Are you guys SERIOUS? Fiat X1/9? That was one of my first vehicles. I bought it with a busted motor & my father, best friend & I rebuilt it. Never could get it running right. Starting/misfiring depended on the weather. What a toilet! BUT... I'm glad to see someone is caring for the little buggers. They just need about $10,000 of mods to make them cool in my eyes (the rotary conversion posted by Sfumato, for example).
Funny to see this thread up..... It was my first car (well, the first one I bought with my own money). I owned it for 6 months, in which I managed to cover around 70 miles During those six months, five of them in the garage, I tried to repair almost everything. The car would stall, clutch died on the way home, it wouldn't brake, it wouldn't steer at "high" speeds, exhaust (4 pipes) was a mixture of rust and mud, lights were really "absent", there was a hole on the floor (the size of my hand) through which you could see the road, carpet was ****ty, upholstery (originally white) was dark grey.... Finally, when I was called to pick it up from the garage, just in front of the door..... the engine exploded. It looked like a Minardi, all full of white, blue and brown smoke... I managed to sale it to a crazy man who came with a truck to pick it up in Paris. I think that was one of the happiest days in my life. It was gone... But the fact is that I really enjoyed that car. A good example, fitted with a Uno Turbo I.e. engine, a new gearbox (all come off at around 90k miles), new suspensions, new tyres, entirely rebuild... it would be amazing. But maybe a bit silly to try to have an X 1/9 for the price of a Cayman. This is a picture of the car, dead, waiting in the Paris streets for the new buyer to come to it... Sadly it all went wrong. It was a funny car. I remember having a conversation with Max Mosley, when he knew about my car, he smiled and said: "that's a very cool car..... does it work?" And obviously we all laughed when I replied: "no". Image Unavailable, Please Login
Mythbusters put a really nice looking X 1/9 between two tractor trailers in order to see if the trucks would fuse together if they crashed into each other at 50 MPH with the X 1/9 bewteen them. The poor car was destroyed but the passenger cabin remained intact after they smashed it between the tricks twice. I've never owned one but would like to paint one to match my 308 GTS.
Power to weight. You can strip an x-19 down to about 1300lbs before adding a role bar. Then with an engine and turbos you will be under 1550 and you can boost a cars power over 600 with a honda set up. It will be wicked fast faster than an enzo or even a 750 horse cranked and forged f40. JJ
Had a gold X1/9 in the 80's. Fairly reliable once sorted, need to be very friendly with a mechanic. Lived on CA coast but did not rust - I took the car to Ziebart straight away!!! I thought about getting another one, but got the Mondi instead - I lusted after it when I had the X, I think of Mondi as the grown up version.... BD
To strip it that much, that would assume its half rusted away i think!? Thought they came in pretty heavy around 2150lbs are so?? Not much to strip in that car is there?
No not at all. Check out this Dallara X on the Italian Ebay. JJ http://cgi.ebay.it/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140099427503&indexURL=0#ebayphotohosting
How about this one..it is in Mexico City and the price is like $8500 http://mulsanne.com.mx/db/Detail.php?SKU=0000399&marca=Fiat
JJ was really close -- 1270# all the way stripped down. Mine was < 1500# with a full cage and the Fiat 1500cc motor. With a 2.0L motor and all the garbage I bolted on it's around 1650# which is the class minimum weight. I am a Ferrari guy and still have the grocery getter Mondial t but my X1/9 is a lot of fun and it's kinda cool to be the underdog which was never the case when I had a 360. There was a 360 Challenge in our class at the event that JJ posted the video from and it did finish 3rd, behind a lowly Fiat on it's first time out. PEACE PS I got back into X1/9s a year and a half ago because the local Ferrari dealers are a bunch of a-holes. I did the Ferrari factory tour in 98 when they were starting to build the 360s. I got home and put my name on the list for a Spider as soon as it was available. I called my local dealer (Ferrari of Beverly Hills) ever month to see if there were any changes. 18 months later my friends were already picking out their colors and I was never called. I asked and they said that they had to take care of their past clients first, etc. I guess they needed to give it to some stupid movie star needed to run it into a wall instead of someone that would appreciate it more. I bought a grey market car and it was stolen by the guy that sold it to me. Long story, sad story. I didn't buy a new car for 5 years until my neighbor let me drive his new car and then I hooked again. I called my local dealer, now Ferrari of Orange County, to schedule an appointment so that I could order a SuperAmerica and he told me NO. Am I bitter? Hell yes. Anyway, I now enjoy running circles around all these cars with a $500 X1/9. Will there be more Ferraris in my future? Probably. I can't help myself. It's a sickness, you know. ;-) Image Unavailable, Please Login
Interesting story Alex! I didn't know that about you...As you and JJ know, I'm far from being a race guy, I just enjoy the reliability I have experienced over the last 20,000 miles I have put on my X1/9 (it just turned 86,000 miles last week...I got it with 66k). It is a superb commuter and daily driver! I'll be driving it out to Calabasas from Vegas AGAIN on the weekend of the 29th to attend VCR...you guys going? Image Unavailable, Please Login
gudday Rudy, you found me! lot's of X friendly folk in the Ferrari community, or as it's called in the wanna-be Ferrari crowd - 154GTS.
HEYYY....ya, I'm late to the party but have been lurking ever since I joined FCA and have been shopping for a 3x8! Giving myself by the end of '07 to pick something up...
