Bryce Nash, a 27-year-old engineer from Portland, Ore., drove a Pontiac Fiero in college. Pontiac never built a hybrid version of the plastic bodied, midengine Fiero, so Mr. Nash decided not only to build his own, but to enter it in the Grassroots Motorsports magazine $2009 Challenge.
Mr. Nash, who works for Daimler Trucks North America, built his hybrid Fiero for just “$1,600 and change.” He started with a 1988 Fiero Formula with a dismantled engine, bought on Craigslist for $500. His real find, located in a Michigan junkyard for $800, was the electric motor and inverter from an electric Chevrolet S10 pickup [PDF]. The batteries came from several Toyota Priuses (about $250 a pack), and totaling at best guess around four kilowatt hours.
