Zimmer Quicksilver

Here, my friends, is where we may part ways.

You've been incredibly patient—and supportive—of my taste so far. But I feel that my love for the Zimmer Quicksilver may be the wedge that drives us apart.

But it won't. Because I'm about to convince you it's more awesome than the E30. E30…E30…was that a BMW? (Sorry, I have Zimmerbrain™️.)

First things first: the Zimmer Quicksilver is based on the Pontiac Fiero. We can check these three off straight away:

1. Easy to maintain
2. Inexpensive to buy
3. Mid-engined

Next, as values of classic cars keep shooting up, and speculators keep buying modern cars that may one day become classics, there are precious few opportunities to acquire something that may someday be worth more than it is presently. (Without having to endure the trauma of the years in-between.)

Rarity is a key factor in keeping values strong, but if you're on a budget there's no way a Cuda Convertible or Ferrari 250 LM is in your future.

Similarly, car lovers can get over-excited about their 1-of-1 green Plymouth Voyager built on a Tuesday afternoon in 1989, where someone installed the wrong headlights…but who cares? Plenty of unloved, legitimate rarities are languishing / rotting in obscurity because too few enthusiasts forget value is tied to what people are willing to spend, not what something is actually worth. 

If you don’t know something exists, it’s worth nothing to you.

That is why shining a spotlight on weird cars is as much about preserving their story as it is about geeking out over a shared interest. Raising awareness, innit.

And now that you know about the Quicksilver, I’ve made all of them ever-so-slightly more valuable.

Here's another few bullet points for you:

• Approximately 250 made from 1984-1988
• Like coachbuilders of yore, the car is rebodied, to the tune of more than 650 hours of work
• It was styled in the '80s by a man named Don Johnson. srsly

Glance upon its incomparable shape, a shape in no way dated or ungainly from certain angles. It's almost as if Sergio Pininfarina himself wanted to apply his eye for excellence to Pontiac's mid-engined sports car, and checked into his Detroit motel under the alias “Don Johnson”.

Ok, that's a stretch. Like the Quicksilver.

Call me crazy, but with the car's elongated chrome nose, from some angles it looks better than the Fiero. Two feet longer than a Fiero, it could have probably been sold as an Oldsmobile, Buick, or Cadillac, if only General Motors had been into making money at that time.

Zimmer is best-known for the Golden Spirit (above), at first a Mercury Sable-based neo-classic. I personally consider neo-classics to be cockroaches on wheels…and nevertheless I reserve the right to feature them when I'm having a really bad day.

Though it was once relatively difficult to find information on the Quicksilver, the car has earned a surprising following given production was less than 200 cars.

Period road tests and magazine articles help to reveal an interesting story of how it came to be. The car's designer, an actual person named Don Johnson, was working at GM before approaching Zimmer Motor Car Company, a coachbuilder with his idea for a $50,000 hand built fiberglass coupe built on the Pontiac Fiero chassis. 

Here's the full story:

It would have a fully customized, Italian leather interior. It would have big, integrated chrome bumpers and a stand-up grille. It would retain the Fiero's new but wheezy V6 engine. And it would be built in Florida.

GM passed on the neoclassic concept, which only benefitted Zimmer (and us). Much of the car’s development has since been chronicled by the car’s enthusiast site; start falling down the Quicksilver rabbit hole here.

“Yet right away the QuickSilver makes a case for at least part of the massive markup that separated its $52,000 retail price from the $12,000 MSRP of its Fiero donor. To begin with, there's real trunk space up front, courtesy of that floorpan stretch, all of it covered in a thick golden carpet that resembles the fur of a massive Persian cat. Out back, the one-piece decklid that covered both engine and a small trunk in the Fiero has been replaced by separate releases for engine and the extended (by over a foot) cargo compartment which, of course, is lined in thick carpet as well.” • Jack Baruth, First Drive: 1988 Zimmer QuickSilver for Road & Track

Sadly, the end of the dream for a production Quicksilver (or at least a longer-lived production run) coincided with the Fiero's death in 1988.

Your dreams of a V8-powered, mid-engined, Fiero-based neo-classic are not over: take a V8 conversion kit of your choice for a Fiero and apply it to your Zimmer Quicksilver, once you find one. Easy.

It would make the resulting car not a baby Audi R8, but a baby HN R200 By Hoffmann & Novague — a neoclassic where you least expected it.

All to say: Zimmer Motor Car Company ended production in 2020, but the legends it built live on…

When I wrote about this car for the original version of Car of the Day in 2014, I was working for RM Sotheby’s at the time — and the specialists who were on my email list laughed at it. Nice examples were in the $10-15k range, if I recall correctly. In 2020, RM Sotheby’s offered and sold a nearly perfect one at auction for $21,280…

What was I saying about the values of certain vehicles…?

READ NEXT: zimmerregistry.com

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