Few years back Dave Mclellan former lead of the Corvette program wrote a book on his time leading the Covette. The book Inside the Corvette is a good read. What was interesting was that it was pointed out the GM tech center had done a proposal for the Corvette to down size and use an X body platform with a 2.8 Turbo V6 mid engine.
Chevy and the Corvette team rejected this and moved forward with the C4.
According to Dave Hulki soon after Chevy rejected the mid engine idea Hulki who was looking to lower the cowl of the Fiero was offered their proposal from he tech center. This was the answer to a lower cowl and a sporty car.
Now I just got the book Corvette 70 years the one and only.
Page 126 outlines the same story of the mid engine 2.8 Corvette being rejected based on a X or J body. Then on page 134 is a photo of a clay of the mid engine 2.8 V6 Corvette. It is a bit of C4 mixed with Ferrari and Fiero. It has a longer wheel base.
GM has a history of ideas that get bounced around and often used by another division. The 63 Riviera was a Cadillac Lasalle originally till Buick picked up the unused design.
What was interesting is Chevy did play with a Citation with two V6 engines much like the Fiero in the rear. This was to test an option if the V8 was killed. Well it survived as did the Citation mule.
There is still much to learn on the Fiero history outside the small Fiero segment.
Few years back Dave Mclellan former lead of the Corvette program wrote a book on his time leading the Covette. The book Inside the Corvette is a good read. What was interesting was that it was pointed out the GM tech center had done a proposal for the Corvette to down size and use an X body platform with a 2.8 Turbo V6 mid engine.
What was interesting is Chevy did play with a Citation with two V6 engines much like the Fiero in the rear. This was to test an option if the V8 was killed. Well it survived as did the Citation mule.
I think they figured out it was impractical.
[This message has been edited by fierosound (edited 06-28-2023).]
Heh... I always get a kick out of it when people post these videos or talk about it. Robert is a cool guy, and used to live right down the street from me back in the day. I got to ride in this thing, along with his Monster Truck citation. That's his baby... but he's also got another Citation X/11 that he's built which is a push-me/pull-me of his own creation. Two LS3 motors instead of the V6s. Of course, he's leaving the actual Push-Me/Pull-Me completely stock, but he's building a whole other one with two V8s. I'm pretty sure it's fully running / functional at this point.
Not the same car. These were from 73-74 and were originally for the rotary engine. I posted these photos years ago. They were in Motor Trend several years apart one rotary and one a 454 in this one.
Not the same car. These were from 73-74 and were originally for the rotary engine. I posted these photos years ago. They were in Motor Trend several years apart one rotary and one a 454 in this one.
I saw the 4 rotor Wankel version of the Aerovette xp-882 at expo 74 in Spokane .From what they said at the time the newer mule had a 400 v8. Still a space frame mid engine sports car.
[This message has been edited by sleek fiero (edited 06-29-2023).]
You got it backwards. The roots of the new midengined Vette come from the Fiero. That's the story around here anyway.
I am not a huge muscle car fan, but the '63 Riviera is BADASS
[
Stop next the new Corvette will have a Fiero based suspension. Lol!
The 65 Riv was the perfect one. The lights were hidden and it has a 425 duel quad GS option. We had a customer who had a 13k mile version. He died and his son crashed the car and parked it to rot. Won’t sell it.
Oh those 80's designs with giant wheel well gaps! What were they thinking? Did they envision these as extra storage areas? Were they worried about global flooding? Maybe they thought that people with Big Hair would like to have big wheel gaps too ...
Here is the Tech center concept of a 2.8 v6 Corvette rejected by Chevy but adopted by Hulki. 
What were they thinking? Did they envision these as extra storage areas? Were they worried about global flooding? Maybe they thought that people with Big Hair would like to have big wheel gaps too ... 
