Quote:
Originally Posted by See5
Stretching pretty far to compare this to the Fiero in any way shape or fashion beside sit being made by GM and being a midengined 2 seater.
As for the wing, the base model is wingless.
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Probably not the right thread here to discuss this, but since a few have decided to try to infer the C8 will be a POS in the light of the Fiero, I thought some truth would be nice. I'm quite familiar with the Fiero development because I was studying manufacturing engineering at the time of its development and I am a car geek on the side... and my brother owned from new, the first year 2M4, which I had a lot of time with behind the wheel.
First off, the Fiero was intended to be a low-priced commuter car, not a mid-engine sports car. To make it low-cost, GM part-binned a lot of the hard parts of the chassis to avoid expensive redevelopment of those sections. The front suspension was taken from the then nearly defunct Chevrolet Chevette. The rear drive was from the engine cradle up, the front drive Chevrolet Citation.
But the Fiero was quite innovative for the time and a significant achievement in the view of automotive history. GM developed an entirely new frame manufacturing technique called at the time a "Space Frame". The Fiero was completely drivable without the body panels attached. The Fiero pioneered use of plastic and plastic fiber reinforced panels (something called SMC - sheet-molded compound) for auto parts, which included new paint technology. GM's idea of the Fiero using the newly developed space-frame technology was the panels merely fastened to the frame, allowing inexpensive and rapid change over to body redesigns. Most of the industry now uses the plastic body panel technology originally conceived and developed for the Fiero.
But again keep in mind the time at which the Fiero was developed and the economic situation in the late 1970's. GM as usual was strapped for cash, coming out of significant engineering challenges during the early 1970's for fuel consumption and emission mandates by the US Government. This lead to reuse of the Citation and Chevette parts (GM engineers at the time wanted to develop new components instead). The Citation and Chevette parts were where the Fiero earned it POS status. Midway into the Fiero production, GM had addressed the front end by redesigning the Chevette-based suspension and the rear engine cradle from the Citation was redesigned.
The long-in-the-tooth GM Iron Duke used in the Citation was known to starve the crank bearings due to a low oil capacity of the engine for the Fiero configuration. The rods would let go, hole the block, and cause an engine fire by oil dumping on the exhaust manifold. GM corrected the sump capacity, which solved the problem (it didn't help that owners ignored checking the engine oil level). Buy the 1986 model year, the Fiero, especially in GT trim with the V6, was a pretty decent car. It's 5-year production run sold 370,000 cars; decent numbers for such a niche car.
GM's spaceframe production technology spawned the Saturn Car company and production of the Pontiac Transport and its Chevy and Oldsmobile cousins, and other offshoots of the 1st-gen U-body platform.
Considering the C8 uses just 1 carry-over part from the C7, it's difficult to compare the C8 to anything close of the significantly part-binned Fiero. Being the C8 is the start of a new platform for GM, much as the Fiero was in the late 1970's I'd argue that CAD and CAM technologies have so far advanced since the 1970's,the modern engineering practices of today create much better and successful chassis designs right out of the box. I think it is fair to say bth the C8 and Fiero are significant milestones for GM, but to infer the C8 will be a POS as the Fiero is perceived to be, is pretty disconnected IMO.