June 2010 Issue - New England Fiero Association

ecame probably the most
expensive car I ever owned. I
eventually purchased a Neon
Sport Coupe and retired the Fiero
parking it in my one car garage
and only driven to be inspected .
In 2000 I noticed an ad for an 87
GT Fiero at a reasonable price. I
always wanted the GT Fastback
model and decided to look at the
car. It was very nice with low
miles, so I decided I would
purchase the car and use it for
auto-crossing. Shortly after that I
was at a restaurant wearing my
Fiero jacket when Denny
Lambret and his wife saw me
and introduced themselves as
fellow Fiero owners and invited
me to check out the MAFOA club
activities listed on line. I did and
saw an ad for the Zinn’s Dutch
Classic. I joined the club and I
took my 87 GT to the show and
got my clocks cleaned. What I
thought was a decent Fiero turned
out to be a last place entry. That
settled it, me being a competitive
person I started to work on
bringing the car up to show
standards. The car was too nice
to auto-cross, so it was an all out
effort to bring it up to show
standards. Paint touch up and
wheel cleaning was started, but
most of my time was spent
cleaning the engine. I have a
hang up when I see a really nice
car and look at the engine and it is
a mess. This must come from my
love of Hot Rods with all of the
chrome engines. All of my hard
work paid off and now my car is
usually a contender in its class.
So why did my 84 be the most
expensive car I ever owned. I
have a hang up about getting rid
of things, especially cars. For
some reason I just can’t part with
them, so when I bought the 87 it
replaced the 84 in the one car
garage and the 84 went to the
yard. It didn’t take long for
Nancy to start complaining about
it being there, so I decided it was
time to build a garage to store the
car. Well the two car garage
turned out to be a three car garage
with the 84 in a corner; Nancy’s
van on one side and the
reacquired MG Midget I raced in
the late 60’s in rebuild progress
on the other side. If I could get
her van out of the garage I could
buy another Fiero!
Do I have regrets spending the
money for the garage to store a
high mileage beat up Fiero, NO, I
hope to do something with the 84
when I get the MG done. Fieros
have provided me with many
hours of entertainment and being
a part of MAFOA has added to
the enjoyment. Nancy and I
normally work the registration for
85 GT at the Beginning
all of the shows and at the next
one stop by and say Hello.
P.S. Fieros do burn, I had the 84
on fire twice, not due to anything
mechanically, but leaves and pine
needles got down between the
back window and deck lid to the
exhaust manifold. I had flames
coming up though the gap between
the deck and rear window
while driving to work.
So keep those Fiero engines
clean!