....just nerd'n out on other cool mid-engine cars. I think this one is extremely well done.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1980-fiat-x1-9-12/

I agree. Probably the best looking one I've seen.

I wonder what the reserve is? Clean car. I imagine it's pretty quick.

I always liked the X1/9. I did a test drive in one and enjoyed it, but thought it was a bit too small for my only car. So what did I do? I bought a 914.

The X1/9 on BAT does look pretty nice. I wonder if the engine management is really dialed in. Also, it says climate control. Does it have AC?

Always Liked the X1/9
everything i did not like they addressed in that Car
Very Nice

I owned a X1/9 for a few years, and developed it into a serious autocross car, while still driving it around. But it really is small, and a tight fit for me (6-2). I always felt like Magnum in his 308 (just a little).

great little cars.
even came in RHD!!!!
still a few left here but kept in tissue paper.
they rusted like everything italian - and in australia!!!!!!
karmann must have had the same steel wholesaler? i think they were russians?

Click to view attachment


same day, nearby, mid engined car that can kill you.
french are genuinely evil?
got any of these in america?
a few in australia.
RHD too, no chop shop backyard garage conversion involved.
(though any french factory RHD car is an authorised factory chop shop job!).
some crazy clio v6s down here as well.
mid engined death sentences.
no one complains about the engine output.
just the blood circulation in their fingers.


Click to view attachment

They are definitely a tighter fit than the 914, but I manage to cram my 6’0”, 250 lb girth into my ‘87 nonetheless. The later models do have a bit more room inside. Although mine has AC (theoretically), I never drive it with the top on anyway.


Click to view attachment

The one sold 4 days before it wasn't bad either.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1987-bertone-x-1-9-3/

@wonkipop there’s an old saying that Karmann invented rust and then licensed it to the Italians…

I’m another X1/9 fan - like the 914 I test drove an X1/9 in the early 80s but didn’t have the funds to run two cars at the time. So never owned either until earlier this summer when I bought a 914 6 conversion.

the best looking one ever is the one you get rid of! What pieces of

Click to view attachment

I like the red ones.
Click to view attachment

X 1/9 was my first car. In that same red-orange color. Broke down on my way to the high school prom. Fun fixing a throttle linkage roadside in a tuxedo.

Incredible!

I don't think I have seen one in 15 years. I had a friend in high school with one, it seemed like we fixed it constantly. In that case I blame the driver not the car.
Anyone know how many were imported to the US?

I have a 1974 X1/9 that I installed a later 1.5L and 5 speed into. Huge fun and surprisingly solid feeling. Even with the 5 speed, howoever, it gets a bit buzzy and I find myself driving the 914s quite a bit more.

Thanks, Spocknasty!

could be.

-- the alternative to invention is industrial espionage by the russians using the stasi to plant the technology in west germany.

if it was it almost worked, the secret to special russian steel went everywhere and the italians were the most enthusiastic advocates. would explain why alfa romeo purchased that 914/6 back in the 70s to study closely.

meanwhile the east germans drove around in their plastic trabants waiting for western europe to collapse in a brown dust cloud.


------

years ago a mate owned a lancia fulvia zagato. then he started to poke around at it.
and got rid of it real fast. the italians had improved on russia and karmann. they had discovered galvanic corrosion. those things eat themselves even out in the middle of the desert.

Targa top hoarder

I would think that the Honda would be one of the easier swaps...they made that one look factory. There was a member here that had a Lancia Beta Scorpion and he wanted to put a Subaru 6 with the Subie trans as well in it. I suggested the Honda swap instead due to the transverse design be very compatible. That would've been a nice one to see!

I can tell you this - A 914 Targa Top is much easer to stow in the rear trunk than wrestling a X1/9 top into the frunk.



Top of the page, gratuitous photo added for your enjoyment.
Click to view attachment

I cannot thank you enough for this post. Always had a thing for the Fulvia, and once even entertained a trade for a fantastic (looking…) one but wistfully took a pass on it. I am wistful no more!

As for the X1/9, there was a black one in my neighborhood back in the late 1980s or early 1990s. What sounds it made. Always wondered what the engine was. Definitely sounded Italian, but legitimately exotic. Car was nicely turned, too, being lowered with great wheels, no bumpers, and beautiful paint. Have always dug them as a result, but just about never see them these days.

Midwest Bayless Co. Equipped X1-9 competition car, haulin' oats to P1; we build the street and the race style long tube headers for them. In business 50+ years
Click to view attachment

glad to be of service.

don't worry you are not alone in liking them, they look fantastic.
but even the standard (non zagato) fulvias are a hand full without the aluminium steel chemistry entering the equation. they crack in half clear across the top of the front suspension housings.
manifests as a tear in the outer front mudguard. its like an airplane stress fracture. then you know you are in a world of restoration pain. makes a 914 hell hole look like a spring picnic. i'm sure the zagatos have the same flaw as its the same sub frame with an aluminium body shell on it

alfa 33s which came after the alfasud do the same thing. i think the USA was spared this bit of italian genius. nice cars to drive though before the front end cracks in half.