why are fiero's so heavy?

i am looking for a project car to play with, and i want a light car. i have always liked fiero's, but they are just so dang heavy. i really want something around 2,000 lbs. if i am not mistaken, fiero's are between 2,600 to 2,800 lbs. the fiero is a fairly small car, with plastic body panels. so where does all this weight come from? thanks to anyone who can shed some light on this subject. :banghead:

reinforcements and all, the doors are heavy on them if you haven't noticed, but being at that the cars one of the more safer cars on the road.

I'm at roughly 2700 lbs with my 3800SC, figure I'm making 285-300 RWHP/310+ Torque. Lightest of the years was the 84 4 cylinder believe it was 2400-2500? and then the 85 SE with the V6 roughly around the 2500 area

I saw a break down of the major chassis components and their weights but I couldn't find it again. If anyone knows where I might have seen this a link would help.

its because the engine block is made of iron. u wont believe it, but the 2.8L fiero v6 weighs around the same as an aluminum block 4.9L caddy v8

my ride:
1989 chevy corsica
sedan, 4 cyl./4 door, grey paint is peeling

if you want a real project car use the fiero. Go here http://www.heldmotorsports.com/index.htm and e-mail the guy and ask him about the man who used to make the engine cradles for the fieros. If you can get in contact with him you could make a fiero with what ever engine/tranny you would want (my fav is the porsche/LS6 mix). And the frame is made out of a magnesium alloy which is really strong and actually a lighter material. And yea that engine is heavy, grab one of those nice aluminum blocks maybe a northstar or a LS1 :evillol: I'm sure you could make the car lighter by replacing stuff with carbonfiber, but think of it this way the ZO6 weighs 31XXlbs.

You're going to be hard pressed to find a regular production car in your weight range that you'd actually want (thing YUGO).

It's heavier than most people think, because it has plastic body panels. What they don't consider is that there is an entire frame support structure under that. Just the doors weigh something like 125-150 lbs. There's a 1.5"x8" corrugated steel beam running down the side of it...

The engine does make up a large portion of the weight, as do the stock wheels, which are quite heavy.

The fiero GT only weighs 300lbs more than a honda del sol, but the fiero is RWD, mid engine, and won't break after a few hard turns. Like pendragon said the engine weighs a butt load, 2.8L cast iron is kinda heavy.

Hey and where your DelSol is gonna need 6000+RPM to make its power, the Fiero's already peaked and you've fed it another gear.

I've never had anything more exciting than the '84 2M4 with a 3800 up it... I miss my Fiero...

yea, to me the bottom line is that the fiero's weak point is the drive train. 88s could handle, just go search for the "California Kid" 88 GT it had a sweet suspension kit making it able to get 1.17g on the skidpad and a 350 in it making it run something like high 10s or low 11s. It was really fast and could handle at the same time. Just freakin sweet. I think they are Americas best tunner car. So much there to work with, except the motor, it's a must to be swaped.

i have completed a fiero project car
87 se with a 350 lt1 from a 72 drag vet
rear springs from a 1 ton truck

twin holly 4 bbl and stage 2 nos

dyno says 750 rwhp
why does weight matter when you cant keep the wheels on the ground?
and yes the izuzu tranny sucks.

get a muncie it is the only one that will hold

Low key was right, it was built really well, infact it had better crash results than the Camero and Firebird. There are a few ways to shave off some weight but if you where to do all of them you can lose about 400 lbs. and spend $2-3000, its heavy but look at the weight of a few other cars too!

Anyone know(or know a website that has) the curb weight of the feiro's from 84's to 88GT's ?
I have been searching since.. well basicly since I this thread was posted and I have YET to consistant numbers.. one website said the 88gt's had a curb w. of 3300lb's!!! :eek7: :screwy:


thanks :]

Well my 87 GT registration says the curb weight is 2712. It has a 5 speed manual transmission a/c, sunroof etc

My 88 GT registration says it curb weight is 2812. This had the t125 auto transmission and no sun roof. This was supposedly the heaviest of the Fieros.

Where you found the Fiero weight of 3300 must have had two 250 pound passengers sitting in the car when it was weighed.

I don't have the weights of the 84 2.5L cars, but I'd expect them to be in the neighborhood of 2500-2600 pounds.

I have two Fiero 2M4's one is an 88 the other is an 86... they weight about 2400 lbs empty.

my friends formula says 3300 on the engine sticker

One can speculate all day, as to the weight. The only sure way to find it is to drive the thing to a scale and WEIGH it!
Who ever said the 2.8 is very heavy, has not tried to lift one. I have an '86 GT, an '86 2M6 SE and have had two 2M4s. The fact is,. the 2.8 is quite light and very compact, both were primary design criteria. A 2.5 weighs about 100 lbs. more, dressed, than the 2.8. One 2.5 head weighs more than two 2.8 iron heads. You may not believe it, but that's okay. It's true. My '86 GT weighs 2,650. My '86 SE (6 cyl) weighs 2,550. My '85 2M4 weighed 2,710. I have no information on the weight of the '84.
This "curb weight" can be different from one car to another in the same line. It isn't unusual. Options, density of materials, etc. all contribute. You can use the published weight as a guideline, but not as fact. Only the scale knows for sure...
There are a few V8 kits out there. The NorthStar has become very popular. Hi-tech and all that. The president of the local Fiero club has one with the 3800SC. He's afraid of it (cool!). The nastiest one I've seen belongs to the Ferncliff Flash (Dave Windingland of Dave's Auto Parts, Ferncliff, VA). It has a Pontiac 455 in it, attached to a TH325 from an '81 Riv. It rides and drives like a stock Fiero, but runs low 11s on 87 octane fuel, and will go all week, with the 3.15:1 gears as final drive. If anybody cares, there's a pic of it on my shop's website (centralvirginiamachine.com). He calls it "Fear Arrow". It sure is purple! No hack job, though. This thing is right!
I'm very curious about the one spoken of above with the 350 Chev in it, that puts 700 horsepower to the ground. Could you elaborate as to what modifications and power adders are used to make this much power from a small block? It must be well over 900 at the flywheel, and that's a BUNCH!

my smog certificate says test weight is 3000#

my ranger's curb weight is supposedly around 2800, but in reality it is 3100. so curb weight means diddly squat

My '88 Formula 5 sp with air weighed 2,780 lbs on a truck scale with about 10 gallons gas.
I you consider that the chassis is not, and never was a "space frame" but more of a bastardized "backbone cum unibody" you'll understand why it isn't a super lightweight.
If Pontiac had ditched some of the plastic body panels and continued the chassis "proper" out to include welded on steel body panels (the outer metal skins being stressed panels--like other unibody cars), they probably could have taken a lot of meat out elsewhere, saving weight.
Other items like suspension components seem to be overbuilt as well, contributing to the weight. I mean CAST IRON for the rear suspension uprights, what's up with that?
The flip side of the dead-weight plastic body panels is-- they seem to be remarkably ding resistant.
BTW, the only reason you'll see a weight listed ON the car or in the owners manual is to tell you what the Gross Vehicle Weight is-- the GVW. That's the max weight the car can carry safely. It has little to do with the curb weight.

Like every other data item on the net, published information is a no more than a guideline. To know how much your car weighs, you need a scale.

The 2.8 weighs about 30 lbs. less than the 2.5. The block is a toy. Actually, the little 60 degree V6 is an excellent power plant for its mass. While you can't extract high power numbers without pumping it to the teeth, you CAN get decent torque and a very fun driver. Stroke it to 3.1, add a cam and some head work, and they run quite nicely. Of course, if competition is your goal, they're limited. The bigger 6s or a V8 are more suited to racing.

At the time of production, Fiero was the only American car EVER built to Swedish (most stringent in the world) safety standards. The little P-body is a tank!