yea that last thing he said, looks of a Ferrari eas of maintenance of a Fiero. i would love to get my hands on a lamborghini countach, but i would put in a straight 6, 3.0Liter BMW or a v8 3.5Liter BMW engine in it, or the V6 i had in my Alfa Romeo 159, 3.2 Liter italian reving bull of a engine. so i can drive it and maintenance it properly, i would also add Brembo breaks. Yea modernize it a bit. but i know all the European purists around me would kill me. i kind can do the same with a cool old American car also.
My neighbor had a Fiero that he bought and was a,ways waffling between making it a fake Ferrari or a fake Lamborghini. Finally he made it a fake Ferrari that sort of looked like a 355 with a Testarossa. He spent over $18,000 and 6 years getting that car made and painted plus interior. He drove it once and sold it for $41,000! The guy that bought it knew it was fake but he had a moved to a neighborhood in South Carolina and wanted to park it inside his shop that sold windows. He wanted to show the windows were so tough, he woukd leave his Ferrari there for everyone to see, but just in case someone got through, he didn't want to be out a real Ferrari. Plus he said it would be a great conversation starter since he was new to the area.
I always liked the Mera, they were well done, sat right, and can fool you at 20 paces. And with the V6, they probably weren't much slower than the real thing.
I can't be the only person who would rather have one of those than a real Ferrari? You can drive it without fear of damage, and you can afford to maintain and repair it when necessary.
But you can drive a Fiero without fear of damage, and you can afford to maintain and repair it when necessary...so what's the point of the re-body, since it also doesn't have the proportions of the real deal, making it look a bit ungainly...and it certainly drives like a Fiero, not a Ferrari. May as well just slap Ferrari badges onto the Fiero, since car guys will be able to tell it's a fake either way, and those who fall for this being real will likely fall for the rebadged Fiero being from Modena also.
@aussiebloke609 for people who didn't have daddy hand the Business down to them I agree on why someone would want the kit version. If yr only making 30k a year n want something that strictly looks cool a kit car would b perfect. Like the first comment said. Cheaper to maintain and you can do it yourself
@@aussiebloke609 I have a real 308GTS that I bought 42 years ago. Silver, like his. I worked on it myself all the time. A standard Borg and Beck clutch disk cost $235 from the Ferrari dealer. It looked exactly like a $16 Pontiac disk but the drive splines were different. The Ferrari dealer wanted $2500 to replace the clutch. I built my own tools to remove the castle nuts on the intermediate transfer gears. In the 1980's when Magnum PI was popular, people would ask me if mine was a kit car. After getting fed up having to explain it all the time, I would say ''Yes. It's really a 1970 Volkswagen Beetle under a fake body.'' So many people believed it. This was an awesome car to cruise around the San Francisco area wine country back in the day. I still have the car.
So...to 'get back' at Ferrari for treating you like you're unworthy, you spend $18,500 for a FAKE Ferrari.....as if you WISH you could afford a real one?
@@tjmmcd1 Of course he WISHES he could afford one. Who doesn't? That doesn't mean he'd BUY one even if he could afford it. I know I wouldn't. I hate ferrari's attitude. They have pretty cars, but they're a-holes and I wouldn't want to give them any money. If I could have a fake ferrari and flip ferrari the bird because of it, I would.
@@ColinFox If you're a Ferrari owner, I own a 458, you love Ferrari's FU attitude. It keeps the value of are cars up and you feel like you belong to an exclusive club.
There was this and a 250 GTO replica built on a 240/260/280z that was so close it was almost perfect (the Datsun hardpoints and dimensions were nearly identical to the Ferrari). Ferrari got into shutting replicas down back in the 80s because of these two and others - Daytona on a Corvette chassis (Miami Vice) comes to mind.
The 250 GTO was really cool. Imagine doing that with a Scarab conversion. The kit car that always fascinated me was the 427 Cobras. What's cool is Shelby sells updated versions.
@@SPR_NAPALM shelby hasn't produced the cobra 427 since the originals back in the 60s. Yes there are newer modern kits but they're not produced by Shelby. They're produced by a whole different company that Shelby licensed the design out to.
@@Valverde713 Some of the Cobra kits are just as good as the real thing -- it mainly depends on the parts you choose to build them with. There's an absolutely AMAZING Cobra made by a company called Kirkam which has their aluminum bodies made in Poland by workers that used to make MIG jet fighters. I guess you wouldn't even call this a 'kit' because it's really a replica: th-cam.com/video/-MwXyXTmqFE/w-d-xo.html
@@plane_guy6051 oh I know I was simply saying that Shelby inc no longer produces them but yes you're totally correct. There's a company here in the use that makes kits for them that use prefabbed aluminum bodys as well called factor five racing. They've got different variations that are everything from just a nice daily drive able replica all the up to a purpose built track car
I had a really great 328 / Fiero replica, but one that was stretched to proper specs, had the door handles and fuel filler moved to proper Ferrari positions, and even had a few small real Ferrari bits on it. It amazes me how Pontiac was able to sell this copyright-infringement as long as they did.
It's called a Mera only 155 originals who knows how many molds were made of the original 155. The wheels where made at the same factory Ferrari had their wheels made at just smaller and different bolt pattern but look the same. the side mirrors also came from same factory they got side mirrors made. Corporate concepts was really mimicking hard😂. I own a copy on an 85 fiero frame original Mera tail lights badges wheels and side mirrors though
I had a 360 Spider for awhile and while it was a childhood dream to own one and I loved the car, I didn't love the douchbaggery involved in getting it serviced. I bought it at Cauley Ferrari in Detroit who were wonderful to deal with, but my local Ferrari dealer in Houston was roundly terrible. I took it to an independent mechanic who was pretty well regarded in the local Ferrari community to have the fluids serviced and he turned out to not be much better. I bought most of my parts from Eurospares in the UK and found the car to be pretty robustly constructed and easy to work on and found that as long as I wasn't dependent on the Ferrari ecosystem for repairs, it was a very happy ownership experience. The minute I needed to pay for any labor, I had to deal with some of the most condescending people on the planet. I wound up selling the car to fund a business venture and would like to own another one in the future, but I will buy one that I don't feel the need to take it to a specialist just so I have the documentation to uphold the provenance of the car.
very interesting and NOT surprising. Above i wrote how in '82 i was 12 and brought to a Ferarri Dealership by a friend of my family, who had a Porsche 930. The dealer guy (one salesman only) was so clearly condescending to my japanese american friend (one of the most successful ppl on the west coast at the time!!) that it imprinted in my mind about power, money and racism. I'm white btw. Italian american bastard salesman! Ferrari is trash though obviously i'd love a 308, and i'd love to drive a 358
It's very informative except for the clickbait title. GM had nothing to do with the production or sale of the MERA. Ferrari didn't sue GM. They forced Corporate Concepts to stop making them.
I remembered the back of Popular Mechanics in the 1980s being littered with things like kit car shells to transform VW Beetles and Pontiac Fierros into Ferraris. There were also LOADS of other things, like build your own airplane or helicopter. (Which you can still buy and build. Check your regulations as to what you need to do while you build them.) I guess this was one of the benefits of being a nerd back then.
The J.C. Witney Catalog had absolutely everything.. Back before the internet, cool catalogs were the Best of Nerd Land.. Stoner Island.. we would look at catalogs and build stuff in our heads.. all the manufacturers had detailed catalogs.. I think I still have the Ford SVE one.. all the factory Hi performance parts and engines..
@@jasonnelson6624 my Dad said it this way.. If I bought you a Corvette for your 16th birthday.. what would you look forward to? Reward yourself.. go get a job 😂😂😂😂 Instant gratification is a real problem..
@@artmosley3337 I had a similar thought or experience. I didnt have cable TV so I was limited to 3 or 4 channels you dont appreciate those images in print or video until your stuck with the golden girls or Roseanne. Shout out Betty White 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@jasonnelson6624 back in the late 1970’s, we would watch tv with no sound, have the stereo cranked up to 200dlb. And read magazines.. my friend had everything.. his dad was a doctor so they were a Write Off😂😂😂😂 in 7th grade we knew what that was 😂😂😂.. Mad, Cracked, Sick, Car and Driver, Motor week, Cycle.. including the news, women’s magazines.. and Popular Mechanics and Popular Science… We camped out in Magazines Land for hours a day
There are a lot of higher mileage Ferrari 308s driven often and are much less than $100,000. People are scared of these cars but they are robust and very fun to own and drive. I've seen 308 kits for sale that were not much less money than I paid for a real one.
The Detomaso Pantera was my choice between a Ferrari 308 or the Detomaso. The owner of Ferrari Service Center Newport Beach Calif said i made the right decision back in 1998.
yes! I was 12 when a friend of my family drove me in his Porsche 930 and we stopped at the Ferrari dealer who treated us so condescendingly that i can still remember it now in my early fifties! He did that bcuz my friend was asian american. The salesman was a racist italian-american in a supposedly liberal city on the west coast!
I have a '78 Ferrari 308GTB in Rubino Russo (metallic candy apple red) and confirm that they are slow by todays standards. Thy sound nice stock, but with mine the original owner modified the exhaust so it's very loud. When starting it up it sets off car alarms in a parking lot, but then there's not enough power to smoke the back tires. Haha. So you're not missing out on much in the 308. They used to get looks and impress but these days only older car guys know what they are on sight.
Interesting, I never heard about the re-bodied Fieros. I have a Ferrari story, back in 1979 I was back in Italy visiting relatives. Being a car enthusiast having built a 32 Ford 3 window coupe chopped and channeled, a V8 Vega, and at the time had a 64 Corvette Roadster, I thought I take a drive to Maranello to tour the factory. Well as I pulled through the gates in my rented Fiat with Palermo license plates, a whole nother story in itself. I was stopped by two guards barring arms. A well groomed man in a very nice suit came out, I explained how I was visiting from California and came for a tour, I just assumed they had tours. He informed me they didn't have tours, but I guess I made an impression and he invited me into the main lobby. He gave me some very nice books and brochures, witch I still have today, let me take pictures of the cars, and he took my picture by Niki Lauda's formula 1 car. At that time I was 23 years old and a journeyman machinist for a DOE weapons laboratory, I asked him if I could apply for a job. He just laughed at me and said, your father don't work here, you don't work here. In all a great experience, and I can always say, how many people do you know that went to the Ferrari factory and applied for a job.
We had the 3rd one that was produced at CandC on sunday and I was amazed how much it looked like a 308 and this one was very nice. I was proud to say I knew what it was because I had seen this video a couple of weeks ago.
I knew a guy who had a Fiero Ferrari 308 kit car. It was rough because he drove it everywhere. He also had a Fiero with a tuned V6 but I think I saw him driving his Fierri more.
I have wanted a “kit” car ever since I was a kid back in the 70s I ran into a lotus 7 at an autocross meet in the parking lot of the local mall It had a twin cam engine and the handling and power to weight ratio on the parking lot racecourse really benefited it. If it was a more open road race course a more powerful streamlined card could easily run it down and overtake it
@howardwmoore now that you mentioned Lotus, I think a Stratos kit car would be super cool. Even if it was a stock fiero underneath, it's just just a nice looking car
My favorite Ferrari "tributes" are the Ferrari Daytona California (Ferris Bueller), black Ferrari Daytona Corvette (Miami Vice), and the Ferrari 250 GTO Nissan 280z.
12 years ago, a friend purchased a used Ferrari Testarossa, intending to be his daily driver. He experienced a rock kicked up by the truck in front of him. Which cracked his windshield. Was quoted 6 months to wait for a custom windshield fabrication and $5k price - he sold the car soon after at a loss.
I owned an original '88 Mera for a few years and really enjoyed it. It looked great and was extremely reliable. I also owned a real 308 and had nothing but trouble with it. 0--6-0 times were very close between the 2 cars The quality of the panels and build were superior to almost all other kit car manufacturers'. Part of the Ferrari lawsuit demanded that Corprate Concepts not only stop production but also had to destroy the molds for the body panels.
I had a gold Fiero automatic back in the 90's. I loved it. The Fiero is the basis for so many kit cars. I've seen one of these Mera's in person. I remember reading about them in all the car magazines. Thanks.
Ha...great story and great vid! I bought a new 1987 Fiero GT, silver, no rear spoiler, with the rear buttresses (not the notchback version). The vehicle had no badging on it aside from the small fiero emblem on the hood and the PONTIAC name in the rear light panel that only showed when the lights were turned on. At the time, I was approached by so many people that, genuinely, thought is it was a ferrari ! For the most part, they were not 'car people', and the disgusted facial reactions on some, after they were told that it was a Pontiac, was HILARIOUS. The ladies at the discotheque all loved being in that car...fun times!
That clip of them taking apart the gorgeous facelift Fiero to make it into a faux-rarri is one of the saddest things. Why not convert the crappy looking one. Hilarious though, going by the Ferrari underpinnings I see on real 308s the Fiero chassis was probably an upgrade 😂
@@lyonsson6480 I preferred The Daytona replica. I never understood why they went with the Testarossa and not the Countach. The Lamborghini was much more popular and looked better.
We had a Ferrari tour back in 84 , Manleo my dads friend got us in there and such an incredible visit and we got to see the 288 gto and testa rossa and was allowed to sit in Gilles villeneuve 126c formula 1 car,and we were provide 2 ferrai hat ,ferrari rain coat and leather wallet and 2 ferrari keychains,we will never forget the tour and met some great people at Maranello.Still we have the Canon Super 8 movie film we took of the factory and Alboreto and Rene arnoux testing the f1 car on the Fiorano track.
I wanted one and decided to buy another mint 1995 Nissan 300ZX… had Fiero GT and ton of other cars but I still want a Mera. Wish I would’ve purchased it
You missed the boat. The Speedster, a Porsche 356 kit looks exactly like the real thing. Fiberglass body and vw air cooled engine gives you every bit of a 1958 356. Experts will see the vw beetle tunnel because the chassis borrows a vw beetle pan. So, I don’t pay for smog check, my insurance is nothing, all parts are beetle parts read: cheap. It looks better than the Ferrari and the chicks dig it.
I Remember as a Kid growing up[65 now] I always read the Guinness world record book.My Favorite record was the "Fastest production car"Well back then it was the Porsche 917 E i think and the numbers blew me away...0-60...0-100....0-200 amazing..And there was a"Kit Car" you could get that was built on a Volkswagen chassis i always wanted one and how cool would itt be to drive down the road in a 917 Well never got one but i am still a Porsche and V.W. Fan..particularly the Poor mans Porsche... The Karmann Gia.Had one with a 2130? Short throw shifter and a Screamer fun to drive.
I bought a Ferrari 308GTS in Newport Beach in California in the early 1980's and cruised the Wine Country in NorCal for years. There were always duschbags that would tell me that it wasn't a Ferrari because all Ferraris were red. ''That's a kit car man. You're a wanna be faker, man.'' I would lift the rear bonnet to show them the engine and say...''You're right. See, its a 1970 Volkswagen Superbeetle underneath.'' Most of the dumb asses believed it.
My 1978 Ferrari 308GTS sits about 8 feet from a Pontiac supercharged 3800 on an engine stand. I was going to use a 4T65E automatic as a cheap reliable robust transmission. I am in my 70's and lost my enthusiasm for cars. The 308 in my opinion was gutless. Any Porsche 911 could beat it. I also had a 1994 Cadillac with Northstar engine and trans to drop into it. Never happened.
Years ago, the "basement" at Cobo Hall in Detroit housed imports and conversion vans, etc. This was when the domestic manufacturers were referred to as "The Big Three".
@@Thumper68 there's turbo 3800 that make 600+ HP. Also LS4 5.3 swaps are big right now. One of the swaps I seen also had a turbo on his LS4. Getting ahold of a V8 Archie swap kit for a SBC is real rare these days also
There was a article in hot rod back in the 80s that a gentleman had dropped a dual quad 400 small block making close to 500-600 hp.. had very little custom work except axles and one motor mount
I loved the original top gear usa just as much as i loved top gear uk with Jeremy, Hammond and james. Tanner, Rutledge, and adam had chemistry on set that was pretty great. I miss those shows alot
Excellent video and one of the most epic into lines ever. While I normally loathe fakes the special history of the Mera makes it an acceptable exception. Add in the fact that this is the prototype one and that is one cool car with a great story to tell at any car show. This real 308 owner fully approves :)
Back in the 1980s and 90s, GM was the king of badge engineering. Even the Pontiac-exclusive P-car platform was ultimately badge-engineered into another brand.
During the Great Recession years, the _actual_ 308 GTB was a $25k to $35k car all day long, depending on how sketchy its condition was. I considered buying one but I remembered the whole engine-out thingy for just about any regular service. So I bought the newer Porsche 993 C2 instead. So a few years pass and the first major service comes courtesy of its valve guides going away (a known 993 issue)...engine out. Yeah, I sometimes kick myself for not buying that 308...
I always enjoy Vin Wiki - the car stories are awesome. This story is no exception. I never knew about the GM-made phony Ferrari! I really admire this guy that found and bought one and drives it!
Never heard of the Mera before, but it's a pretty cool car. I always wanted a Rhino GT, which was a Ferrari GTO bodied 240ZX. I even had a vanity plate picked out: "PROVA".
There was a Canadian company Empera that would do a conversion based on a Fiero called the Vipre, not a Ferrari replica, but I remember seeing these sold by Pontiac dealers
They used some of these for stunt cars in Magnum PI. Which makes it jist that much cooler. Stoked you have one. The first one. What a fun car and piece of history.
This makes me think of the black 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spyder replica built on a Corvette chassis used in Season 1 & 2 of Miami Vice, where they dubbed in the sound of a Ferrari V-12. Ferrari sued them to pull those cars, and for season 3 Ferrari gave them a set Ferrari Testarossas. Had no idea about the Fiero kits, if I had, I probably would have gone in for one.
I was at the fiero 40th and saw that car. While fiero rebodies are not my thing ther are a few I like, I think the original design of the fiero is beautiful on its own, the mera was beautiful. I saw your car and even though many of the small details were not accurate to the real 308, it is a great looking design. It’s one of the few fiero rebodies I actually like.
A friend of mine, Ben, (may he RIP) owned one of these "tribute" cars and loved it. This was back around 1999. That's when I was first educated about this being an actual GM-sanctioned conversion. He showed me the paperwork and some other info on the car. I was stunned. So, upon seeing the thumbnail of this video in the sidebar, I had to click it. Mostly due to memories of my buddy. We worked together and were both gearheads. He and his dad, like me and mine collected cars and built hotrods. Ben referred to it as "a blow-up doll vs a wife; all the fun without all the headaches that come with an actual Ferrari." His widow adored him in all reality.
Love what you love. Personal perception sets the value, the world can keep its opinions. Wouldn't trade my 02 T-bird for anything, my perfectly imperfect car. The Mera was a great idea, glad they exist
One of my professors at Long Beach Community College had one of these faux ferraris. Top Gear America was a big bummer. They needed for star power for the presenters.
These guys that have recently been swapping the engines for the supercharged 3800's from the GXP are really on to something. Pontiac should have done that from the beginning.
What I'd really want to do with a Fiero is take an '88 V6 with all the mechanical improvements and backdate it to the original 1983 styling complete with steelies.
You guys have some really good stories but this tops them all. Ferrari was pissed because their $2000 oil changes and $20,000 timing belts were reduced to 50 bucks. That’s right back in the day you could get an oil change and a timing belt on your Fiero for about $50. Now I have to have one because a turbo Northstar set up in that car would be the ultimate.
There are several still floating around ive seen several on ebay . I remember the kit Ferrari that people had in the 1980s in Australia using the Toyota Celica and turning it in to some bad kit car
In a strange twist, I once helped a buddy adapt a 2.8 V6 with transaxle out of a Fiero GT into a REAL 308 (GTSI) that had a bad engine..Imagine trying to prove that 308 wasn't a kit!
I have a Pontiac Supercharged 3800 V-6 on an engine stand near my 308. Been sitting there since about 2006 when the car was driven last. That would have been a hell of a power improvement....and it would pass smog tests every time. Cheap replacement parts, too.
The Tojan was the one for me - elements of the Countach, Ferraris of the time and of course the Trans-AM GTA complete with its V8. Even if Ferraris are better-made with more-expensive and higher-quality equipment, they can't beat a good old American V8 on the sound front!
I gave one of Ferraris long time photographers a lift one time at a sports event in France. He said to me, “A Ferrari is like a beautiful woman, you just want to borrow her, you do not want to own her.”
I love Fiero GT's, and the XT bodied GT, aka the Formula. 1988 Fiero GT is a bucket list dream car for me, would take it over the vast majority of supercars, to the point if I ascertained a McLaren, I would sell it to build a 1988 through 1998 car collection. The 88 Isuzu Impulse and 88 Fiero GT being the first two I bought.
I'm sure I have pics of this and other Meras back in the day... I remember seeing these at the Detroit show plus other car shows at the GM tech center in the late 80s. Now where are all those print pictures I have someplace? 🤔
Hardly anything had the response Top Gear got, proper TG, that is. 350 million viewers worldwide if memory serves me correctly. It was the most-watched factual TV programme….. …….in the world
People who weren't car people watched Top Gear. It wasn't just a car show, it was a documentary show and a comedy show. They watched it to see Clarkson, Hammond, and May doing cool and often silly stuff.
I love it when someone finds the car that fits them on their terms. Good work Drew.
stepping stones of life 🎉
yea that last thing he said, looks of a Ferrari eas of maintenance of a Fiero. i would love to get my hands on a lamborghini countach, but i would put in a straight 6, 3.0Liter BMW or a v8 3.5Liter BMW engine in it, or the V6 i had in my Alfa Romeo 159, 3.2 Liter italian reving bull of a engine. so i can drive it and maintenance it properly, i would also add Brembo breaks.
Yea modernize it a bit. but i know all the European purists around me would kill me. i kind can do the same with a cool old American car also.
Exactly.
My neighbor had a Fiero that he bought and was a,ways waffling between making it a fake Ferrari or a fake Lamborghini. Finally he made it a fake Ferrari that sort of looked like a 355 with a Testarossa. He spent over $18,000 and 6 years getting that car made and painted plus interior. He drove it once and sold it for $41,000! The guy that bought it knew it was fake but he had a moved to a neighborhood in South Carolina and wanted to park it inside his shop that sold windows. He wanted to show the windows were so tough, he woukd leave his Ferrari there for everyone to see, but just in case someone got through, he didn't want to be out a real Ferrari. Plus he said it would be a great conversation starter since he was new to the area.
This could easily be turned into a story suitable for this channel.
seems like this thing is the smart man's Ferrari
I always liked the Mera, they were well done, sat right, and can fool you at 20 paces. And with the V6, they probably weren't much slower than the real thing.
2024 dealer markup would've been insane on these😅
So many Fieros and MR2s have become Ferraris, one day I want to do the opposite.
Totally, rebody a Ferrari into a Fiero 😂😂
@@OpenRoader, or, rebody a Lotus into an MR2
Yes !! Ferarri mr2 !
Ha! Can you imagine the raw hate coming through that “cease and desist” letter?
Yes tribute 1986 Pontiac fiero it's built on a Ferrari 355 platform
I can't be the only person who would rather have one of those than a real Ferrari? You can drive it without fear of damage, and you can afford to maintain and repair it when necessary.
But you can drive a Fiero without fear of damage, and you can afford to maintain and repair it when necessary...so what's the point of the re-body, since it also doesn't have the proportions of the real deal, making it look a bit ungainly...and it certainly drives like a Fiero, not a Ferrari. May as well just slap Ferrari badges onto the Fiero, since car guys will be able to tell it's a fake either way, and those who fall for this being real will likely fall for the rebadged Fiero being from Modena also.
@aussiebloke609 for people who didn't have daddy hand the Business down to them I agree on why someone would want the kit version. If yr only making 30k a year n want something that strictly looks cool a kit car would b perfect. Like the first comment said. Cheaper to maintain and you can do it yourself
It's like lying about being a Navy Seal or an Olympic medal winner. You might fool a few, but you're only fooling yourself.
@@aussiebloke609 I have a real 308GTS that I bought 42 years ago. Silver, like his. I worked on it myself all the time. A standard Borg and Beck clutch disk cost $235 from the Ferrari dealer. It looked exactly like a $16 Pontiac disk but the drive splines were different. The Ferrari dealer wanted $2500 to replace the clutch. I built my own tools to remove the castle nuts on the intermediate transfer gears.
In the 1980's when Magnum PI was popular, people would ask me if mine was a kit car. After getting fed up having to explain it all the time, I would say ''Yes. It's really a 1970 Volkswagen Beetle under a fake body.'' So many people believed it. This was an awesome car to cruise around the San Francisco area wine country back in the day. I still have the car.
Just buy a Fiero then. Looks pretty much the same from the driver's seat.
i love how the shitty service from ferrari museum made him further trust his decision
So...to 'get back' at Ferrari for treating you like you're unworthy, you spend $18,500 for a FAKE Ferrari.....as if you WISH you could afford a real one?
@@tjmmcd1 Of course he WISHES he could afford one. Who doesn't? That doesn't mean he'd BUY one even if he could afford it. I know I wouldn't. I hate ferrari's attitude. They have pretty cars, but they're a-holes and I wouldn't want to give them any money. If I could have a fake ferrari and flip ferrari the bird because of it, I would.
@@ColinFox If you're a Ferrari owner, I own a 458, you love Ferrari's FU attitude. It keeps the value of are cars up and you feel like you belong to an exclusive club.
@@tjmmcd1 yeah, that leaves me scratching my head as well.
@@christschool I'd take the Mera any day and 80% of spectators wouldn't know my oil change is only $35 for oil and filter until they saw the interior
There was this and a 250 GTO replica built on a 240/260/280z that was so close it was almost perfect (the Datsun hardpoints and dimensions were nearly identical to the Ferrari). Ferrari got into shutting replicas down back in the 80s because of these two and others - Daytona on a Corvette chassis (Miami Vice) comes to mind.
The 250 GTO was really cool. Imagine doing that with a Scarab conversion. The kit car that always fascinated me was the 427 Cobras. What's cool is Shelby sells updated versions.
@@SPR_NAPALM shelby hasn't produced the cobra 427 since the originals back in the 60s. Yes there are newer modern kits but they're not produced by Shelby. They're produced by a whole different company that Shelby licensed the design out to.
@@Valverde713 Some of the Cobra kits are just as good as the real thing -- it mainly depends on the parts you choose to build them with. There's an absolutely AMAZING Cobra made by a company called Kirkam which has their aluminum bodies made in Poland by workers that used to make MIG jet fighters. I guess you wouldn't even call this a 'kit' because it's really a replica: th-cam.com/video/-MwXyXTmqFE/w-d-xo.html
@@plane_guy6051 oh I know I was simply saying that Shelby inc no longer produces them but yes you're totally correct. There's a company here in the use that makes kits for them that use prefabbed aluminum bodys as well called factor five racing. They've got different variations that are everything from just a nice daily drive able replica all the up to a purpose built track car
hey, not everyone can say they own a serial number 1 car, that had been shown at LA autoshow..even the multimillion collection owner cant say that..
Totally! That's what I love about it!!
I had a really great 328 / Fiero replica, but one that was stretched to proper specs, had the door handles and fuel filler moved to proper Ferrari positions, and even had a few small real Ferrari bits on it. It amazes me how Pontiac was able to sell this copyright-infringement as long as they did.
Faux-rarris' actually had dealerships, unreal😂😂😂
Hahaha...yeah, it was the '80s! True sign of the decade.
Best of both worlds, mullets AND minestrone....
Best comment!
It's called a Mera only 155 originals who knows how many molds were made of the original 155. The wheels where made at the same factory Ferrari had their wheels made at just smaller and different bolt pattern but look the same. the side mirrors also came from same factory they got side mirrors made. Corporate concepts was really mimicking hard😂. I own a copy on an 85 fiero frame original Mera tail lights badges wheels and side mirrors though
Fieros don't have frames.😂
Cromodoro wheels? Wasn't that one of their off-the-shelf styles at that? I swear I've seen people put them on various Fiat sedans.
Drew talks with the same cadence as Ed
Not quite
Yes he does lol
I thouhg the same
If he was talking in the room next to me with the door closed, I would DEFINITELY mistake him for Ed 😂
He sounds like Ed with a cold.
I had a 360 Spider for awhile and while it was a childhood dream to own one and I loved the car, I didn't love the douchbaggery involved in getting it serviced. I bought it at Cauley Ferrari in Detroit who were wonderful to deal with, but my local Ferrari dealer in Houston was roundly terrible. I took it to an independent mechanic who was pretty well regarded in the local Ferrari community to have the fluids serviced and he turned out to not be much better. I bought most of my parts from Eurospares in the UK and found the car to be pretty robustly constructed and easy to work on and found that as long as I wasn't dependent on the Ferrari ecosystem for repairs, it was a very happy ownership experience. The minute I needed to pay for any labor, I had to deal with some of the most condescending people on the planet. I wound up selling the car to fund a business venture and would like to own another one in the future, but I will buy one that I don't feel the need to take it to a specialist just so I have the documentation to uphold the provenance of the car.
very interesting and NOT surprising. Above i wrote how in '82 i was 12 and brought to a Ferarri Dealership by a friend of my family, who had a Porsche 930. The dealer guy (one salesman only) was so clearly condescending to my japanese american friend (one of the most successful ppl on the west coast at the time!!) that it imprinted in my mind about power, money and racism. I'm white btw. Italian american bastard salesman! Ferrari is trash though obviously i'd love a 308, and i'd love to drive a 358
You need to bring Rutledge Wood on to tell some stories, lucky for you he’s in your state!
Would love to hear Rutledge behind the scenes stories. Great idea
There is always that one buyer out there for a car like this. My dad was always that guy. Loved the story.
It's very informative except for the clickbait title. GM had nothing to do with the production or sale of the MERA. Ferrari didn't sue GM. They forced Corporate Concepts to stop making them.
Good on them. Ferrari need to protect their name
I remembered the back of Popular Mechanics in the 1980s being littered with things like kit car shells to transform VW Beetles and Pontiac Fierros into Ferraris. There were also LOADS of other things, like build your own airplane or helicopter. (Which you can still buy and build. Check your regulations as to what you need to do while you build them.) I guess this was one of the benefits of being a nerd back then.
I had my eye on the manta montage kit car aka hardcastle and McCormick car.
The J.C. Witney Catalog had absolutely everything.. Back before the internet, cool catalogs were the Best of Nerd Land.. Stoner Island.. we would look at catalogs and build stuff in our heads.. all the manufacturers had detailed catalogs.. I think I still have the Ford SVE one.. all the factory Hi performance parts and engines..
@@jasonnelson6624 my Dad said it this way.. If I bought you a Corvette for your 16th birthday.. what would you look forward to? Reward yourself.. go get a job 😂😂😂😂 Instant gratification is a real problem..
@@artmosley3337 I had a similar thought or experience. I didnt have cable TV so I was limited to 3 or 4 channels you dont appreciate those images in print or video until your stuck with the golden girls or Roseanne. Shout out Betty White 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@jasonnelson6624 back in the late 1970’s, we would watch tv with no sound, have the stereo cranked up to 200dlb. And read magazines.. my friend had everything.. his dad was a doctor so they were a Write Off😂😂😂😂 in 7th grade we knew what that was 😂😂😂.. Mad, Cracked, Sick, Car and Driver, Motor week, Cycle.. including the news, women’s magazines.. and Popular Mechanics and Popular Science… We camped out in Magazines Land for hours a day
There are a lot of higher mileage Ferrari 308s driven often and are much less than $100,000. People are scared of these cars but they are robust and very fun to own and drive. I've seen 308 kits for sale that were not much less money than I paid for a real one.
The Detomaso Pantera was my choice between a Ferrari 308 or the Detomaso. The owner of Ferrari Service Center Newport Beach Calif said i made the right decision back in 1998.
yes! I was 12 when a friend of my family drove me in his Porsche 930 and we stopped at the Ferrari dealer who treated us so condescendingly that i can still remember it now in my early fifties! He did that bcuz my friend was asian american. The salesman was a racist italian-american in a supposedly liberal city on the west coast!
@@18_rabbit Was that Ferrari of Berkeley?
I have a '78 Ferrari 308GTB in Rubino Russo (metallic candy apple red) and confirm that they are slow by todays standards. Thy sound nice stock, but with mine the original owner modified the exhaust so it's very loud. When starting it up it sets off car alarms in a parking lot, but then there's not enough power to smoke the back tires. Haha. So you're not missing out on much in the 308. They used to get looks and impress but these days only older car guys know what they are on sight.
14:09 it definitely has some pedigree. Nice car, very nice. This 208/288/308 is just timeless design.
Never know what stories well get each day, but always a great way to start the day. Thanks for the amazing content!
Interesting, I never heard about the re-bodied Fieros. I have a Ferrari story, back in 1979 I was back in Italy visiting relatives. Being a car enthusiast having built a 32 Ford 3 window coupe chopped and channeled, a V8 Vega, and at the time had a 64 Corvette Roadster, I thought I take a drive to Maranello to tour the factory. Well as I pulled through the gates in my rented Fiat with Palermo license plates, a whole nother story in itself. I was stopped by two guards barring arms. A well groomed man in a very nice suit came out, I explained how I was visiting from California and came for a tour, I just assumed they had tours. He informed me they didn't have tours, but I guess I made an impression and he invited me into the main lobby. He gave me some very nice books and brochures, witch I still have today, let me take pictures of the cars, and he took my picture by Niki Lauda's formula 1 car.
At that time I was 23 years old and a journeyman machinist for a DOE weapons laboratory, I asked him if I could apply for a job. He just laughed at me and said, your father don't work here, you don't work here. In all a great experience, and I can always say, how many people do you know that went to the Ferrari factory and applied for a job.
We had the 3rd one that was produced at CandC on sunday and I was amazed how much it looked like a 308 and this one was very nice. I was proud to say I knew what it was because I had seen this video a couple of weeks ago.
Finally, someone who actually enjoys having a kit car, honestly, other than legal mumbo jumbo I think kit cars are cool and there should be more
I knew a guy who had a Fiero Ferrari 308 kit car. It was rough because he drove it everywhere. He also had a Fiero with a tuned V6 but I think I saw him driving his Fierri more.
I have wanted a “kit” car ever since I was a kid back in the 70s I ran into a lotus 7 at an autocross meet in the parking lot of the local mall It had a twin cam engine and the handling and power to weight ratio on the parking lot racecourse really benefited it.
If it was a more open road race course a more powerful streamlined card could easily run it down and overtake it
@howardwmoore now that you mentioned Lotus, I think a Stratos kit car would be super cool. Even if it was a stock fiero underneath, it's just just a nice looking car
My favorite Ferrari "tributes" are the Ferrari Daytona California (Ferris Bueller), black Ferrari Daytona Corvette (Miami Vice), and the Ferrari 250 GTO Nissan 280z.
250 GT California. Derated GTO with no lid and heavier bodywork
Finally a more positive video about the Fiero! And very cool that you attended the 35TH or 40TH Fiero anniversary show.
12 years ago, a friend purchased a used Ferrari Testarossa, intending to be his daily driver. He experienced a rock kicked up by the truck in front of him. Which cracked his windshield. Was quoted 6 months to wait for a custom windshield fabrication and $5k price - he sold the car soon after at a loss.
I owned an original '88 Mera for a few years and really enjoyed it. It looked great and was extremely reliable. I also owned a real 308 and had nothing but trouble with it. 0--6-0 times were very close between the 2 cars The quality of the panels and build were superior to almost all other kit car manufacturers'. Part of the Ferrari lawsuit demanded that Corprate Concepts not only stop production but also had to destroy the molds for the body panels.
I had a gold Fiero automatic back in the 90's. I loved it. The Fiero is the basis for so many kit cars. I've seen one of these Mera's in person. I remember reading about them in all the car magazines. Thanks.
Who knew?
All I knew on the subject was a 30 second deviation in the Jason Cammisa episode
Ha...great story and great vid!
I bought a new 1987 Fiero GT, silver, no rear spoiler, with the rear buttresses (not the notchback version).
The vehicle had no badging on it aside from the small fiero emblem on the hood and the PONTIAC name in the rear light panel that only showed when the lights were turned on.
At the time, I was approached by so many people that, genuinely, thought is it was a ferrari ! For the most part, they were not 'car people', and the disgusted facial reactions on some, after they were told that it was a Pontiac, was HILARIOUS.
The ladies at the discotheque all loved being in that car...fun times!
That clip of them taking apart the gorgeous facelift Fiero to make it into a faux-rarri is one of the saddest things. Why not convert the crappy looking one. Hilarious though, going by the Ferrari underpinnings I see on real 308s the Fiero chassis was probably an upgrade 😂
People please, if you’re gonna “hate hate hate”, go listen to Taylor Swift and let the guy tell his story.
No
Is it a good song? 😂😂
@@jasonnelson6624 LOL, no 🙉
@@wallyr.7854 I'll take your word for it I was already sick of seeing her during football season. Never knew she played lol.
@@wallyr.7854 it is a little disturbing you know the name of her songs. But no judgement lol.
The Corvette Testarossa was a hoot too…
They used a Corvette/Ferrari car on Miami Vice until Ferrari asked them to stop and got the show a real Ferrari.
There was an earlier Corvette based Ferrari Daytona as well. This is the one that was used early on in Miami Vice.
@@lyonsson6480 I preferred The Daytona replica. I never understood why they went with the Testarossa and not the Countach. The Lamborghini was much more popular and looked better.
We had a Ferrari tour back in 84 , Manleo my dads friend got us in there and such an incredible visit and we got to see the 288 gto and testa rossa and was allowed to sit in Gilles villeneuve 126c formula 1 car,and we were provide 2 ferrai hat ,ferrari rain coat and leather wallet and 2 ferrari keychains,we will never forget the tour and met some great people at Maranello.Still we have the Canon Super 8 movie film we took of the factory and Alboreto and Rene arnoux testing the f1 car on the Fiorano track.
I'd be interested in seeing the Fierro vs 308 on a track and see how the performance compares
Late model gt fierro were solid
@@stealthkitchen4375 I wonder if we can convince Ben Colins to do laps in both?
@@stealthkitchen4375 Typical GM though, when they finally get it right and build it how the engineers intended they immediately kill it.
@@bwofficial1776it’s ok, the gauge cluster would have failed at 30k miles anyways
I had a Fiero GT. 2.8 V6 5 spd. Peppy little car.
Nice little story. I enjoyed that. What a humble man. Happy with his Fauxrarri
I wanted one and decided to buy another mint 1995 Nissan 300ZX… had Fiero GT and ton of other cars but I still want a Mera. Wish I would’ve purchased it
You missed the boat. The Speedster, a Porsche 356 kit looks exactly like the real thing. Fiberglass body and vw air cooled engine gives you every bit of a 1958 356. Experts will see the vw beetle tunnel because the chassis borrows a vw beetle pan. So, I don’t pay for smog check, my insurance is nothing, all parts are beetle parts read: cheap. It looks better than the Ferrari and the chicks dig it.
I Remember as a Kid growing up[65 now] I always read the Guinness world record book.My Favorite record was the "Fastest production car"Well back then it was the Porsche 917 E i think and the numbers blew me away...0-60...0-100....0-200 amazing..And there was a"Kit Car" you could get that was built on a Volkswagen chassis i always wanted one and how cool would itt be to drive down the road in a 917 Well never got one but i am still a Porsche and V.W. Fan..particularly the Poor mans Porsche... The Karmann Gia.Had one with a 2130? Short throw shifter and a Screamer fun to drive.
I bought a Ferrari 308GTS in Newport Beach in California in the early 1980's and cruised the Wine Country in NorCal for years. There were always duschbags that would tell me that it wasn't a Ferrari because all Ferraris were red. ''That's a kit car man. You're a wanna be faker, man.'' I would lift the rear bonnet to show them the engine and say...''You're right. See, its a 1970 Volkswagen Superbeetle underneath.'' Most of the dumb asses believed it.
Grab one of these and do the Supercharged 3.8 swap. Would probably smoke an Original 308 for a significant amount cheaper.
My 1978 Ferrari 308GTS sits about 8 feet from a Pontiac supercharged 3800 on an engine stand. I was going to use a 4T65E automatic as a cheap reliable robust transmission. I am in my 70's and lost my enthusiasm for cars. The 308 in my opinion was gutless. Any Porsche 911 could beat it. I also had a 1994 Cadillac with Northstar engine and trans to drop into it. Never happened.
Years ago, the "basement" at Cobo Hall in Detroit housed imports and conversion vans, etc. This was when the domestic manufacturers were referred to as "The Big Three".
You can always engine swap a Fiero and make it faster than a real 308.
You can put a sbc in a fiero or a supercharged 3800 Id go with 600 hp sbc
@@Thumper68 there's turbo 3800 that make 600+ HP. Also LS4 5.3 swaps are big right now. One of the swaps I seen also had a turbo on his LS4. Getting ahold of a V8 Archie swap kit for a SBC is real rare these days also
A GNX engine will fit with minor fabrication.
@@pandabuiltchannel6318 everybody does ls swaps I’m a sbc guy 😄
4.9 Cadillac fits, too!
There was a article in hot rod back in the 80s that a gentleman had dropped a dual quad 400 small block making close to 500-600 hp.. had very little custom work except axles and one motor mount
There is a guy here in Vegas that has one looks real nice red
th-cam.com/video/EmA-zTHao5c/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared
I loved the original top gear usa just as much as i loved top gear uk with Jeremy, Hammond and james. Tanner, Rutledge, and adam had chemistry on set that was pretty great. I miss those shows alot
That is wicked cool! I had no idea they built close to 250. Body panel fit looks great.
Excellent video and one of the most epic into lines ever. While I normally loathe fakes the special history of the Mera makes it an acceptable exception. Add in the fact that this is the prototype one and that is one cool car with a great story to tell at any car show. This real 308 owner fully approves :)
Back in the 1980s and 90s, GM was the king of badge engineering. Even the Pontiac-exclusive P-car platform was ultimately badge-engineered into another brand.
The p car platform was never sold as any other vehicle at gm. It’s one of the very few cars that was only built by one division.
During the Great Recession years, the _actual_ 308 GTB was a $25k to $35k car all day long, depending on how sketchy its condition was. I considered buying one but I remembered the whole engine-out thingy for just about any regular service. So I bought the newer Porsche 993 C2 instead. So a few years pass and the first major service comes courtesy of its valve guides going away (a known 993 issue)...engine out. Yeah, I sometimes kick myself for not buying that 308...
I bought one on ebay for 8k in the resession
I always enjoy Vin Wiki - the car stories are awesome.
This story is no exception.
I never knew about the GM-made phony Ferrari!
I really admire this guy that found and bought one and drives it!
Never heard of the Mera before, but it's a pretty cool car. I always wanted a Rhino GT, which was a Ferrari GTO bodied 240ZX. I even had a vanity plate picked out: "PROVA".
You're absolutely right: they are definitely not for everybody.
There was a Canadian company Empera that would do a conversion based on a Fiero called the Vipre, not a Ferrari replica, but I remember seeing these sold by Pontiac dealers
They used some of these for stunt cars in Magnum PI. Which makes it jist that much cooler. Stoked you have one. The first one. What a fun car and piece of history.
This makes me think of the black 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spyder replica built on a Corvette chassis used in Season 1 & 2 of Miami Vice, where they dubbed in the sound of a Ferrari V-12. Ferrari sued them to pull those cars, and for season 3 Ferrari gave them a set Ferrari Testarossas.
Had no idea about the Fiero kits, if I had, I probably would have gone in for one.
The Mera!!!!
Great story and great irony. I hope I could be so lucky to find multi- level appreciation and happiness in my next car. Have fun 🎉
I was at the fiero 40th and saw that car. While fiero rebodies are not my thing ther are a few I like, I think the original design of the fiero is beautiful on its own, the mera was beautiful. I saw your car and even though many of the small details were not accurate to the real 308, it is a great looking design. It’s one of the few fiero rebodies I actually like.
A friend of mine, Ben, (may he RIP) owned one of these "tribute" cars and loved it. This was back around 1999. That's when I was first educated about this being an actual GM-sanctioned conversion. He showed me the paperwork and some other info on the car. I was stunned. So, upon seeing the thumbnail of this video in the sidebar, I had to click it. Mostly due to memories of my buddy. We worked together and were both gearheads. He and his dad, like me and mine collected cars and built hotrods.
Ben referred to it as "a blow-up doll vs a wife; all the fun without all the headaches that come with an actual Ferrari." His widow adored him in all reality.
I saw them at the dealership in person. I have photos somewhere.
Love what you love. Personal perception sets the value, the world can keep its opinions. Wouldn't trade my 02 T-bird for anything, my perfectly imperfect car. The Mera was a great idea, glad they exist
Glad he got a car he's satisfied with but absolutely LOVED the Ferrari story/anecdote at the end.
One of my professors at Long Beach Community College had one of these faux ferraris.
Top Gear America was a big bummer. They needed for star power for the presenters.
These guys that have recently been swapping the engines for the supercharged 3800's from the GXP are really on to something. Pontiac should have done that from the beginning.
Very cool! We need a detailed video of the actual car!!
The funny thing is the only time I tried to buy a new car it was a 86 Fiero but no.
There are V8 Meras for sale all over the internet for under 25k
I bet you could drop a '87 small block V8 in it without modding anything.
The new corvette is the final version.. a Ferrari that actually runs.. at a reasonable price…
It’s actually an excellent looking copy and looks great in silver.
Far more accurate a replica than anything Ferrari inspired that came after,
That Fierorrari would be pretty badass with a Northstar swap. It would run circles around a real 308.
Fu*k the unreliable Northstar. The LS is a much better Fiero engine swap.
@cooluser23 there's a kit out there to reinforce the older model problematic Northstars but I agree an LSx motor would be better
@@cooluser23 The LS is boring and has been done to death. Plus the updated/upgraded Northstar would be more in character of an Italian exotic.
@@troglodyte1969 Northstar has been done to death as well. Everyone who did that swap hated it.
Great story and I do own a 1987 fiero gt. I drove it today in Florida.
Great story. There are all kinds of cat people from all walks of life, etc. Which makes this such a fun endeavor
For real he almost sounds like he is trying but not successfully to sound like Ed ..... lol
What I'd really want to do with a Fiero is take an '88 V6 with all the mechanical improvements and backdate it to the original 1983 styling complete with steelies.
The Mera...
'Merica...
Am I the only one that finds this slightly coincidental?🤔
You guys have some really good stories but this tops them all. Ferrari was pissed because their $2000 oil changes and $20,000 timing belts were reduced to 50 bucks. That’s right back in the day you could get an oil change and a timing belt on your Fiero for about $50. Now I have to have one because a turbo Northstar set up in that car would be the ultimate.
Fieros did NOT have timing belts
This guy has studied Ed way too hard
There are several still floating around ive seen several on ebay . I remember the kit Ferrari that people had in the 1980s in Australia using the Toyota Celica and turning it in to some bad kit car
I saw one of these about 20 years ago in Anchorage, Alaska. Thought it was on a Firebird. Wish I would have bought it now.
In a strange twist, I once helped a buddy adapt a 2.8 V6 with transaxle out of a Fiero GT into a REAL 308 (GTSI) that had a bad engine..Imagine trying to prove that 308 wasn't a kit!
I have a Pontiac Supercharged 3800 V-6 on an engine stand near my 308. Been sitting there since about 2006 when the car was driven last. That would have been a hell of a power improvement....and it would pass smog tests every time. Cheap replacement parts, too.
Pontiac should have put a turbo on the Iron Duke.
That was quite the intro ngl
The Tojan was the one for me - elements of the Countach, Ferraris of the time and of course the Trans-AM GTA complete with its V8. Even if Ferraris are better-made with more-expensive and higher-quality equipment, they can't beat a good old American V8 on the sound front!
I loved the black Daytona kit car in Miami Vice. IIRC, it was Corvette based.
I gave one of Ferraris long time photographers a lift one time at a sports event in France. He said to me, “A Ferrari is like a beautiful woman, you just want to borrow her, you do not want to own her.”
I love Fiero GT's, and the XT bodied GT, aka the Formula. 1988 Fiero GT is a bucket list dream car for me, would take it over the vast majority of supercars, to the point if I ascertained a McLaren, I would sell it to build a 1988 through 1998 car collection. The 88 Isuzu Impulse and 88 Fiero GT being the first two I bought.
I remember seeing a couple of those Fiero modified cars, cute little set ups
I'm sure I have pics of this and other Meras back in the day... I remember seeing these at the Detroit show plus other car shows at the GM tech center in the late 80s. Now where are all those print pictures I have someplace? 🤔
Hardly anything had the response Top Gear got, proper TG, that is. 350 million viewers worldwide if memory serves me correctly. It was the most-watched factual TV programme…..
…….in the world
People who weren't car people watched Top Gear. It wasn't just a car show, it was a documentary show and a comedy show. They watched it to see Clarkson, Hammond, and May doing cool and often silly stuff.
Mercedes forced Lonestar from Texas in the late 90s to stop making 50s gullwing and roadster kits but not the cobra
I wonder if the Pontiac Mera can be converted into a Koenigsegg Gemera...
Doesn’t really looks like a Ferrari, looks like a James Bond car from the 80s
I had a 1984.5 Fiero 2M4 SE & 1986 Fiero GT, in High School, & to this day former classmates swear I had a Ferrari???
If you ever get the chance to see the museum in Modena… do it 👌
I have a replica myself