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t’s crazy to think that it has been a decade since General Motors shuttered the Pontiac brand amid a painful economic recession and deep restructuring efforts. The familiar red arrowhead logo adorned such musclecar and performance icons as the GTO “Judge” and more recently the fourth-gen WS6 Firebird. But buried in between those two beasts was a divergent little two-seater, mid-engined sports car that was famous for a num-
august 2020 | RPM Magazine
ber of high-tech innovations. Oh yeah—and a reputation for catching fire. The likelihood of engine fires was pretty much limited to the 1984 inaugural model year but sadly, the reputation would plague the car throughout its production run. The most common reason for the failure was due to faulty connecting rods that had a tendency of exiting the engine block, particularly if engine oil was allowed to run low. The newly liberated
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