I’ve just been made aware of the ubiquity of Pontiac Fiero trikes, and — as a public service announcement — I am sharing this shocking realisation with you, dear readers: More examples of America’s favourite mid-engine, underpowered, ‘80s sports car have been turned into three-wheelers than you can possibly imagine. And while I don’t know exactly why, I do know that you should keep your eyes peeled. The Fiero trikes lurk, and they should be feared.
OK, so to some extent, I do understand why this weirdness is happening: The Fiero is mid-engined, meaning the whole drivetrain and powertrain is at the back of the car, making for a fairly easy trike conversion. Just cut off the nose, move the cooling and braking bits around, fasten a motorcycle fork to the rear half of the Fiero chassis, throw a seat on the centre console, and do a bit of wiring. Seems easy enough, right? But just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should.
This thought came to me after reading the post you see on the left, written by Craig Hanchett on the excellent Facebook page for weird-car lovers, Regular Cars BROWNposting.
“Dear Ohio, What the fuck?” Hanchett writes, understandably. Below his caption is an add for a 1986 “Fierotrike Trike Trike” — an odd title for what is basically an Iron Duke-powered Pontiac Fiero with a Yamaha XS1100 front fork in place of the front wheels.
Per the listing, the bizarre contraption’s automatic transmission shifts well, and the four-cylinder gutless wonder behind the rider’s-seat runs nicely.
Unfortunately, there’s still some work to be done on the wiring, so the Fierotrike remains a project — I imagine one that won’t sell quickly.
Then again, it seems that interest in Fiero trikes spans beyond just this single person in Haskins, Ohio. Google “Fiero trike,” and you’ll uncover an alarming number of search results, including this gold one currently for sale near Nashville:
The thing is just beyond bizarre. The driver appears to sit on top of the centre console, straddling it and looking at a stock Fero gauge cluster that has been shifted over to the centre of the trike. The automatic shifter remains in the on the transmission tunnel, just ahead of the rider’s seat:
The steering setup is really, really bizarre. The handlebars in front of the rider have long rods connected to them. These rods stretch forward, go through two holes in the windshield, and attach to a remote handlebar. Check it out:
The way I understand it, when the rider turns the handle bar in front of the seat, it pushes one of the rods and pulls the other, creating a torque about the headstock, turning the front wheel. The whole thing is extremely “out there.”
My god is the setup crude, which is surprising, given that there appears to have been quite a bit of custom bodywork done to the front half of this trike.
Is this gold three-wheeled Fiero worth the $US4,200 ($6,050) the seller is asking? That’s between you and your car gods. I’ll just say: If your deities say “yes,” I’d suggest you consider switching religions.
But it doesn’t end there. No, no. There are far, far more Fiero trikes out in this world. There’s one in this 2013 YouTube video aptly titled “fiero trike”:
There’s this one from a 2014 YouTube video recorded in New Hampshire:
This early 2011 video shot in California also shows a Fiero trike, and the people behind the camera are equally as excited as the thrilled person who recorded the video above:
This could be the same as one of the Fiero trikes above, or maybe it’s not. Because my god are there an odd number of Fiero trikes out there:
Then there’s this Fiero trike that was for sale on Craigslist in Nevada for $US2,500 ($3,601) earlier this year sporting a Harley Davidson Road King front suspension:
And check this V6 five-speed for sale in Ontario right now. It’s got a Honda Goldwing front fork, and is in apparently “excellent running condition,” though it is clearly an incomplete project.
Back in 2013, Paul Niedermeyer published an entire gallery of Fiero trikes on Curbside Classic, so go ahead and check that out, but just be warned: There is an alarming number of Fiero trike conversions out there — more than you’d expect there to be in the real world. But the real world has gotten weird, especially in recent years, so maybe this just isn’t that weird, relatively speaking.
Fiero trikes are a thing. I just thought you should know that.