Its been done. I have a budy with a 74 fiat x/19 that pulls 1.9 gs lateral. Can smoke any ferrari to 60. He replaced the gears with colloti gears. So you dont even use the clutch to shift. THe gears alone were $18,000 bucks. You dont want to mess with an x/19 that has had 100,000 dollars poured into it. And yes the owner of that car has a Ferrari as well. here are some pics... http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f389/jjay911/100_2753.jpg http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f389/jjay911/100_2754.jpg http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f389/jjay911/100_2758.jpg http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f389/jjay911/100_2760.jpg http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f389/jjay911/100_2762.jpg This last photo is of an X driven by Steve Hoschler an auto cross champion. THe Porsche club kicked him off there track because he kept beating them all...... Notice the wheel slightly off the pavement in the photo... http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f389/jjay911/PeruTour3.jpg
You seem to be hung up on which car is faster. The Ferrari is faster! If you're into cars and driving then the X19 is a comparable experience to the 308/328. I'm amazed at the number of people with Ferraris that have owned one. If you're into Ferraris as trophies, then the X19 won't be a comparable experience.
Had 3 X1/9s over 20 years ago. Couldnt drive them enough. The last one, an 83 Bertone was actually reliable!
Yup again. I bought mine in Texas, while in college, a really cool metallic blue. Just after purchase I had to drive it all the way to New York in a 24 hour period. But it had a problem with one of it's spark plugs that meant it burned through gas at a rate of about a tank/1.5 hours. So I had to make frequent stops. But when I got back to New York, a competent mechanic figured out the problem and the car was a dream for years afterward. That targa top fitting so perfectly in the front was amazing. Managed to move back and forth to texas with just what would fit in the car. The brief trip taught me two important lessons. 1. Frequent stops help when you are tired. 2. These cars are not the maintenance nightmare you hear about if you have someone who knows what they are doing working on them. I was looking for one on Ebay recently.
In very early 1974, I bought what was one of the first X1/9's in the States. I know it was the first in Virginia. Within a couple of months (to break in the engine), I was autocrossing the car (absolutely stock), which I continued to do for two and a half years. Yes, it was slow 0-60, but nothing handled like it! If it was a tight course, I beat Porsche 914's (both 4 and 6's), Jensen Healey's, and anything else they threw out there. If there was a long enough straight-a-way, I was toast. Previous posts are on the money. The car was incredibly fun to drive. It was, however, fragile ("Fix It Again, Tony"). After two and a half years of autocrossing the car, it was pretty well worn out. When the shop told me it would cost more than the car was worth to simply pass state inspection, I traded it in. I still miss it. Later years' versions were slightly more powerful, but I am not enthusiatic about the impact on its looks of the addition of battering ram bumpers or the raised engine cover. Was it a 3x8 (I'm now the owner of an 1989 azzurro 328 GTS)? Of course not, but it was a wonderful car for the price (I paid $2,995 for mine), that never stopped putting a smile on your face. Just a note on its looks. Previous posts have generally shown it with the targa top on. I've always felt the car looked awkward and boxy with the top on. Its lines truly came to light when the top came off. I've attached a couple of (obviously) very old (34 years) pictures that I had to scan at very low def, but they give a better idea of how the car looked without the top. Thanks for the thread, it brought back some great memories. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
True, they were fragile. The build quality was appalling. I remember going through 3 wheel bearings in less than two years (car had between 30,000 and 40,000 miles on it). The two import mechanics who I became close friends with never liked the car, either out of sympathy for me or because they would rather have worked on the real classics that came into their shops. As far as the engine cover, the Boxer rear deck had some similar elements to it, so it never bothered me. My classmates were driving Hondas, Rabbits, GM cars, etc., so I was happy with my economy "exotic". The X1/9 did have a hell of a tubular frame, though. I had a bad (45 mph) collision in mine that finished off the car and left me without a scratch. I just opened the door, got out and walked away. When I look back at the other affordable cars of the day, I don't know whether many of them would have done as well as the tiny mid-engined Fiat.
Tubular? Actually I think it is the unibody construction and the 4 wheel struts that link these cars (Scorpion/Montecarlo and X1/9) with inferior econobox build quality. For me the fact that the 308 has a tubular frame with A-arms at all 4 corners is that thing that makes it stand out from the other somewhat lesser cars of that era. I drove my Scorpion and 308 today and although the Scorpion is a 'luxury' version of a Fiat, the 308 has a feel to it that really does make it worth 3 times as much as the Lancia (in 1976 dollars ) Likewise I always felt that original 4 cylinder 2 Liter Lotus Esprit, with its tubular frame, was closer to the 308, than the Fiat/Lancia mid engine cars.
great looking yellow one (and the shot of the 3 Xers on the street earlier in the thread!) before sending one of our 'picker' cars off to the dump, I had some fun with a sawzall to see what it would look like as a full convertible (check the Terminator shades - remember this was about 1988!) Image Unavailable, Please Login
The X1/9 had a cage-like structure intended to comply with whatever U.S. safety regs were coming. I haven't seen a cutaway, but the cockpit was encased, which made the car heavy and slow (12 sec 0-60) but incredibly safe for its size. I would guess the 308/328 would be similarly robust. The front third of my car was gone after the accident, and both door gaps on what was left were perfect. The windscreen had no cracks. Literally, I clicked the door open and walked out. The car I hit, at ~45 mph, was a Chevy Caprice wagon, back in the '80s.
No, it was black, although it could have been replaced after I traded it in 1977. As Bullfighter pointed out, the car was a mixture of great design, and not so great design. My steering wheel column broke off its welds AS I WAS DRIVING IT HOME FROM THE DEALER, just after purchase. The dealer fixed it, but it required a "no book-on-how-to-do-this" re-weld. I was never sure if it would hold, but it did. After two years, the car was leaking oil from the oil pan. The Fiat dealer was able to identify the leak source as the oil pan drain plug hole. It seems Fiat used a hard steel drain plug, in a soft aluminum drain pan. No sleeve. After enough oil changes, the plug no longer had a tight fit. The dealer was able to bore out the pan and put a steel sleeve in the hole to fix the problem, but, hey, what kind of quality control engineer made that decision. The X1/9, however, was a miracle of perfect engineering and build quality control compared to my next car, a Triumph TR7, perhaps the worst designed and built car in the history of man. It made the Yugo look good. It was in the shop 30 times in 14 months. No joke. I held it simply until the first Mazda RX7 was available.
I had an '82 X1/9 one summer during college. I bought it for $1000 and sold it for the same. It was a fun little car and the reason I bought it was because what I really wanted was a 308 and clearly that was out of my league at the time. My proudest moment came one day when I was parked at a grocery store and a guy asked m..."Is that a Ferrari?" I had fun with the car because it was my first stick and my first convertible. My recollection of the car's quality is that it was very poor. The Ferrari 308 is a much, much, much better and nicer car in just about every way but the price. However, the X1/9 was fun for what it was. Cheap cars can be more fun than expensive cars since you don't worry about them so much. Paul
Great memories; my friends had Fiats, and I was upscale and had an Alfa (still have it). My friend's X was a blast to drive, but build quality was horrible. I remember on a ski trip, the throttle cable broke, and we had to hook up a cable from the throttle in the engine compartment to a lever in the passenger compartment (choke?). Amazingly, it made it all the way home in one piece, without further mishap.
I think i met your father ( very nice gentleman who i spoke to a few years ago in the parking lot of Sheridan mall in Mississauga....I saw a mettalic green X 1/9 pull into the parking spot next to me ( i owned a 81' X1/9 from new for 12 years ) and got to talking to your dad, he mentioned he had a son that drove a Mondial. I offered to buy his X 1/9 if he ever wanted to sell it and also gave him my name & number...I got the sense though, that he would never sell that X1/9 as he loved the car dearly & did all the maintenence on it himself !! The X 1/9 always brings back great memories as it was my first car when i turned 16..... Cheers, Nick
Bingo The whole point of my original comment was the X19 could be modded into a pretty formidable car within limits and somehow his manhood got wounded in the process. Sheesh.
Wikipedia: The first models featured a 75 bhp (56 kW) 1290 cc single overhead cam engine with an aluminium head. In this form, the car had less than dramatic performance, hampered somewhat by the surprisingly heavy body shell. The weight largely stems from the immense strength of the bodyshell, built to give the car the same crash resistance in US crash tests as a sedan. Ironically while the X1/9 passed these tests, many standard US models of the day failed them, and eventually the test criteria were relaxed. However, the design was complete by then and so the bodyshell stiffness is considerable for a car of its type, and it also allows power plants of much greater power to be fitted without modification of the standard shell. For the U.S. market, additional emission control equipment and large safety bumpers were added, which sapped performance even more an increase of engine capacity to 1498 cc with 85 bhp (63 kW) partially dealt with this. While the engine itself was widely regarded as a fine design, the fact was that the car was rather heavy for its power (though light by modern standards) at about 2,250 lb (1,020 kg), despite its small size and sports car aspirations.
+1 ...These cars were fun for what they were at the time & great bang for the buck but with a few mods they could be made to perform very nicely.....watch this vid and you'll see why : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCg5QW4m8Nk If i find a nice clean original example i will definately pick one up again and save it for my son when he is old enough to drive...
mama mia! Alfredo Giamboi is my new hero. From here on out anyone who describes a 308's handling as "go kart like" should be forced to watch this video 5 times. Can't pick just one moment, but the power-on oversteer at 3:52 is probably my favorite. I kinda-sorta had one turn in my life like that, in an Opel Speedster at the Wehrseifen section of the Nordscheife. Best behind-the-wheel moment ever; this kind of satisfaction cannot be matched in a front engined car IMO. Love the frequent appause he gets from the gallery, and judging by the time-clock he hammered that 'fragile', 'POS' fiat car all day long!
That takes me back. I also had my first X1/9 at college, and remember honestly thinking it was the best car on campus because it was most like a Ferrari. All those VWs with their fancy 'start first time' engines and lack of 'patina' to the bodywork held no appeal for me!
Nick, that was indeed my father you ran into in the Sheridan Park mall. He bought the car new, at the time I went with him and he test drove a Lancia Beta, Fiat Spider, Alfa Romeo Spider, Porche 914 and Triumph Spitfire. This was really cool at the time, I was in my early teens. He asked me which one I liked best, and I said X19 - in lime metallic green -and that what he bought! Dad is a retired mechanical engineer, and no mechanical part hasn't been looked after over the years. Recently, he had bought oversize pistons and rings to do some winter engine work, only to find virtually no wear in the bore. Honed it, and exchanged the pistons & rings for a standard set. A bulletproof engine, really. We often compare our scrapes and injuries from working on these cars, but as a hobby both the Fiat and the Mondial inspire the effort to keep them running well. In Canada, I rarely spot an X19, they were pretty scarce here even back in the day, there can't be many left and few in such great running order.
Mine was involved in the only real crash I've been into. I women ran a stop sign and hit me in the passenger side door. The car was pretty mangled but I put it back together again. I was a masochist then. I insisted their insurance company fix it. Why, I'm not sure. It was fun to drive but also one of the biggest hassles to own. I wouldn't call it junk, but it was a love/hate relationship. My recollection was that: It was SLOW to accelerate It was really unreliable (switches, headlamps, brakes, clutch, latches, oil leaks, plastic parts... everything seemed to fall apart). It was fun to go around corners without braking It was horribly cheaply put together (the Bertones really improved on this so I exclude them) It rusted easily The gearbox was nothing to write home about (rubbery would be a good word) When people first sat in the car and closed the passenger door, they laughed. It seemed more like a toy than a real car. But, not in a good way. The engine was really "buzzy" at high RPMs. I really couldn't find anywhere that the powerband came on. The top was heavy but one person could remove it. But, it whistled from wind noise from the side windows. It did fit well in the front boot but the rubber latches broke easily. Every mechanic you took it to shook his head as soon as you drove it in saying a mental "oh no" to themselves. Compared to the awful MGB's and Midgets of the time, it was like a spaceship. But, compared to my 73 Alfa Spider, it was downright embarrassing. Just sit in the two and see which one feels like a real car and which one feels like a pile of cheap plastic. I had mine several years until someone got drunk at Christmas party and hit it in a parking lot. The little car was actually launched and ended up in the side of a huge pick up truck. Despite the passenger door touching the center console and one wheel at a 45 degree angle to the ground, I drove it home (once we got it back on the ground). A few days later, it was totaled and sent to the recycling bin forever. And, although its shape is unique, I don't think it's aged that well in the looks department. The creased metal "folded car" shape is something of the 80's. The 308GT4 is miles ahead of it, as is the Lambo Urracco. Both look much better today than the little turned around 128. I thought about buying another just for the fun of it but I'm too old to want that many more hassles in my life.
I has one years ago and really enjoyed it, a 1983 with the 5spd trans and 1500 engine. my only coplaint was that it really lacked the hp it needed to be a great car, but a 500ci cadillac engine solved the hp problem bad obviously disturbed the chassis just a tad. I keep thinking a might like an X1/9 with a 308 engine/trans stuffed in it some day, I think that would be a great set up.
