Pontiac Fiero
A number of overwhelming successes for Pontiac in the area of car racing inspired
the company to create sports car. This decision has been further influenced by
the tremendous success of the Ford Mustang in 1964. Thus, the idea for the Pontiac Fiero evolved in the late part of the 1970s. Pontiac has developed its reputation
of consisting the engine in between the passenger/driver and the rear axle. This
mid-engine layout has not been very popular to be used in road cars since it was
not a practical design as it leaves limited space and room for the passengers
and luggage.
To be able to create the glorious years of the Pontiac sports car, the company’s
engineers saw the key they had long waited for. That is, the mounting of the transaxle
engine behind the driver and the radical unitized space frame for the body surface
which featured a steel skeleton that mounted exterior plastic panels. They saw
several advantages for this body surface styling such as that of the resistance
to small dents, easy replacement of panels in case of major repairs, and the cheap
cost of the aforementioned body styling.
Pontiac Fiero became the first volume of American car ever produced to possess
a body that is made up of plastic or glass fibre, besides the Chevrolet Corvette
of course. The body styling adopted for the Fiero enabled the drivers to drive
around without seemingly having to feel the body at all. Underneath Fiero’s amazing
and unusual construction lies the four-cylinder X-car powertrain that drives the
rear wheels through either a four speed manual or three-speed automatic transaxle.
The year 1984 paved way for the launching of the Fiero 2M4 which vividly stood
for two passengers, mid-engine, four cylinders sports car. All contours of the
new Fiero faithfully followed Pontiac’s styling theme. Like the rest of the mishaps
faced by the firms in this ever-growing automobile company, the Fiero’s sales
unexpectedly were not able to live up to the expectations. The Fiero lasted only
for five model years in the marketplace. Yet, despite this fact, Pontiac Fiero
has earned a set of enthusiastic followers and devoted clubs for its existence.
