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fiero
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Fiero means "very proud" in Italian, and that's how Pontiac feels about its car of that name. Why? Because Fiero is not just Detroit's first mid-engine production effort but only its second volume two-seater since the mid-Fifties Ford Thunderbird.
Yet within Pontiac itself, the Fiero had more significance as a moral victory: the sports car for which the division had fought for the better part of 20 years, an alternative to the Corvette from rival Chevrolet. Not that it started out as such. Rather, it was broached in 1978 as a "commuter car," a high-mileage mini to help General Motors meet the government's new corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards that took effect that year.
But the urge toward a full-fledged sports car was irresistible, especially since even the "commuter" concept envisioned a mid-engine/rear-drive layout with a transplanted power package from the forthcoming X-body front-drive compacts. In October 1978, GM president Elliott M. "Pete" Estes okayed the idea -- perhaps for sentimental reasons: He himself had pleaded for a two-seat Pontiac as division chief back in the Sixties.
Unusually for a GM project, Pontiac Fiero engineering development was assigned to an outside firm, Entech of Detroit, with Hulki Aldikacti as overall director. 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. 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.
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. The compacts also donated their 4-speed manual and optional 3-speed automatic transaxles, plus front suspension and brakes, used aft, of course.
View Fiero Aluminum Radiators
Pontiac Fiero 1984-1985-1986-1987-1988
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