The Pontiac Fiero GT featured "flying buttress" rear roof supports and a slick fastback style. Standard rear spoiler, "ground effects" body addenda, uprated Y99 suspension, and a mellow exhaust system enhanced the newcomer's mini-muscle-car aura. This returned for 1985 on a new GT model powered by Chevy's fine port-injected V-6 (also from the X-cars) with 52-percent more power than the base four.
The Pontiac Fiero was named Pace Car for the 1984 Indy 500, which spawned replicas with a snarky new ground-hugging nose. "Buff books" applauded the handsome styling, practical packaging, and overall roadability, but longed for a quieter, lighter car with more oomph, a 5-speed gearbox, smoother ride, and less twitchy cornering. Only four color choices would be offered at any one time in the interest of quality control, which was claimed to represent a new Pontiac peak.Īrriving in base and spiffier S/E trim, the Pontiac Fiero received wide and mostly favorable press coverage. A major innovation was the fully driveable space-frame chassis structure to which various Enduraflex plastic (not fiberglass) body panels attached, construction that would make style changes easy, cheap, and fast. Up front were Chevy Chevette steering, suspension, and brakes.
#PONTIAC FIERO SPOILER MANUAL#
The compacts also donated their 4-speed manual and optional 3-speed automatic transaxles, plus front suspension and brakes, used aft, of course. The result was a "corporate kit car," with a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine mounted transversely behind the cockpit on an X-car engine cradle. Corporate cash-flow problems almost killed the project several times in 1980-82, but Aldikacti ultimately convinced management that the Fiero not only made financial sense for GM but was vital for injecting new life into a Pontiac image that had become confused and stale.
Basic styling evolved under Ron Hill in Advanced Design III, then finalized from April 1980 in Pontiac Exterior Studio II under John Schinella, who also came up with the Fiero name. Unusually for a GM project, Pontiac Fiero engineering development was assigned to an outside firm, Entech of Detroit, with Hulki Aldikacti as overall director. The interior of the Pontiac Fiero matched the exterior: it was sleek and efficient, but small.
0 kommentar(er)
