You Can Now Buy The First Pontiac Fiero IMSA Race Car Ever Built
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Amid its 2009 bankruptcy, cash-strapped General Motors was forced to sell numerous vehicles from its historic car stockpile, including many significant race cars.
Among those notable racing machines sold was this 1986 Pontiac Fiero IMSA, which is the first-ever Fiero IMSA chassis ever built. The car is now being sold by its second owner through auction site Bring-A-Trailer, representing a very rare opportunity to own a car that formerly sat in the GM Heritage Center.
GM contracted race team Huffaker Engineering to build and race the IMSA-spec Pontiac Fiero. The team hired Bob Earl to drive the car, along with Dominic Dobson as a co-driver, and signed on GM Goodwrench as a title sponsor. Earl and the Fiero won at Sears Point and Watkins Glen in 1985 before the car took its final class victory at Mid Ohio in 1986. GM restored it following the 1987 season and stuck it in the Heritage Center until 2009, when it sold it and a handful of other Heritage Center cars through Barrett-Jackson.
The current owner, vintage racer Tommy Thompson, bought the car via the 2009 auction and has owned it ever since, keeping it among his collection of other significant race cars in Arizona. It rides on a custom tube chassis made by Huffaker and is powered by a 3.0-liter four-cylinder engine paired with a five-speed Hewland transmission. The car recently visited Huffaker Engineering in North Carolina for an inspection and is almost ready for vintage racing, although it will need a professional race prep and new tires beforehand, the listing says.
Check out the auction listing for additional information and photos on this rare 1985 Pontiac Fiero IMSA race car.
Source/Photos: Bring-A-Trailer/Tommy92Racer
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Live to dream.. if Pontiac only had access to Chevy’s 275 hp LTG 2.0L DOHC-4v 4-cyl turbo and 9-speed automatic transmission as even Brembo brakes are even in the current GM parts bin.
They still would not have gotten it.
Lordstown built a G5 with a 2.0 turbo and Cobalt SS suspension to show GM how easy it was to do. The car was rejected and ended up running parts at the plant.
Chevy would never let Pontiac thrive as there is only room for one division. Hence why the Fiero died.
I sat in this car at Mid Ohio. I still have the team shirt. Bob and Terry ran so well in these cars.
Pontiac never got the raceing support it should have. This was a winning car and I bet it is fun to drive. I had a2.8 litre v6 fiero back in 86. It was a blast. Glad to see Pontiac was winning races back in the 80’s
do you know how I could contact the owner to correct some of the history?
Thanks,
Bob Earl
A Super Duty 4 cylinder, I presume? Weren’t there some prototype 4 valve heads for those engines? I may be recalling incorrectly.
Cars, like this, are a reason I think Pontiac could have done well moving away from the Trans Am and big V8 power. They should have been given any resources needed to thrive in GM’s downsized era.
Hi Bob! Thanks for reading, really great to have you here. If you sign up for Bring-A-Trailer, you can click ‘Contact Seller’ on the Fiero lot listing page to reach out to them.
You can also email me at [email protected] or just respond to this comment with any corrections you want to be made to the article, I am happy to update it.
Thanks Sam, I just emailed him through the Add…
GM should buy it back now. I always thought it was sad that a company like General Motors had to sell off the prized cars from its illustrious history to keep the lights on. Now that things are better, they should endeavor to restore the collection as the sold-off cars come back to market.
The Fiero was a shining moment in GM history when a few dedicated car guys tricked the GM system. They convinced the notoriously boring and tight-fisted finance group (aka bean counters) to fund a two seat, fuel efficient “commuter car” which sounds nice and boring so it was authorized. With approval, a budget, and money in hand, they got to work and actually built a mid-engined sports car albeit a fuel efficient one. Alas, the bean counters won in the end and just as that dedicated team was addressing the car’s deficiencies caused by the initially tight budget, they shut the whole program down and ended Fiero production; no doubt realizing they’d been duped. The Fiero GT being chased around a race track and winning was a highlight of its tragically short life. Those were Pontiac’s ‘We Built Excitement’ years when they’d vaulted to the #3 sales position in the US market and captured the youth market thanks in part to the Fiero and the aura it brought to the brand.
I do not believe that this car was the first Fiero IMSA car. GM built an in house Fiero race car prior to this. It was based on a knotchback version. John Callies engineered and developed the power train while Terry Satchell designed and coordinated the build of the chassis and suspension at the Pontiac engineering center. Diversified molded the body. It was a full tube frame car, white and yellow in color, and had a feature in Road and Track in about 1985 or 86. It did race in IMSA, but not sure if it was GTU or some other lower class.
Bob should be able to confirm since I believe he drove the white/yellow version as well.
Homer, I only drove the Yellow STP car in 85 and the Black White car (same car) in 86. Clay Young drove the original yellow/White car….