Behold This Atrocious Ford GT40 Replica Built on an Innocent Pontiac Fiero
And judging by the owner’s other toy, a presumably supercharged PT Cruiser, there’s a market for this “stuff.”
A Pontiac Fiero that was subjected to a botched conversion that resulted in a "Ford GT40" has surfaced for sale in Canada. We must warn you, the images below can be disturbing to some audiences.
This Frankenstein of a vehicle was recently featured on a Craigslist ad, where the Fiero's owner states that he employed a conversion body from a company called Kellison. According to Kellison's website, James Kellison was a drag racer and designer of body conversions for a variety of vehicles, one of which appears to be the Pontiac Fiero.
According to the ad, this is possibly the only Kellison-bodied Fiero with gullwing doors, which open up to an interior that features reasonably accurate replicas of the GT40's seats. However, the car's interior is prime baby boomer bait, with gaudy (fake?) chrome and blinding primary colors everywhere, to invoke nostalgia for the GT40s of nobody's childhood.
In the engine bay, beneath eight fake intake runners and a mock air filter, sits none other than a Cadillac High Technology 4.9-liter V8. This engine was the predecessor of the Northstar and is a common swap into Fieros because it bolts straight up to the stock five-speed transaxle. Its 200 horsepower output may be somewhat modest, but its 275 pound-feet of peak torque isn't. In the end, this recipe is actually capable of making a car as light as the Fiero surprisingly quick.
But the question remains: Why take a respectable (even if somewhat unloved) classic sports car like the Fiero and turn it into an unconvincing and tacky replica of a historic race car? One built by a completely different member of Detroit's Big Three?
Going by the similarly-modified Chrysler PT Cruiser peeking out from behind the trees in one of the ad's photos, with a longitudinally-mounted supercharger poking through the hood (the PT Cruiser had a transverse-mounted engine), it just seems to be this owner's thang.
And if this is your thing too, $35,000 CAD can make it your very own reality. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say.