmission, was more in the vein of many of the sports cars that were coming out of England at the time. Still, sales sagged to only around 76,000 for 1985.

            The following year saw a small spike in sales, up to nearly 84,000 but that was going to be as good as it got. In 1987, despite numerous upgrades throughout the line, only a little more than 46,000 cars were sold. The handwriting was on the wall, so to speak as sales continued to dip. Despite a new suspension that seemed to have been inspired by Lotus and garnered raves from many in the automotive press, only about 26,000 cars were sold and GM decided to stop production.

            A lack of power and sporty zip weren’t the only things that haunted the Fiero. There were reports of engine fires that may have been exaggerated. Statistics indicate that of the over 370,000 Fieros that hit the road, fewer than 0.07% reported engine fires, with most of those belonging to the 1984 models. Add to that the innovative plastic on frame design of the body and the car got an unfair reputation for being unsafe. The truth is that according to government tests, the Fiero was the second safest car on the road between 1984 and 1989, topped only by a Volvo.

            With a total of over 370,000 cars sold in its five year run, the Fiero became the most popular mid-engine roadster produced in America. You can still see the occasional Fiero on the road but many have been stripped and re-bodied as part of kit cars, including a few different Ferraris. Still, when you see them on the road or at a show, it is easy to see how Pontiac was maybe just a little ahead of their time with this car and perhaps, if they hadn’t rushed it to the market with too many shared components, this machine, whose name is Italian for proud, may have been a serious American sports car even today.