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I swear the Fiero Owner’s Club of America is not paying my salary, it just appears that way. Here we have yet another stunning replica based on that most prestigious of U.S. motoring icons: the Pontiac Fiero. GM’s indefatigable plastic-bodied, mid-engined two seater has gone on to become the underpinning of many a dodgy European thoroughbred imitator. Today’s target is the Porsche Carrera GT, perhaps one of the greatest cars to come out of Germany in recent years.

Our seller’s “Carriero GT” features a rebuilt engine and transmission (never a good sign in this sort of car) with the car said to have covered 6,900 miles since then.

The seller will have more than enough once he sells this beautiful and quality replica for the low, low price of US$21,500. Don’t believe me? The seller himself says, “THE PICTURES SHOW THE BEAUTY AND THE QUALITY BUILT INTO THIS REPLICA.” And you can really see it too, from the awkward body mouldings, botched-together interior and Costco brand fog lights.

All too often, Pontiac Fiero-based replicas are simply horrible, to say the least. But, once in a while, a truly unique build hits the internet forums like this LS3 V8-powered Lamborghini Miura wannabe. Dreamed up by the owner of Chop Top Fiero in Machesney Park, Illinios, the so-called Fiura (no need to explain that) has been carefully developed over a period of three years and it’s the mother of all replicas using Fiero underpinnings.

Part of its awesomeness is due to the fact that Archie, the man behind the project, went to enormous lengths to make it as accurate to the original as possible, but without spending a fortune.

If you have the patience to read all 19 pages of the thread on Pennock’s Fiero Forum, you’ll learn that Miura parts aren’t exactly cheap nor abundant, so Archie did a lot of fabricating and scavenged all over the internet for suitable donor parts.

Is there some sort of underground movement in Germany we don’t know about devoted to converting Pontiac Fiero’s into shoddy Ferrari knockoffs? Is this a new national pastime over there or a devious ploy by Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and Audi to discredit their Italian competitors?

Whatever you may think, the Fiero-based Ferrari replica is here to stay. And, much like David Hasslehoff, there’s nowhere these things are more popular than in Germany. At least, that’s the impression that I get. Presumably built in Belgium (as it is registered there), this replica has 71,000 km (44,154 miles) on the clock, a manual transmission and a whopping 123 hp. That’s only 349 hp short of a real F40!

Suppose you are a used car buyer in Germany, with €9,990 (US$13,199) to spend on some new wheels. Would you - even in your darkest, most masochistic hour - consider buying this...this thing? Let’s run down the list of why you shouldn’t buy this car:

1. It’s a Pontiac Fiero. Yes, it’s mid-engined and built in the good ol’ U.S.A., but it was built in the good ol’ U.S.A. in the 1980s and has a body made of plastic. That’s like saying, “She’s Latino and has a great body, but she has rotten teeth and herpes.”