My brother, who lives in West LA, noticed this car, which lives a couple of blocks away. He sent me this picture and asked, “What kind of car is this? Did some research but couldn’t figure it out…”
It’s kind of a neat looking mashup. It looks like some kind of Fiero kit car combined with a Chrysler?
It’s a Frankenstein-ed one-off, for sure. It shares some similarities with the early 80s Chrysler Imperial, particularly in the lines of the hood.
When I first looked at the picture of the mystery car, those pop up lights looked very Fiero-ish.
I took a closer look at the rims, and they look very Fiero-like. So this possibly started its life off as a Fiero, and someone had some fun broughaming it out?
My very first thought was that it reminded me of the B-horror movie, “The Car” with James Brolin from the late 70s. That film has been referenced once or twice here at CC, and it featured a similar (but earlier) looking modified Lincoln Continental.
So what is this thing? Being in West LA, it might be a car from a film that someone recognizes. Can you ID it, or the various parts of it?
It is indeed based on a Fiero, it’s a Zimmer Quicksilver
Yes and there are a couple for sale on Bobs Classics !
We’ve featured that same actual car here last year:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1988-zimmer-quicksilver-it-was-simply-inevitable/
Thanks Jim,
You know, now that you posted the link, I think I dimly recall reading your piece on this car.
It’s an odd duck, and it’s bizarre to think about Broughaming out a Fiero.
Looking at the original post, it’s clear to see that there are many unflattering angles, and yet, there’s still something unique and magnetic about it.
It’s as if it took a Fiero and turned the clock back a decade, but at the same time, it shaved off all the diminutive femininity of the Fiero, and added a menacing toughness.
I could see evil Michael Knight (with a fake moustache) trying to run K.I.T.T. off the road in this thing, haha.
They produced some, shall we say, unusual vehicles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmer_%28automobile%29?wprov=sfla1
Zimmer Quicksilver: “The cars that dare to be known by BAD TASTE alone!” To paraphrase the old cigarette advertisement.
The product of a different era in Florida history. Sniff.
C&D actually featured it on the April 1987 issue. Sorry for the poor image quality, it’s all I could find online and my copy is in storage.
Ugh.
By 1987 the 80s had gotten way too 80s-y.
Red heels, fur, big hair. Quicksilver.
I can almost see cocaine dust blurring the camera lens.
Ugh.
My mom had a white fur coat like that in the ’80s, very fluffy and very fake. The joke in the family was “Do you know how many polyesters had to die to make this coat!?!”
Car and Driver featured this car on its cover when it was new. Years later, they recalled that that issue set a record low in newsstand sales…
The Fiero underpinnings are well hidden in front/side views but less so from the side or rear. I recall the interior basically being almost straight out of the Fiero, with nicer upholstery and wood paneling. As rebodied Fieros go, I prefer the ones that were turned into fake Ferraris and sold as the Mera, just for its audacity.
The Fiero took over as the custom car platform from the VW Beetle… what’s today’s equivalent?
Adobe Photoshop … or Illustrator for higher-end designs.
Hey, the Zimmer was at least as good an idea as the Reatta or the Allante! A two seater with distinctive looks, a luxury presence, and a premium interior! C/D thought enough of the thing to put it on the cover and devote several pages to it, and the article didn’t pan the car.
Perhaps the Reatta/Allante could have been made to work if they used the Fiero as a base and rebodied it and put different engines in it. With premium interiors, a little stretch here and there, some restyling on the exterior, and the 3800 Supercharged engine for the Reatta and the 4.9 for the Allante, they might have been more successful/reasonably priced.
The Allante was not really a good idea by the way. The Reatta was half of a good idea but despite what market analysis says about 95 % of trips are taken by one person etc etc very few people really want to buy a two seater car.
The Fiero was successful in part because it was CHEAP. Base models sold well under 10K and for a high schooler/young adult, that versus a Stanza or Accord was very viable. An expensive toy is harder to sell. Older folks get fixed on where’s the back seat.
I honestly have tried to envision a scenario in which I’ll have people in the back seat of my recently purchased convertible, and haven’t really been able to come up with one, but one of the reasons I went with a Sebring over the Mustang was it has an almost habitable back seat. The Mercedes expensive two seater convertible market was pretty well satisfied by the Mercedes. The Miata two seat roadster market is well satisfied by the Miata, as Maximum Bob found out when he tried to sell the Solstice and Sky. The Corvette and Mustang markets are very well filled by the Corvette and Mustang, and that’s why the Challenger sells because it has a useable back seat.
I was trying to get caught up on all the episodes of Jay Leno’s Garage that were stored on my DVR. IIRC, in one of the episodes, Jay was trying to shoehorn fellow (tall) comedian Brad Garrett into this thing.
Needless to say it was a tight squeeze.
I’m from Syracuse. Zimmer was headquartered in Syracuse. I’m not exactly proud of that fact.
What is the opposite of timeless styling?
Timeful?
Time-sensitive?
It is truly awful. Just gross.
Where can I get one?
Dated when it was new.
Seeing the C&D cover I wondered why anyone would want to put an early ’70s grille and bumper on a new Fiero.
The Zimmer Quicksilver was featured on this very website. Didn’t the writer ask his coworkers?
Nothing says luxury like a luxury car that a lady in a skirt can’t get out of and still be thought of as a lady.