Undervalued Fiat X1/9s!

Another reason I loved my X is the incredible amount of luggage space. Very few cars had a higher ratio of luggage space per overall footprint of the car. . . another plus. I'd still love to get another one, but can't find any clean ones within driving distance of where I live.

 

My X/19 Abarth crossing the Pyrennes (Col de Somport Spain) in winter with P7 Corsas. Other pic being restored.
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The little nutjob car I'm trying to get sorted within the next month, body is near perfect, very clean lines - plus turbo baby
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Everytime I see that car I think of that one song from Inner circle .

 

Now that I have 4 of these. Its a good thing they dont use a lot of gas...

 

One man's junk is another man's Rolls, it's all relative. And usually the most assinine and snobbish remarks come from those that have never owned them. They handle great, it's a two-seater Italian sports car designed by the same Marcello Gandini that designed the Miura, Countache, Diablo, etc. Fun cars.....finicky in some respects, very addictive to drive, easy to work on, not expensive. It won every comparison with the cars of it's day and it's just a fact like it or not.

Another little known piece of information, the X1/9 was one of only two (other was a Volvo) cars OF ANY MAKE that passed the initial series of federally mandated crash standards in the U.S. They had to scale them back because not even US made cars could pass, but the X did. It was designed with a rigid cage around the cab. There are many many stories about how these little these have held up in crashes. That made them a little heavy, a littler slower. Fiat should have put the 2.4 Dino engine in that car, it would have been a different story. But that particular development happened in the venerable Lancia Stratos, one of the most winning rally cars of all times.

There was a comparison of the X1/9 and the 308 in Classic Motorsports. Of course the 308 is superior in most every measurable quantia, but.....they're both 70's era mid engined Italian sports cars, and that is that.

I currently own two.....and have owned at least one for eight years. My goal is to graduate to Ferrari. It's a progression.....Italian sports cars is a lifestyle, you must learn how to have and own one or it will not work out.

I've found that the more you love cars, the more cars you love. There's no need for snobbish exclusivity....

 

Welcome To Fchat... With this mindset I might recomend some seriously thick skin...JJ

 

Hehe - we're talking about Duane here!

 

As far as I can tell, this is mostly a current or nostalgic fan thread for the X1/9 with a very few owners who didn't enjoy the experience. I can't find any "snobbish exclusivity" - did I miss something?

 

JJ hasn't made the Xweb association yet....even though he should, probably the sleep deprivation.

Yeah...I'm defensive of these cars and react a little that way when people talk about them, irrespective
of skin thickness. Yes....yes......no offense intended. I was responding primarily to dbcoopers remark.

Ash....people over at Xweb are wanting to see pictures of your "manual DVD burner," why don't you visit
us over there?

 

Finally found it - yes, it seems a bit strong, but honestly there was an issue with FIAT quality. I drove my X1/9 while in school for about 38K miles (original owner) and learned to live with some problems (water pump, radiator). But a couple of weeks after I traded it in, I went by the dealer and they mentioned that it had sold immediately, but had burned up (engine fire) within the first week by the new owner!

 

There can be no doubt that there were greater than mechanical and reliability issues. The 850 Spyder is a rather looming example. Fiat actually initiated a 'factory buy back' program for those cars because there were literally breaking in half. The story goes that they encouraged owners to just park them and wait for the check. The rust issue is a legitimate beef as well. The early 70's era Russian government traded Fiat some ridiculously large amount of iron ore for auto manufacturing equipment so it could make its' Prada (not exactly sure, but something similar) car. Story runs that the rusting Fiats can be traced back to the quality of this ore. Interesting story, but they surely rusted! Fiat had one of the earliest under-car rust coating programs, made it look like customer protection when it was actually prolonging the inevitable.

While there have no doubt been Datsun B210's from the 70's that have caught fire and burned, but the general nagging issues with Fiats do seem to be more prevalent than most other cars. Ferraris have had there share of issues to.

Just in the case of the X1/9, and the Spider, they were interesting designs and interesting cars that had issues but on the whole were/are more intriguing to the enthusiast moreso than someone that would buy a Honda Accord.

Too much automotive substance to categorize as junk, but probably too much of the wrong automotive substance to be well liked in this country.

 

The X1/9 was a great car on paper, the only problem arose once they took it off of the paper. Fix It Again Tony.

 

Great car on paper huh...were you there? Of course you were.

 

Who are you calling crazy...

 

I knew you had two X's....but not four. Does that include the Dallara body kit one?

Doesn't coming to this site make you think about a 308 GT4 with a baby seat?

 

Nope. I really dont see the point in having a baby seat in a sports car. I wont be able to drive it as intended if thats the case. I have a Baby Seat in the C36AMG and with a 0-60 time of 5.5 seconds. The kid has to be strapped in hard...

I have several fiats. Not just x-19s. A few are loaned out at the moment...

 

Hehe - I check in a couple times a week, I'm just not using my cars so don't have much to say about X's at the moment.

 

My restored 85 Bertone will be coming out of hiding soon.... Check back later for pics...

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=280257486798&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=018

 

Not exactly a jumping thread lately but I'll bring it back since I recently took posession of a 1982 X1/9.
My very first car was a '79 bought for $400 in 1989. A while later owned a Ferrari 308 QV, which was sold 10 year ago when we moved from Milwaukee to Houston.
Just before Xmas got the itch for another Italian car and on a whim searched X1/9 on BaT, and on the last day of it's auction saw this one which looked nice and was just a few hours away so put in a few bids and lo and behold... https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1982-fiat-bertone-x1-9-5/

Turned out to be a great buy. Super solid car, virtually no rust, all original except for a decent repaint ~5 yrs ago, and some tasty period mods. One of the last to roll out of Fiat's Lingotto factory in Turin before Bertone took over production.

It's now up on blocks while I redo the wheels, change fluids, replace original looking fuel lines, recover seats, and a bunch of other little things thanks to Midwest Bayless' amazing selection of parts. Most of them cheap, too.

Driving her home from San Antonio to Houston:


Son't first shift (next ones will be much more precise since I've replaced rubber linkage):


Dad checking it out:


VTEC Honda swap is always enticing as is an early, thin bumper conversion but this one (like my '85 CRX Si) is so original I won't mess with it.
Time to introduce the boy to the sublime and sometimes maddening world of Italian cars

 

A friend made a beautiful lettering on his X1/9 a long time ago.

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That's unique! What does "ICSUNONOVE" mean?
I'm seriously considering getting "laser" graphics cut to replace the ones on mine.
This style was supposedly installed only by one dealership in NJ in mid 70s:
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ahaaaaa Ics Uno Nove = X 1 9

 

gearhead right of passage: Brake Bleeding assistant
DOWN....DOWN.......UP.....UP
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