Pontiac Fiero: The Definitive History

[Frosty]

A well written article from Jalopnik documenting the history of the Fiero. I was fortunate enough to actual tour the Fiero assembly plant on Baldwin Road in Pontiac as a young man at the start of my GM/EDS career. Even decades after the plant was shut down and turned into a warehouse of sorts, you could still see the Fiero insignia trash barrels all over the building.

https://jalopnik.com/pontiac-fiero-the-definitive-history-5501545

While the article does a good job summing up the Fiero's demise, the late John Sawruk, Pontiac Historian, was quite blunt about it. He said that the reason the Fiero was killed was Chevrolet. Basically, by the time GM decided to kill the Fiero, Roger Smith had re-organized the company into two basic car groups, BOC - Buick-Olds-Cadillac and CPC - Chevrolet-Pontiac-GM of Canada. So CPC was being run, primarily, by former Chevy executives. John felt that these execs saw the Fiero as a threat to the Corvette (thou shalt not beat Corvette!) with it's planned turbo V6, both in terms of sales and perhaps horsepower (power-to-weight that is).

 

Edited September 4, 2019 by Frosty

[Stewy]

Nice article! I cannot remember where it was (social media, maybe) but I, in just the last week, saw a picture of someone who put a LS4 (mid to late 2000's Impala SS, Grand Prix GXP, I think the Monty SS as well) in a Fiero. How in the world they got it to physically fit is beyond me (without a lot of body work - this was just a picture with no description) but the shear thought a LS4 in that light of a car makes the Spidey-senese tingle...

... then again, I did see in person someone who put a, I believe, LS9 in a Solstice... jaw dropping.

[Frosty]

You could order a Mallet Solstice with an LS3 from your Pontiac dealership back in the day. It came with it's own powertrain warranty that the dealer would honor. I have seen two Malletts so far.

At Woodward is a Fiero that has a blown V8 in the front of the car!

[Stewy]

11 hours ago, Frosty said:

You could order a Mallet Solstice with an LS3 from your Pontiac dealership back in the day. It came with it's own powertrain warranty that the dealer would honor. I have seen two Malletts so far.

 

I'll take two!

[Frosty]

Ditto.