Cadillac V8 With Puffer: 1984 Pontiac Fiero SE
The Pontiac Fiero was designed by George Milidrag and Hulki Aldikacti and launched in 1984 as the first sports car from Pontiac since before World War 2. It was suprisingly popular with more than 370,000 units sold in the 5 years of production, but ultimate fell to GM’s corporate axe men, who couldn’t see a car that needed some minor tweaking to be great and instead just saw something that wasn’t selling well to the rental fleet companies. Today’s Fiero has a supercharged 4.5 liter Cadillac V8 and a decent number of other modifications to make it fun. Find this 1984 Pontiac Fiero offered for $5,200 in Valley Center, CA via craigslist. Tip from Rock On!
From the seller:
1984 Pontiac Fieo
condition: good
cylinders: 8 cylinders
drive: rwd
fuel: gas
odometer: 90000
odometer broken
paint color: white
size: sub-compact
title status: clean
transmission: automatic
type: coupe
Engine: Short block is a 1989 Cadillac 4.5 engine with 1992 Cadillac 4.9 heads. Engine is a fresh rebuild. Has B&M 144 Forced Induction Unit Modified to fit Allante intake manifold. Engine has a custom adapter between the intake manifold and the bottom of the blower. Carburetor is a boost indexed Holley XP 650 CFM double pumper modified for blower application. Exhaust has headers and dual exhaust, 1.5” primary tubes, 2.25” dual exhaust mufflers and tailpipes. Current pulleys yields 8-10 psi.Transmission: Fresh rebuilt 1989 4T60 automatic transmission with shift kit and 2800 stall converter. Low gear cluster and low sprockets for a 3.73 final drive ratio.
Brakes: S-10 Vacuum booster swap and 1 1/8” bore master cylinder
11.25” Labaron Rotors and Camaro GM Metric calipers on the front
9.58” Grand Am rotors and brakes on rear
Braided stainless steel brake lines.Safety: Jegs Roll Cage Kit GM 1984-Up Pontiac Fiero, Jegs aluminum racing seat with cover, 5 point safety harness.
Cooling: Three row aluminum radiator with electric fan.
Car is being sold “as is” and for off road use or specialty car only. Title in hand.
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As a Fiero owner I recognize the wood block as an e-brake modification. The stock system is a huge pain and I believe the Grand Am brake upgrade makes it even more difficult to get an e-brake to work correctly.
All that said, the initial engineering to get the e-brake to work and allow the driver to exit was pretty cool. A smarter person would probably just use a pedal or put it in the middle, but the Fiero engineers were working with their hands tied and I imagine the highest quality weed was being smoked in copious amounts. Fun car, but a total cluster of a design.
I hope that steering wheel is removable because I’m having a hard time imagining ingress and egress choreography.
Looks like good cheap fun, but the lack of either dyno slips or time slips seems odd for a car like this.
Actually looks way below the cost of the parts, like there is some fundamental design mistake that stopped work in its tracks. Hmm.
The carburetor and blower alone are worth around 50% of the asking price.
Something smells fishy to me…
Whole lotta $$$$ into this car, both time and labor.
Lots of “old school” stuff (double pumper carbs?) instead of injection or the newer chipped stuff. Would def be easier to work on.
Which is probably what you’d be doing a lot of.
-Stan (who loves fish and chips… but not on 4 wheels…)