Hooniverse Fastback Friday – Pontiac Fiero Formula

I’ve been hunting this Fiero down for some months now. I first saw it way back in autumn when I moved into town, but every time it’s been stationary and shootable it’s been so dark outside I can’t have done much. Now that I finally got it in my sights, it was grimy, salty, slushy and snowy. I proceeded not to care and snapped away.

Running the plate data, it’s described as being a 1989 Fiero. Since there are no 1989 Fieros as production ground down in late 1988, the car’s probably one of the 5,643 Formulas built in 1988 and the year designation is just down to the long travel to Europe. The plates on the car are not 1989 ones, so I do not know when it has been first registered in Finland.

Black on black steelies, it looks very very hoonable.

The Fiero Formula consisted of combining the 2.8 GT mechanicals and better suspension with the simpler-designed, more upright SE body. I like the looks of both, as the svelte GT somehow looks like a mid-’90s Toyota MR2 and the SE/Formula manages to look more like a natural development of the Fiat X1/9.

Especially amongst the bright and light-coloured Finnish shopping runaround hatchbacks, the Fiero looks like a prop from Heavy Metal. I imagine that inside it, cocooned by the tight tan interior, you’re bound to crank ’80s hard rock at full blast and proceed to head everywhere as sideways as the slush gets you. When I ran the X1/9 Turbo post, there were remarks the car probably got good traction as the engine weighed down on the drive wheels; hope the 2.8 V6 lump does the same.

I wonder how the wavy plastic body withstands the -30°C temperatures we got here earlier. Luckily enough, it’s now around zero celsius here and cars everywhere breathe a sigh of relief at the coming spring. I’m just figuring it out in my mind’s eye how a plastic Fiero shatters in the freezing cold when someone slams the door or carelessly reverses into it.

 

Writing this post, I have the old “Ride Pontiac Ride” ad campaign theme tune in my head. I love those ads, they have all the “sports car as a hero car” sort of neon lights get go about them.

[youtube width=”720″ height=”423″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC1JA9a1PEY[/youtube]

 

[Images: Copyright 2012 Hooniverse/Antti Kautonen]

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