1984 The once-controversial Pontiac Fiero has now become a cult classic, with its 40th birthday to be celebrated at M1 Concourse, close to its birthplace
OPPOSITE The Fiero certainly “built excitement” with Hall & Oates, via Pontiac’s sponsorship of the legendary rock duo’s Big Bam Boom North American tour.
40 YEARS OF… PRIDE? THE BRIEF, IN 1978, WAS FOR A TWOpassenger sports car offering outstanding handling, with a high importance placed on fuel economy, to be built at minimum cost. Pontiac’s products were by this point seen as both staid and predictable. The 1973-on fuel crisis had scythed sales and changed thinking, leaving the marque’s traditional models out of fashion as smaller, lighter, more economical cars from Europe and Asia began to take a hold of the US market. There had been suggestions for a Pontiac two-seater for years, but they’d always been rejected as a potential threat to Corvette sales at General Motors stablemate Chevrolet. So, when Pontiac’s lighter, more economical ‘P-Car’ was finally given the go-ahead, it seemed to signal a new era of thinking at the historic automotive brand. Hulki Aldikacti, a Turkish emigre who had graduated with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Michigan State University,
112
W O R D S D AV I D L I L LY W H I T E P H O T O G R A P H Y G M A R C H I V ES
M1 MOMENTUM
