Don Keefe one of the best historians on Pontiac as a new book out.

It is a very good book on show cars from the very start up to the end of Pontiac. While it does not cover every car it does cover some of the most popular Pontiac Show cars and some lesser seen cars.

Don originally wanted to do two books but it got cut down to one so that is why it is limited to less models. Don uses mostly photo's he has taken and wrote much on a first hand basis as he has driven many of these cars over the years.

As for the Fiero he has two pages. It covers in short the history of the car and how it never got to live up to its potential and the show cars represented many of the ideas the engineers had but were turned down. He stated how they had to use off the shelf parts and the handling just did not have a good feel. [I am sure this was about the bump steer in the 84-87] Note Don is a fan of the Fiero so don't get mad for him being honest here.

There are three photo's. One of the speedster in yellow that is seldom seen. It is one of his photo's. The other is of the silver convertible coupe that was more production like and the 4 seater in the coupe bronze version.

What I found more interesting was the 1988 GTO show car is featured here. On page 157 and 164-165 The GM 80 based GTO show car is presented. This is the car that really killed the Fiero. While this show car was built and if I recall only shown once it represented what the 4th gen Firebird was going to be based on. This car was a FWD/AWD car with a plastic body. It was planned for 1990 and was going to compete with the new FWD Ford Mustang that was changed to the Probe. GM killed this car and that is what gave the Corvette people the ability to kill the Fiero.

While Fiero sales were doing good at 30K for a 2 seat car they needed more production at the plant to keep the plant profitable. The plant could build up to 250K cars a year if I recall. Well Pontiac had planned to add the GM 80 to the production at the plant but when GM pulled the plug it left nothing to go into the plant any sooner than 92-93. This left the door open for Chevy to show how under production the plant was and left the Fiero in more trouble than just the recall issues. It also hurt they over sold the Fiero the first couple years as you can only sell so many two seat cars before you have saturated the segment for a while.

What is Ironic is the 1990 Fiero styling was taken and reused to make the new RWD F body. They reused it and adapted it to the new platform. They also borrowed some of the styling from the GTO here too.

Word is the GTO was still around the tech center in hiding per some GM people I have spoken to but it is hard to say if it is still there yet. Many of these cars vanish and it is because they were quietly scrapped or they on occasion are taken into hiding to reappear at a later time. Even some Motorama cars still have popped up in the last few years from hiding.

If you are a Pontiac fan I would recommend this book. While it is not a lot of Fiero info the rest of it is worth the price. We can hope if sales are good there will be another book as he has so much more info he has not published here. Car Tech has used this book format and it can be limiting to the writer.

Dons new Pontiac magazine will also feature some Fiero things from time to time as he explained that the Pontiac hobby is much more than just Firebird and GTO's. They may be the most popular but there are so many other interesting models out there to cover. The strength of the Pontiac hobby is in all their models not just two.

I see Don about every year at a show and he usually takes photo's of the Fiero's often they ended up in publication. He is a supporter of our car and we should try to help support his publications.

I have always wanted to see a good book on the Fiero done and if someone was to write it he would be my first choice. Not only is he a good writer but he is a good historian and also has all the connections with the older Pontiac people.

The April Edition of Poncho Perfection has a nice article on Thunderstruck GT's Pilot Car barn find.

quote Originally posted by mrfred8: The April Edition of Poncho Perfection has a nice article on Thunderstruck GT's Pilot Car barn find.

I have not received mine yet. Don said he had a Fiero story coming up.

quote Originally posted by mrfred8: The April Edition of Poncho Perfection has a nice article on Thunderstruck GT's Pilot Car barn find.

You got yours?

I haven't even seen the article yet.

its available online, don't you guys have an online subscription?

quote Originally posted by Thunderstruck GT: You didn't know about it? And here I thought you were one of the people helping Don dig up some info.

I did not dig anything up but like I said Don said there was a Fiero story coming and I knew about that.

How do you get this book and Don's magazine?
Ron T

Historian

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signature by F-I-E-R-O (My Indy on right / #1 IMS)

quote Originally posted by paced84: How do you get this book and Don's magazine? Ron T Historian

Just go here Ron. You can get it on line or you can get a hard copy too. He sells it by the month right now but hopes to move to a yearly subscription once they get rolling.

http://ponchoperfection.com/

It is mostly guys from the Pontiac Enthusiast and HPP.

The best part is he is doing his Project X stories again.

So far they have been very good issues and non of the silly stories like the never ending Shoot Outs like HPP did.

[This message has been edited by hyperv6 (edited 04-02-2016).]