In case you haven’t noticed a growing trend in the kinds of custom builds that our publications have been covering as of late, it seems as though V8 compact-hybrids have become all the rage among a rather large pool of American performance buffs.
Maybe it’s because LS and other small-block motor swaps, with all of the harnesses and mounting brackets available from the aftermarket, are relatively cheap and easy to build. Or aside from cost and availability of parts, it could be the perfect power-to-weight transfer of some mid-motored imports that most enthusiasts are after.
Whatever the reason, the Grand Rod Run of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee was shaken this last September by a V8 compact-hybrid of the sort that you just very rarely see. What had to be Pontiac’s greatest effort at building an “import” in the ’80s, the mid-motored Fiero was originally powered by a 4-banger, but simultaneously offered a platform construction that was fairly durable for the time.
For this reason our featured Grand Rod find, an Oldsmobile-powered ’84 Fiero, is able to make use out of a blown 455 mill using such mods as a roll cage and added subframe connectors. A street legal, Olds-fitted fighter, our featured Pontiac has broken into the 11s in the quarter with only a fraction of throttle, and though never dyno-tuned, the owner of this V8 Fiero truly believes that the compact has the potential to be a 10-second thing of fear.
Tennessee’s own lover of everything rod and custom, Scottie D never fails to bring us some of the Smoky Mountains’ best. With our featured Fiero, however, it’s hard even for Scottie–even for us actually–to put a name to whatever kind of build this is!