Performance Comparison


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This is not technically an article, but rather a chart of how well the Fiero in its V-6 form compares with other modern sports cars. It is my theory that the years 1985 to 1995 may be viewed as another performance car era, much like the mid-60's to the early 70's. After all, by 1985 the Mustang finally got some bite, the Camaro and Firebird were on their way up, fuel injection finally became the system of choice, the Corvette sailed into the 150 mph mark, Ferrari dawned the more proper 328, the Fiero got a V-6, the MR2 joined the cheap mid-engine car ranks, the 300ZX was becoming a sports car, the RX-7 was on its second year with the 13B motor (also featuring fuel injection) and was ready for its new body and fully independant suspension, and many new sports cars were on the horizon. By 1990, the sports car frenzy was in the early stages of the boom with Nissan introducing a more acceptable and far more potent 300ZX, Ferrari gave us the 348, the MR2 was ready for a redesign, The Dodge Stealth and twin Mitsubishi 3000 GT were ready to introduce us to overweight turbo luxury coupes that featured all-wheel-drive, Mazda again would shortly revamp their aging RX-7, the pudgy little Miata helped define "cute" in sporting cars, the NSX helped to civilize the term exotic and showed us just how practical a high end sports car could be, the Corvette was getting set for a large power jump and refreshed appearance, the Viper was appearing in car shows and magazines, Toyota introduced the arguably ugly, but high performing revised Supra, Porsche introduced new iterations of its idea of a sports car, and just around the corner the Pony Car Wars were ready for round 2. 1995 brought an abrupt hault to much of the performance boom with cancellations (or at least reassignments) of cars like the RX-7, MR2, Supra, 300ZX, and more recently, the Camaro/Firebird and possibly mid-engine Ferraris. This period of time should be regarded as one of the golden ages in automotive history. No other period of time offered so many performance car choices from such a wide variety of sources. The cars that were created during that era are still modern and exciting by today's standards and support for them will probably only grow. Below is a list of cars from that timeframe that compare with the Fiero from a raw performance standpoint. This comparison does not take into account specific traits, behavior, or feel. This is simply a comparison of basic performance numbers. Each example is for a specific model year, but often represent an entire generation since the vehicle had not been changed each surrounding year. Tolerances are listed in each category. Performance test data has been taken from Road & Track and Car & Driver articles. Let me know if there are any cars you would like me to add or that I may have missed. This is by no means a complete list.

1/4-mile +/- .4 of a second

Fiero (15.7)  
'97 Ford Mustang GT         (15.3)  
'94 Ford Mustang Cobra         (15.3)  
'94 Lexus LS400             (15.6)  
'94 Honda Prelude V-TEC         (15.4)  
'96 Honda Del Sol V-TEC         (15.6)
'93 BMW 750 iL             (15.9)  
'94 Acura Integra GS-R         (15.8)  
'88 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am     (15.4)
'96 BMW Z3                 (16.1)  
'91 Toyota MR2 Turbo         (15.4)  
'88 Toyota MR2 Supercharged     (15.4)

Slalom +/- .5 mph

Fiero     (63.9 mph)     (note all vehicles listed are slower)  
'92 Dodge Viper               (62.7 mph)  
'93 Ferrari 348             (62.8 mph)  
'93 Porsche 968              (63.3 mph)  
'89 Porsche Carerra 4           (63.3 mph)  
'95 BMW M3                   (62.8 mph)  
'97 BMW Z3 2.8               (61.4 mph)  
'94 Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo     (63.0 mph)  
'94 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX      (63.6 mph)
'94 Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR-4     (63.7 mph)
'93 Acura NSX              (62.3 mph)  
'94 Chevrolet Corvette          (62.6 mph)

Skidpad +/- .3g

Fiero     (.84g stock on original tires, .86g on more modern rubber)
'94 Ford Mustang GT             (.86g)  
'95 Lamborghini Diablo VT             (.87g)  
'93 Lotus Esprit Turbo             (.86g)  
'94 Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR-4         (.86g)  
'94 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX         (.86g)  
'93 Acura NSX                 (.87g)  
'95 BMW M3                     (.87g)  
'97 BMW Z3 2.8                 (.87g)  
'96 BMW 740i                 (.82g)  
'95 Porsche Carerra 4             (.85g)  
'97 Mercedes SLK230 Kompressor     (.83g)  
'95 Pontiac Firebird Formula         (.85g)  
'88 Toyota MR2 Supercharged         (.80g)

60-0 Stopping Distance +/- ~10 feet

Fiero                     (145-150 feet)
'93 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am    (133 ft)
'92 Dodge Viper             (156 ft)  
'97 Dodge Viper GTS         (158 ft)
'93 Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1     (142 ft)    (yes that does say ZR-1)  
'94 BMW 540i             (139 ft)  
'96 BMW 740i             (144 ft)
'94 Acura Integra GS-R         (144 ft)  
'94 Ford Mustang GT         (135 ft)  
'94 Porsche 911 Carerra         (135 ft)
'92 Porsche 968             (138 ft)
'92 Vector W8 Twin Turbo         (145 ft)  
'97 Vector M12             (144 ft)
'98 Lotus Elise             (145 ft)

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