easiest/cheapest way to get 9.5:1 cr

[Guest]

thats RWD..right...its probably a shitload of fun in the snow!

[WFOG]

lol, that it is. and with the majority of the weight in the middle, once you get it spinning, it tends to keep on spinning. i did some fun stuff with my 4cyl the first winter i had it. i was basically told i'd die if i drove it for my first winter of driving. so i took it to an empty lot to "get a feel for it". turns out after some practice i found it very easy to control. it's kinda like slow speed drifting

[Guest]

it sucks with a FWD car man i hate it pop it in reverse and you can do some shi*. but u gotta look over ur shoulder...but did u find ur pistons?

[WFOG]

haven't found the pistons yet, still making sure the cam is good.
as for FWD, ever hear of tray sliding? basically you just get two of those plastic trays from mcdicks and put them under the rear tires. pull the e-brake and go nuts. it'll work in winter without the trays. did it in a cavalier one time, just pull the ebrake crank the wheel and give'r. spun like a top

[Guest]

Ha Ha that just gave me a great idea thanks..lol...y did pontiac stop making fiero's?

[WFOG]

well the "official" reasons were to do with a mismanagement of production in the plants. basically what happened was that they made the cars in a way that required much fewer employees per car produced to operate. and after a couple years the union realized this and forced them to hire more employees to meet the standard quota of the time. what this did was hugely cut the profit margin on the car. so the bean counters crossed it off.
other rumours that have been spread, some confirmed this last summer by fiero designers at the 20th anniversary show i attended in pontiac michigan. one of these was that the fiero was taking too big of a chunk from corvette sales. it was essentially as good of a performer for half the price. and with the reputation the fiero earned in 84, the last thing GM wanted was it to be classed beside their flagship.
i believe it was mostly a matter of profit. the fiero sold very well every year it was produced, and it did make a good profit. but i think it hurt GM sales, including corvettes. there seemed to be no reason to compete with your own sales, especially when you're making less money on every fiero sold, than every corvette sold. it just came out at the wrong time, GM wanted an econo car so they gave the engineers a 4cyl(and then the v6) to work with. the engineers wanted a full out sports car(and installed a couple v8's at the factory to have fun with). so it's kind of got two personalities, that don't really mesh well. that's why the engine and tranny swaps are so popular with the cars. once you give them the drivetrains the body deserves, they compete with the best on the street even today.

[Guest]

i heard it was because they recalled them because the fuel lines would like break and the car would like blow up or start on-fire is there any truth to that?

[WFOG]

short answer yes. but...
ok, well unfortunatly i dont know all the specifics, but the basic idea is that GM received a batch of bad parts when making the 84 fieros. they would break and leak oil on the manifold which caused a couple engine fires. they recalled them and fixed the problem. by the time 85 rolled around they had a very bad reputation for catching fire, and absolutely no reason for it anymore.
they also had a rep for being death traps, when in reality they are the only car of it's class to receive 5 star ratings without air bags. the reasoning behind this is the space frame design. since the body is plastic it won't absorb much force. so they have to make the frame a lot stronger. it's almost a complete roll cage actually, pretty neat design. only drawback is now you have a car the size of a fiero that weighs 2800lbs. the car has a crumple zone in the back(trunk) and TWO crumple zones up front. the doors are reinforced, and the gas tank is placed between the two seats. a lot of ppl actually cringed at that, but it's the safest place for it. there pretty much no way the gas tank would be punctured without SERIOUS(probably death) to the passengers. i've also heard that the engine becomes a dangerous projectile if rear-ended. well in reality there is a Double fire wall and with all the crumple zones(front and back) it would take a LOT of force for that to happen. i've seen a few pics of fieros that were wrecked pretty badly, one lieing on it's roof, and the passenger area looks almost untouched on all them!
other things that gave them a bad rep was that they used chevette front suspension. this wasn't upgraded until 1988.
too small. well the seating area is larger than corvettes of the same years. the rear trunk has enough room for a couple golf bags(i managed a 4 day trip with me and my dad in just my fiero, and i went camping for 2 days with it and my friend one time). the rear trunk is only about a foot wide, and 3 1/2 feet long, but it's DEEP. it's kinda like the average midsize trunk turned on end. you need soft luggage, but there's a fair bit of room there.
i'm sure there's a couple more. seems every person i meet has heard something different.
on it's defense though:
the fiero was the first and only american made mid-engine sports car
has dent resistant(same as saturn) doors, ahead of it's time
the space frame design, every hole on the frame was drilled on the same machine, so this means any part of any car will fit perfectly without any modification(some addition holes are drill for aero package, so some exceptions)
four wheel disc brakes
in 1988 they developed electric power steering(never installed, they cut production too soon) which varied with speed, at slow speed it was fully activated, but at highway speed it was turned off for a greater feel. also if your car stalls you maintain power steering until the battery dies.
in 1984 more than 90 000 fieros were sold, which i believe is still the record to this day for it's class.
i could list a lot more things for each side. it's just one of those cars that seems to get more interesting the more you learn about it. most ppl seem to have very strong feeling for it as well, whether good or bad.