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New York Times : 2 Fiero's for Want of a Ferrari by no2pencil
Started on: 12-29-2014 10:11 PM
Replies: 16 (571 views)
Last post by: onixfiero on 12-31-2014 04:36 PM
no2pencil
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Report this Post12-29-2014 10:11 PM Click Here to See the Profile for no2pencilSend a Private Message to no2pencilEdit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post
Link to article



PATERSON, N.J. — A visit with Onix Taveras and his Pontiac Fieros begins with a basement tour in his neat Cape Cod style home — and a chat about television. Displays of action figures, wall posters and scale models from the various “Star Trek” series give away his favorite show.

The topic quickly changes to his favorite car and its screen roles. Mr. Taveras looks for TV shows and movies that feature the Fiero, a small, plastic-body two-seat sporty car that Pontiac offered in 1984-88. (The name is Italian for “proud.”) He especially likes an episode of the TV sitcom “How I Met Your Mother,” in which the character Marshall Eriksen (played by Jason Segel) mourns his Fiero’s engine failure just as the car is about to crest 200,000 miles.

Mr. Taveras said he identified with the story line, which recounted how the Fiero touched the lives of several friends.

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RELATED COVERAGE

A Fiero from 1984, the model’s inaugural year.Fixes Came Too LateNOV. 26, 2014
“Everywhere I go with my car, people tell me their stories of a Fiero, one that they owned or rode in as a kid,” he said.

It was a TV series from three decades ago, “Miami Vice,” that put Mr. Taveras on the path to owning a Fiero. “I wasn’t really interested in cars until I saw that show,” he said. “Then, I was hooked.”

In the series, which depicted a glamorized version of South Florida’s violent illicit narcotics trade, fashion-forward detectives battled nefarious crime lords from the bucket seats of Ferraris — unlikely undercover police cars. The exotic sports cars liberally featured on the show kept Mr. Taveras, now 46, tuning in — and he still watches episodes on DVD.

“I love Ferraris, but I didn’t think I’d be buying one anytime soon,” he said.

Mr. Taveras grew up in Manhattan and the Bronx, where his first car, a Pontiac Firebird, was stolen. While shopping for a new one, something else caught his eye at the Pontiac dealership.

“I saw the Fiero GT on a brochure and knew that was my car,” he said. “To me, it was like a semiexotic.”

The Fiero shared its midengine layout, with the motor between the rear wheels and the cabin, with exotic cars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis. But it was closer in stature to the Toyota MR2 and Bertone X1/9 — originally known as the Fiat X1/9 — two other relatively affordable midengine runabouts.

The Fiero was in its final year in 1988, and with inventory scarce Mr. Taveras had to settle for an automatic transmission rather than the 5-speed manual he wanted. He paid about $17,000 for a red GT, the top-of-line model with a V6 and a fastback roofline distinct from the standard car’s notchback design. It was his first new car.

When his Fiero was stolen six years later, Mr. Taveras replaced it with a 4-cylinder version, but that car proved unsatisfying. “It was slow, and the transmission was horrendous,” he said.

He then bought a 1988 Fiero Formula, a model that packaged the GT’s V6 engine and performance upgrades in the standard body. The last-year versions are the most desirable Fieros, he explained, because they gained a new suspension that addressed criticisms of the car’s clunky handling and harsh ride.

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“Pontiac designed that suspension for the first year, but G.M. wouldn’t give them the money to build it,” said Mr. Taveras, who is immersed in Fiero history.

In his view, General Motors’ internal politics blocked Pontiac from making the Fiero a more capable sports car. As Mr. Tavares tells it, Chevrolet lobbied to preserve its Corvette as G.M.’s performance-image leader, and those efforts kept Pontiac from giving the Fiero anything more powerful than a Chevy-designed 140-horsepower 2.8-liter V6. The standard engine, a coarse 4-cylinder known as the Iron Duke, made some 45 fewer horses.

Mr. Taveras next showed off his large two-car garage. He called it a main selling point for the house that he and his wife, Noemi Galloza, a nurse, bought five years ago in a quiet suburban pocket of this city. The couple spent spare time over three years converting it into a workshop for the Fiero — or Fieros. Mr. Taveras owns two.

Parked next to his red Fiero Formula, which is undergoing a restoration, is a red 1988 GT nearly identical to the one stolen from him two decades ago. This one, too, has an automatic transmission, but also the bonus of the optional T-top roof with removable panels. He bought the GT eight years ago and restored it, doing all the mechanical work himself.

Such endeavors come easily for Mr. Taveras, a certified Mercedes Master Technician employed by Prestige Mercedes-Benz in Paramus. Becoming an auto technician was a career change after years running a dry-cleaning store.

“That was a nightmare,” he said. “So I went to technical school. That opened the door for me to get into Prestige.”

He’s in his 11th year with the dealership, where he specializes in interior electronics. “I love the technology in Mercedes cars,” he said. “I love gadgets.”

Indeed, Mr. Taveras has equipped his Fiero GT with the latest infotainment features, including satellite radio, an iPod connection and Bluetooth wireless for his smartphone, which also provides navigation. He is especially proud that he installed everything without splicing any of the car’s wires or cutting interior panels.

“I could remove everything and put it back to original easily,” he said.

He added similar equipment to his daily driver, a 14-year-old Oldsmobile Intrigue.

Mr. Taveras puts the electronics to good use. Last year, he drove his GT to Indianapolis for the 30th Anniversary Fiero Reunion, a three-day event that included high-speed driving on the famous racetrack. His devotion to the sporty Pontiac extends to managing a Facebook page on which he posts the work he does on his Fieros as tutorials for other enthusiasts.

Projects have included removing and replacing the engine. It’s an operation that requires a full-car lift — Mr. Taveras’s garage has a small one — because the engine comes out from below. He said that many owners today replace the original power plant with something more potent.

“They designed the Fiero with a big engine compartment,” he said. “Almost anything will fit.”

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A 3.8-liter Buick V6, an engine used in millions of G.M. cars until 2008, is the most popular swap, Mr. Taveras said. Corvette and Cadillac V8s are also used. He has considered installing a turbocharged Mitsubishi 4-cylinder in his Fiero Formula, modified to make about 400 horsepower.

“I want to do something that’s not been done with the Fiero,” he said.

His Fiero GT, however, will remain in factory-stock condition. The cabin, though restored, shows its age in the design, particularly the modular-look instrument panel trimmed with fake screw heads. The driving, Mr. Taveras promises, compensates for any of the car’s crimes of style.

The little V6 growls pleasingly under acceleration, then fades politely into the background when cruising. Its raspy, burbling exhaust note, broadcast through four chrome tailpipes, is an entertaining consolation for any perceived power deficit. Yet the engine delivers a noticeable kick in the 2,800-pound car.

He heads to his favorite local road, Riverview Drive, a lightly trafficked and unexpectedly pastoral route that winds along the Passaic River in the neighboring town of Totowa. Taking sweeping curves and traversing patches of rough pavement reveals admirable composure in the nearly 30-year-old car. The earlier Fieros, whose suspension was derived from the Chevrolet Chevette and Citation economy cars, do not handle as well.

Passing a cemetery, he mentions another attraction of Riverview Drive: Locals say it’s haunted.

“This is ‘Annie’s Road’ — it’s been written up in Weird New Jersey,” Mr. Taveras said, referring to a magazine that chronicles unusual places and incidents in the Garden State.

Mark Sceurman, the publisher of Weird N.J., confirmed in an email that the magazine had featured Annie’s Road in a dozen issues over 20 years. The legend is based on tales of a high school girl supposedly killed on the road on prom night. The stories, naturally, include claims of ghost sightings. “I’ve never seen her,” Mr. Taveras said with a chuckle as he zoomed his Fiero beneath the Interstate 80 overpass.

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Report this Post12-29-2014 10:27 PM Click Here to See the Profile for SageSend a Private Message to SageEdit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post


Great article!

HAGO!
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no2pencil
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Report this Post12-29-2014 10:28 PM Click Here to See the Profile for no2pencilSend a Private Message to no2pencilEdit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post
Yeah, I can't help but wonder if it's anyone here?!
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Report this Post12-30-2014 08:04 AM Click Here to See the Profile for tsharkSend a Private Message to tsharkEdit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post
It had better be. We need members like him.
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Csjag
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Report this Post12-30-2014 08:09 AM Click Here to See the Profile for CsjagSend a Private Message to CsjagEdit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post
Nice article.
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JohnWPB
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Report this Post12-30-2014 05:18 PM Click Here to See the Profile for JohnWPBClick Here to visit JohnWPB's HomePageSend a Private Message to JohnWPBEdit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post
I found the guy in the article, and verified it with Google Street view. You can see the garage in the Times article, matches the one from Google Street View:

Here is the photo of his cars in the garage from the article:

Here is the garage on Google Street View (Note the thermometer above the doors in the center of the garage is the same)


The funny part is the address that I found for him, is close, but is not the correct address. I was able to determine the correct one from Street View.

I am not some crazed stalker, I just looked this information up so I could drop him a note and invite him to the forum. It's not only the Fiero we have in common.... see, I have all of my Fiero Collectibles are on a shelf........ right next to a shelf of all of my Star Trek collectibles! LOL.

I am gonna send him a complete sticker set for his 88 GT restoration free of charge. He is restoring it to be like the one he had stolen from him, and just thought I would send a set as a nice gesture inviting him to the forum.


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High Quality Fiero Reproduction Stickers are Available in THIS THREAD IN THE MALL.

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no2pencil
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Report this Post12-30-2014 05:25 PM Click Here to See the Profile for no2pencilSend a Private Message to no2pencilEdit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post
 
quote
Originally posted by JohnWPB:

I am not some crazed stalker




That's exactly what a crazy stalker would say
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Report this Post12-30-2014 06:01 PM Click Here to See the Profile for JohnWPBClick Here to visit JohnWPB's HomePageSend a Private Message to JohnWPBEdit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post
 
quote
Originally posted by no2pencil:


That's exactly what a crazy stalker would say


LOL! I was wondering who was gonna say that first LOL!

[This message has been edited by JohnWPB (edited 12-30-2014).]

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Report this Post12-30-2014 06:49 PM Click Here to See the Profile for tsharkSend a Private Message to tsharkEdit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post
Yes, a few pieces of info, and everything about you is online.
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Report this Post12-31-2014 01:13 AM Click Here to See the Profile for JohnWPBClick Here to visit JohnWPB's HomePageSend a Private Message to JohnWPBEdit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post
 
quote
Originally posted by tshark:

Yes, a few pieces of info, and everything about you is online.


It doesn't help that the NY times published the photo's with both cars license plates clearly visible and readable

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Report this Post12-31-2014 07:47 AM Click Here to See the Profile for tsharkSend a Private Message to tsharkEdit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post
Yes. On The Fiero Store's calendar, the plates are changed, which is nice.
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Report this Post12-31-2014 10:35 AM Click Here to See the Profile for AngellightningSend a Private Message to AngellightningEdit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post
Very good read.
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Report this Post12-31-2014 11:05 AM Click Here to See the Profile for Shho13Send a Private Message to Shho13Edit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post
Wow this is so cool! Onix is actually a buddy of mine, I'll send him the link to check this out though, he will be pretty ecstatic to see this up here I'm sure

He completely restored his 88 factory t top GT in the shop he built in his garage. I've been over his house and seen the shop in person, his little shop is awesome, and his car is flawless! The notchie is still under construction.

------------------
"Discord"
Red 1988 GT under restoration!

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[This message has been edited by Shho13 (edited 12-31-2014).]

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Report this Post12-31-2014 12:54 PM Click Here to See the Profile for onixfieroSend a Private Message to onixfieroEdit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post
Thanks for all the nice words about the article guys. Havent been on here in a while. I also have a page on face book called the PONTIAC FIERO REPAIR CENTER PAGE. Check it out. Its set up to help fiero owners with repairs that I post as I perform them. Also I think I already have the repro lables and reviewed them on my page.
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Report this Post12-31-2014 02:02 PM Click Here to See the Profile for JohnWPBClick Here to visit JohnWPB's HomePageSend a Private Message to JohnWPBEdit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post
 
quote
Originally posted by onixfiero:
Also I think I already have the repro lables and reviewed them on my page.


Too Late! LOL! When you receive them, feel free to pay it forward, and send them to someone else that may need them.

I just saw the review that you did on the stickers. I had not seen it until now. The Fiero community really is a small world!

[This message has been edited by JohnWPB (edited 12-31-2014).]

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Report this Post12-31-2014 03:57 PM Click Here to See the Profile for onixfieroSend a Private Message to onixfieroEdit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post
Thanks for all the nice words about the article guys. Havent been on here in a while. I also have a page on face book called the PONTIAC FIERO REPAIR CENTER PAGE. Check it out. Its set up to help fiero owners with repairs that I post as I perform them. Also I think I already have the repro lables and reviewed them on my page.
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Report this Post12-31-2014 04:36 PM Click Here to See the Profile for onixfieroSend a Private Message to onixfieroEdit/Delete MessageReply w/QuoteDirect Link to This Post

onixfiero

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Member since Feb 2007
 
quote
Originally posted by JohnWPB:


Too Late! LOL! When you receive them, feel free to pay it forward, and send them to someone else that may need them.

I just saw the review that you did on the stickers. I had not seen it until now. The Fiero community really is a small world!



Thanks john. I will pass it on maybe as a giveaway on my page.
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