Well, the Black Magic Face Off contest is officially over, and the Fiero has taken the win. And while I’d like to say it was a neck-and-neck battle to the finish, that just wouldn’t be true. While Joe’s Camaro is unquestionably bitchin’, Steven’s Pontiac completely ran away with this battle. Congrats man, enjoy your $1000 dollar prize!

We’re in the final round of voting in the Black Magic Face Off and Steven’s Fiero is killing Joe’s Camaro. Voting ends June 8, so Joe still has a shot, but with almost 300 votes Steven has a huge lead. The lucky winner gets $1000. Woo hoo!

We’ve featured a few Fieros here before on the blog, including Paul’s incredible fully caged 383 stroker. Unlike Paul’s project, Powedoctor’s Fiero was built for the street. Running a 3.4 litre V6 with a TWIN Turbo and intercooler set up, he predicts a horsepower number somewhere in the 500 range. Couple that with the car’s 2500lb curb weight and you’ve got yourself a car capable of some quick quarter-mile times. What I’m really impressed with is the fabrication work, from the fully custom intereior to the totally unique intake and turbo setup. Powerdoctor really went all out, even going so far as to fully integrate an OB2 ECM out of a 98 Grand AM. When you really want to be unique there’s no question: you can’t buy it, you have to build it.

There are certain cars that, on paper, seem like they should be very exciting. The 2008 Saturn Sky Redline is one of those cars. Sexy two-seat configuration, swoopy styling, top down motoring, and best of all 260 turbocharged horses lurking under the hood. But for most of my week with the car I was decidedly underwhelmed. Maybe it was because the car I had came with a five-speed automatic. In the end it took a very special set of circumstances to turn it all around for me. More…

It’s no secret, especially here on CarDomain, that I have an extremely soft spot for the Pontiac Fiero. I have made some detailed comparisons between the Fiero and the normally aspirated Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky twins. I just don’t feel that there’s been twenty years of progress from the last Fiero to the current Solstice and Sky. Some of my observations have been empirical, based solely on the numbers, while other are subjective, due in part I believe to familiarity to the five Fieros I’ve owned over the years.

Initial impressions on the Sky Redline centered around two things, the awkward top mechanism, and the car’s almost total lack of luggage space–especially with the top down–which combine to make the Sky (and the Solstice) basically a second or third car. As other small, inexpensive 2-seaters like the Miata have solved this packaging problem, I’m having a hard time accepting that GM couldn’t have come up with a better solution. And I know that I’m not alone in this observation.

And then there’s the interior. There’s no way to get around it–it’s tight, and I’m only five foot eight, 190 slightly overweight pounds due to too many fast food breakfasts on the road. I simply couldn’t get situated properly, feeling that I was up too high, which caused the windshield header bar to often obstruct my view of overhead traffic signals. This is an almost fatal flaw when it comes to selecting a car.

And my initial impressions driving the car–albeit I was stuck in notorious Southern California traffic–weren’t positive at all. First, the car was delivered with the top down, and, as it simply wasn’t practical to use my Bluetooth hands-free phone adaptor, I attempted to put the top up. It’s a manual top and it’s not easy to operate. And if the handle isn’t folded just right, it’s impossible to latch the top to the header panel. It took a few minutes to figure it all out.

And driving the car, it felt disconnected, heavy, and not at all engaging. Again, my immediate point of reference wasn’t one of its direct competitors but rather my own 1988 base Fiero 4-cylinder coupe, where I feel very much at home. To make sure that I wasn’t alone in this observation, I had a good friend–another car guy who gets to drive a lot of different cars every month–take it out for a spin. Without any prompting from me, his feelings mirrored mine almost point for point.

It took a very special drive to turn it all around for me. I am an automotive photographer and this involves many sunrise photo shoots, which means a lot of early morning wake up calls–in this case 3:30 AM as I had to drive 90 minutes from home to a site just outside of Barstow, California to meet the owner of a car I was shooting for one of the magazines I contribute to.

After a stop at Jack in the Box for a #24 Cibatta Breakfast (large upgrade so I would get a sufficient dose of caffeine) I headed north through Riverside enjoying the fact that there was virtually no one else on I-15. The Sky and me started to come together as the caffeine kicked in as I started the climb up through the Cajon Pass. It was then that I popped in a favorite surf music compilation disc, Surf Fiction, that I picked up at, in all places, a gas station outside of Munich, and fast forwarded to track 28, a Ventures’ medley with an updated re-recording of Hawaii 5-O.

Into the tunes and not really paying attention, I continued my climb and started to take advantage of all 260 horses under the hood. It was then that I felt the Sky was in its element as it pulled strongly in the upper rev ranges as I climbed over the summit and down into Apple Valley through Victorville on my way to my pre-sunrise rendezvous with my subject. As I was running a bit late, I will admit that I was traveling faster than I probably should have, but the sun waits for no photographer.

As I approached Barstow I knew it was going to be tight as I could see some faint rays of light reflecting off of the top of the front fenders. It was then that the seductiveness of the Sky’s shape hit me. I was unfair to compare it to my beloved Fieros; rather it should be compared to ballsy, classic British two-seaters. A big Austin Healey six immediately came to mind, its combination of brutal beauty and brawn was a much better counterpoint than the lithe Fiero.

I met my subject with just a few minutes to spare, and afterwards we had breakfast reviewing the images before heading back to LA to return the Sky. As I had a little bit of time, and to avoid rush hour freeway traffic, I flipped the top into the trunk and took back roads, including parts of Route 66 on the drive into the LA basin. I tried a few more CDs and each helped to enhance the drive as I cranked up the volume and got into a certain rhythm.

By the time I was on the 405 approaching Torrance, my opinion of the car had turned 180 degrees. All its flaws were still there, yet they melted into insignificance as I pulled into my destination. At that point I just wished I’d have more time in the Sky Redline, not wanting to hand over the keys. In the end, that speaks volumes about the car. Ultimately it comes down to the right car, wind in the hair, a great road, and the proper tunes; together it’s an intoxicating combination.

I love to look at numbers as they relate to cars. And I recently read that in 2007 the Pontiac Solstice outsold the Mazda Miata by a score of 16,779 to 15,075 (GM sold an additional 11,263 units for the Saturn Sky) making it the most popular moderately-priced (under $30,000) 2-seat roadster. At the same time I also noted that sales for all three declined in 2007 even though each introduced new versions, the high performance GXP for the Solstice and Redline for the Sky, and a retractable hardtop for the Miata.

While I’m a big fan of the Solstice, I am an even bigger fan of the last two-seater Pontiac produced, the 1984 to 1988 Fiero. Over the years I’ve owned five, including two V6s, and currently own two; a 1984 that was highly modified (yellow fastback body kit and turbocharger) by International Research Motorsports which was on display at the 1984 SEMA Show and recently featured in Pontiac Enthusiast, and plain white a 1988 base coupe.

Both Fieros are low mileage examples (the ’84 has 33,000 miles, the ’88 66,000 miles) and the ’88 is nominally my daily driver. I picked it up on eBay for $1,800 last fall when gas prices started to rise here in Southern California as it gets about 35 MPG on the freeway and 25 MPG around town. A clean car with 60,000 miles and functional A/C for less than two grand was simply too good to pass up.

Both are 4-cylinder cars powered by Pontiac’s 151 cubic inch Iron Duke and the ’88, with the upgraded suspension, handles great and still is rattle-free thanks to its advanced space frame construction. Until recently, the Fiero boasted some of the highest assembly tolerances of any vehicle in GM history.

When looking deeper at the numbers I noted something interesting. In its first year the Fiero sold 136,840 units, all 4-cylinder models and the following year, when the V6 was added, sales slipped to 76,371 (sales rose slightly in 1986 when the flying buttress GT was added). These are staggering numbers when compared to the current sales volumes of the Solstice, Sky and Miata combined.

But the price and performance numbers tell another interesting story, just how close the final 135-horsepower V6 Fieros built in 1988 are to the current 177-horsepower 4-cylinder Solstice.

Yes, I know that the Solstice has far more standard safety gear (the ’88 Fiero lacks even a driver-side air bag) but the last Fiero and the current Solstice are more similar than they are different, including vibrant on-line communities for both. Best of all, you can pick up a mint, loaded well-maintained ’88 V6 Fiero GT fastback typically for less than $6,000. Don’t believe me, do a completed items search on eBay.

I went through this exercise not to denigrate the Solstice but to illustrate how maligned the Fiero has been over the years and to put it in perspective; even today it compares favorably to its modern-day counterparts. And best of all, its body will never rust.

On June 24 to 27, 2008 Fiero enthusiasts from around the world will mark the 25th anniversary of its introduction with a celebration at the Marriott Centerpoint in where else, Pontiac, Michigan. I for one plan to be there…my only decision will be which Fiero to drive 2,300 miles to the event, the yellow ’84 or the white ‘88.

Paul’s page caught my eye in Recently Updated because he had it listed as a 2003 Fiero. 2003? Well, it turns out his unique Fiero is one of the most incredible projects I’ve seen on CarDomain. This feather-light 645hp monster is built from a one-off Pontiac racing prototype shell that somehow managed to escape destruction. Paul scored the tube chassis and body on eBay for 40 bucks. Neither he nor the seller realized what they were dealing with: a prototype built for wind-tunnel testing of the Huffaker IMSA Fiero, of which only 15 were ever built. Starting with these pieces, Paul has built this little monster from the ground up, fitting it with a Porsche drivetrain and a 412 cubic-inch engine built by salt flats racer Paul VanDerley. The Fiero now runs 10′s in the quarter-mile and go from 0-60 in just over 5 seconds. Check out Paul’s encyclopedic ride page documenting this one-of-a-kind build!

This Fiero to Lambo conversion on eBay is featured in Jalopnik’s project car hell today. It actually looks like a half-decent start, with a bunch of genuine Lambo bits and pieces thrown in. Might make a cool Lambo rat rod. And if you do the Chevy 350 conversion (parts are included to adapt a 350 to the Getrag 5 speed) you could end up with something fairly quick, reliable and less fire prone.