Car of the Week: 1985 Fiero SE

dodgechargerfan

dodgechargerfan

In a 55 gallon drum, floating down river, and
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1985-Fiero-1.jpg

Paul Hofmann Jr. is trying to do his part to help the Pontiac Fiero earn some respect in the collector car community. He knows it might take awhile, but eventually the old car hobby might find a greater collective appreciation for the tiny 1980s Pontiacs.

“It would be nice. I hope they do,” says Hofmann, a resident of Hazelhurst in northern Wisconsin. “Because they’re not as bad of cars as people think they are, you know?”

Hofmann has certainly grown to appreciate and enjoy his stellar 1985 SE example. He never had much to do with Fieros in the past, and didn’t ever have any interest in owning one as a hobby car until his son got involved.

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I can't believe that I actually spent the time to read the entire article. :(
 
68R/T said:
I can't believe that I actually spent the time to read the entire article. :(
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Are you kidding?! That was pure comedy gold! I mean, you have peaches like...
The H20 sensor went out it and throttle body sensor went out on it and fuel injector sensor went out...
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:D ...and...and...
The body panels were all solid...
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...fuck me... tears... :dance:

Then...
I had the needle about this far past 85 – it goes!
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:bwuhaha::bwuhaha: This fuckin' guy could make a comfortable living doing car-show stand-up comedy. They'd be dying in the aisles, I tell you.
 
how many of these did i lock the doors and rip the door panel off to prove a point in wreckers

it might be something if it had the northstar swap....but....its just a backseat fire starter
 
Dr.Jass said:
Are you kidding?! That was pure comedy gold!
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But all that dribble about tire size, coefficient, axle ratios and production figures for Fieros. It would be less boring to read the chemical makeup of ice cream. :dgt:
 
v8440 said:
It's apparently not that hard to put a 500 cadillac in a fiero. Fuck a northstar.
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there was a time id have agreed with you..but after seeing several TT norths done..those things are flat nasty!

besides the caddy 500 doesnt hold a candle to the 472
 
I thought Northstars were steaming piles of junk.. Crappy engine management, teething problems, etc.
 
Dr.Jass said:
Are you kidding?! That was pure comedy gold! I mean, you have peaches like... :D ...and...and... ...fuck me... tears... :dance:

Then...
:bwuhaha::bwuhaha: This fuckin' guy could make a comfortable living doing car-show stand-up comedy. They'd be dying in the aisles, I tell you.
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Fuck! Now I have to go back and read the damn thing.:doh:
 
So what I learned from that is.

It's common for plastic body panels to rust away in Wisconsin. ("it was that it was almost rust-free. The body panels were all solid").

These unibody cars have a frame made out of rust prone radiator hose. (“People drove them as winter cars and you don’t do that! All the coolant and everything is up front. And it all has to travel underneath to the rear of the car, and the salt just eats those lines up and you’re dead, because they are part of the frame under there, and there’s just no replacing that")

There is no dash. The instruments are free standing in the "cockpit" and it must be some sort of hybrid because the gauges are electric! ("Inside the cockpit was a free-standing instrument cluster with electric speedometer, trip odometer, gas gauge, voltmeter, and temperature gauge.")
 
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69.5CUDA said:
besides the caddy 500 doesnt hold a candle to the 472
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The 1970 Cadillac 500 will flat-out smoke any 472 the factory ever built, and in '71 it still had a slight edge over any of its little brothers. In each of the five years both engines were built, the 500 was the more-powerful of the two. They're identical engines except for the crankshaft stroke. It's like saying the 198 Slant Six is superior to the 225... Maybe the 1970 198 is better than the '76 225, but a lot happened in those years.

Northstars were great when they were new, but they don't age well in terms of servicing. They appeared on "10 best" lists many times over many years, but when they get old they're even hard to disassemble--not that they were a picnic to service new. I wouldn't be surprised to find the early engine management wasn't the best, but you're comparing a VIC-20 to a brand-new laptop in terms of technological leaps in engine control since the Northstar appeared. Regardless, they've always had very good specific output from a well-packaged configuration. Mechanics hate 'em, owners love 'em. And, as 69.5 correctly pointed out, they're monsters with forced induction and a good aftermarket tune to account for it.

Regardless of engine installed, it's a Fiero... basically a Chevy Celebrity built backwards with leftover Chevette bits to steer it. The only one worth having is the '88, whose suspension was completely redesigned and can be made into a credible corner burner. Typical of GM, as soon as they got it right... they freakin' cancelled the car.
 
Mechanics FUCKING HATE THEM!!! Just ask me, I'll tell you.

Sent from my XT1565 using Tapatalk
 
I think they cancelled the Fiero because it was entering Corvette territory in terms of handling. 1988's are where it's at.

I almost bought one, but it didn't start. Was simply an alarm kill switch but I ran away.
 
I was gonna say, in what way did adding crankshaft stroke to the 472 to create the 500 cause the 500 to not hold a candle to the 472?
 
The only car hurting Corvette sales during the Fiero's production run was the Corvette itself. :D

I hate to tell you, but the Fiero's reputation by '86 was the "fat secretary's dream econobox" and "poseur extraordinaire's conveyance." No one thought of the Fiero as a performance/sports car back then. If anyone thought it was a bargain-basement 'Vette when it bowed in '84, they were well cured of that before the '85s rolled out with an available V6. Even though the "Tiki Torch" problem was primarily an '84 thing, it didn't help matters, nor did the lack of power from even the six-banger. No one took the Fiero seriously as competition during its lifetime, even on a curvy road. I loved its looks when it was introduced, but by the time I got my license only two years later the car was literally a laughingstock. By the time the '88 got a semi-competent suspension, it was too late. Even though the enthusiast press was impressed, the game was already over... and few cared. Years later, "old, cheap, small and light" drew in guys that started doing all this cool stuff with them, but in their day they were rolling punchlines.

If there had been an active brain at Pontiac at the time, the Fiero would've been available with the 1.8L (later 2.0L) OHC turbo engine from the Sunbird. It was modern at the time, considerably lighter than the Iron Duke 2.5L, and made more horsepower and average torque than the heavy 140HP 2.8L pushrod six. Had Pontiac done that, the Fiero might've been a Corvette killer. Those first-generation turbo Sunbirds were mid-15-second cars; Corvettes of that era were only a couple of tenths quicker. How this idea got by them is beyond me; even the Fiero Pace Car was a "Super Duty" pushrod Iron Dick. :doh:
 
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