While rainy weather deterred many from showing up last year, 308 entrants came out with their prized rides and project cars to the annual Hub City Car Show as the sun shined down in downtown Centralia on Saturday, Aug. 23.
The show was organized by the Centralia Downtown Festivals Association in partnership with the Lewis County Quarter Milers car club. It featured live music, custom made trophies and local vendors.
Car show proceeds help fund Centralia College scholarships and maintenance of Central Park on North Tower Avenue.
And although The Chronicle didn’t get to spend as much time as usual talking with various car owners, one car still did stand out among the rest — Centralia resident Alex Kovacs’ 1985 Pontiac Fiero in nearly new condition still.
On the official entry information sheet for the show for special features, Kovacs simply said, “it runs.”
And running is actually a big deal for Pontiac Fieros, especially running without catching fire.
Produced for only four short model years from 1984 to 1988, the Pontiac Fiero was a rear-engine, two-seat, lightweight sports car that was intended to be economical at the pump while still being able stand out on the track.
In the early 1980s, many car manufacturers were focusing on fuel efficiency following the oil crisis that started in 1979.
Initially the two-door sports coupe was warmly welcomed by consumers and critics alike, with Car and Driver magazine placing it on its “Ten Best List” for 1984.
However, despite the car’s lightweight and fuel-saving design, safety and design flaws began to stand out and be noticed by consumers.
The safety issue was a somewhat major one too, as Fieros were catching fire. It was a problem engineers knew existed from the get go as well, as in 1983 during testing of the original design, two of the test cars caught fire during test drives.
By 1987, it was estimated at least 20 1984 Fieros were catching fire every month, burning at an overall rate of one for every 508 cars sold.
The problem got so bad the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened up an official investigation.
Originally, investigators thought leaking antifreeze was causing the cars to burst into flames, but eventually a design flaw in the pistons’ connecting rods inside the engine itself was discovered. The defective rod design, coupled with other mitigating factors including low oil levels in the engine, was the ultimate cause.
In 1988, General Motors’ Pontiac division issued a press release that stated, “GM tests have shown that running these 1984 cars with low engine oil level can cause connecting rod failure which may lead to an engine compartment fire. Pontiac is aware of 260 fires attributable to the condition, along with ten reported minor injuries.”
Despite finding and solving the fire problem, sales were already declining annually due to their reputation going up in flames, both literally and figuratively, leading to Pontiac discontinuing production of Fieros by 1989.
