My friend who has sadly passed away owned an X19, one of the funniest things I remember happening was we were out late one evening blasting around the B roads of Worcestershire and he put the headlights on when all of a sudden they started working alternatively almost looking like they were winking 😂😂 this has brought back some great memories of my friend Wayne so I can't thank you enough for giving my memories back of him and that days little blast around ❤❤
My father gifted me a 1975 x 1/9 I think in 1977. Black exterior dark red interior the best driving car ever includes long road trips. Thank you for the video brings back many memories and emotions.
I had one that rusted away. They are gutless, and its a great shame that Fiat seemed to have lost interest in them. In the club a handful of people had replaced the engines with Fiat and Lancia twin cams. They were wonderful (although they needed much better brakes) and showed that there could have been a third generation X1/9 with one of those engines that could have gone head to head with the Toyota MR2.
In the 1970s a friend of mine's father had a used car business and had an X19. I got a chance to drive it and it was an epiphany to me. Granted not very powerful but the light weight and crisp handling left me with memories I will never forget.
Friend had one. Gutless is an apt description. My Alfasud won the rust race. Barely ;-) Today a well developed x19 can be a very competitive hill climb car. So many great 70s project cars...we definitely need to revisit the Gandini style. The man designed some of the most beautiful and dramatic cars.
I purchased the first Fiat X1/9 sold in Canada. I saw it at the Montréal Auto-Show. I remember asking the salesman how much it cost and him saying “I don’t know, it’s not for sale. We are simply showing it at the various auto-shows across Canada to attract people to the Fiat area of the shows”. I, then, insisted by saying “I’m interested in buying the car, so give me a price”. The salesman then called his boss at the dealership he worked. His boss made up a price, thinking it would satisfy me and I would leave. However, I told him to write up the invoice, “I’m buying the car”. He replied with “I have good news and bad news”. The good news was he would write up the invoice. The bad news was that I couldn’t get the car until it had finished showing at all the auto-shows across Canada. About a month afterwards I got the call that the car had arrived at my local Fia dealership. When I arrived at the dealership he, again, said “I have good news and bad news”. The good news was that I could pickup the car the following morning. The bad news was that they had made a mistake in guessing at the price and that the price was more then what was given me. I responded by saying that I had two things in my favor. One a signed contract in the amount originally quoted and two, I also have a good lawyer. I picked up the car the next morning at the original quoted price. Heads turned when I drove by with some actually stopping me to ask about this great, cool looking car they had never seen.
I watched this video in two sessions. In the first I watched the first 18 minutes. Now as I type this comment at I'm watching the remaining part. In the few days between the two I got a Bertone version and so wasn't even planning to get one. Young Sir this is how good you are at what you do on RU-vid. The simplicity in which your videos are made put you right at the very top of all in this genre of content all over the internet. ReminDr me of the first couple of seasons of Wheeler Dealers, when it was still so simple , no frills program and yet the best reasons ever of the entire series.
I had a 1977 and a brand new 1979. We went to the drive in and I had a Keg and ice in the front trunk. The front of the car frosted up. This is just one of a million X1/9 stories I have
I have always been a great fan of the X/1.9. One of our local Auckland radio stations was giving a brand new one away back in 1979 and I had a beautiful 1/18th die-cast model of the vehicle, so even though I didn't win the giveaway, I still owned an X/1.9 (hey, I was 10 - gimme a break!). I always wanted to own one, but Dad was ever the practical man and one never appeared on our driveway. I bought myself a 1979 Alfa Sprint Veloce 1.5 back in 1989 and was well proud of that. She went like the clappers and handled lovely. In fact the only thing that was faster was the speed of the tin worms as they ate away at the Alfa....but that's a different story. Then a good mate of mine bought a 1978 X/1.9 - same colour and trim as the one you were driving, except the dash dials were not obscured and it had oil pressure and temp (with warning lights) gauges on the left, then speedo, then fuel then the tach on the right and a vertical line of warning lights to the right of the tach. Choke was beside the handbrake with the pop-up light switch (for use when wanting to wash them, I think) and the driving light switch right in front of the brake on the console. This little blue car had the Chromodora 3-spoke alloy wheels and had been imported to NZ from the UK in 1980. Yes, she too had the worms, but again, that's not part of this story. Steve was 6'1" and was happiest when he could drive the beast without the roof, but was still comfortable inside it with the roof on. The little 1300 4-speed could happily keep up with the Alfa's 1500 5-speed and dammit, it seemed to be on rails when we went through corners! I asked him for a drive in it and I could not believe how well it stuck to the road. He put a set of 185/60/13 Yokohama A008s on it and that thing only ever came unstuck once. He was heading into a roundabout in which the road dropped away as you entered the thing and so you were all cross-cambered halfway round. As he turned hard right to go around it, the dry road suddenly had water running across it from the centre island and with him being already under power to accelerate away, the X/1.9 just swapped ends. I have never figured out how it went round so fast and within such a little space, but it did! Otherwise, this thing was unstoppable. In NZ, we have kilometres per hour as our speed standard, but he reckoned if the sign for a corner said 60, you could take it in the X/1.9 with her speedo reading 60 and have no issues.....even though the speedo in the X/1.9 was in mph! Whereas I had a car that could take 3 passengers, the X/1.9 only had one spare seat. Steve liked that as nothing got between him and the pure driving pleasure that the wee beasty gave him. The day I got stuck ferrying a car-full of people while he just stuck his guitar in the passenger's seat so nobody got in with him, I saw his point! The X/1.9 was always best when you were in it on your own anyway. He was working on my Alfa one afternoon and I had to head into work and planned do my shopping on the way back. He told me to take the Fiat and assured me it would be fine. I adored that time alone in the car, but never thrashed it. The main power band appeared to be between 2750 and 5500rpm (quickest between 3000 and 5000) and the gearing as such that when you changed at 5000, you still dropped back within the engine's power band for the next gear. I know Steve had the wee Fiat doing over 110mph too and if anything pulled up beside him at 60, he could just feed her the pedal and she'd jump to 80 or 90 very quickly, I went to work, just letting the little car cruise along and then made a number of people at the supermarket stand looking incredulous as I loaded the bags of shopping into what they perceived as the engine bay up front! She could easy hold a week's groceries for two people and I reckon she would have done so for four had I needed to.....unlike my Stag a couple of decades later. He and I went away on fishing trips n the wee beast and there was plenty of room for our necessaries along with the fishing gear (with the rods themselves tied to the roof with bungee cords!) The Fiat got a transplant when the 1300 dropped a couple of cylinders after ingesting a pile of dust on a loose metal road through a hitherto unknown broken air filter housing. - she got the engine and box out of a low milage wrecked 1500/5-speed. Apart from the effective overdrive gear and a wee bit more punch, the car didn't seem to change much. Certainly her stance nor her handling were affected by the additional weight and she was a little more economical. Finally, after 8 years of not being garaged, we addressed the rot that had crept in everywhere on the car (my Alfa had been sold after only 12 months of ownership because it kept getting lighter every time I drove it and the wind inside the car with the windows up and the vents shut was still quite notable). Finding that most of what we thought was metal was actually a thick layer of filler with a lattice work of rusty metal strands, was a bit of a let-down, but we progressed, replacing panels with second hand ones and patching what we could not replace or which was small enough to not need major surgery. She got a respray of her original metallic blue colour and I hand-painted the decals on the front, rear and sides as they were not available locally (and this was before you could go online and order them from overseas - it required a phone call or a letter to do that back then). She looked a million dollars again and he drove it for another two years before selling the wee beast on to another enthusiast. I've just checked and it appears her registration is on hold (our equivalent of your SORN I believe), so maybe she's being refreshed again. Lovely trip down memory lane, Ed. Thankyou for your time an effort bringing us this little car to see - that engine noise makes me miss that Fiat a whole lot more than I thought it would. I might have to track down another one - for ME this time!
I had a 1977 Fiat x1/9 when I was in high school in Burbank, CA. I inherited it from my brother who was a Fiat mechanic. It was a great handling little car and the trunk room in front was particularly impressive. The front trunk could hold an ice chest and a beach chair.... A couple of gym bags could fit in the rear trunk, too. My car was the same color as the one in the video. It was a four-speed manual transmission but I seem to remember it being a 1.5 L engine. My brother had installed twin Bayless carburetors to give the car a little extra kick. The handling was remarkable and I would drive it just for pleasure, sometimes down Kanaan road to the beach at Malibu and sometimes up at Mullholland Drive above the Hollywood Bowl. Unfortunately, the car was prone to blowing head gaskets, and I went through three of them while I owned it. Of course that's a major problem, but that's really the only problem that I ever had with it.... Surprisingly the electronics worked fine and I never had any suspension troubles or starting issues. In 2012 I bought a new FIAT 500c..... I guess once you catch the Italian car bug it never quite goes out of your system.
This car will always have a place in my heart. My dad bought one a few years before I was born, so I litteraly grew up with it. The first time I realised it was a special car was when we went to a track day at Spa-francochams when I was about seven. When I was 14 my dad sadly sold the car because there where some engine problems my dad couldn't fix himself. A few years later I saw that car for the last time, the guy that bought it had revised the engine and made the car comletly as original. I sometimes look online to see if I can afford one myself. If I ever get one I will for sure take it to Spa-framcorchamps with my dad.
In the early to mid '80s i had a '79 US-spec 1500 carburated 5-speed, 67hp. Best handling car I ever had. Fastest turn in. Very solid feel. Your speculations about long distance travel are correct. I took several trips of around 350mi one-way two up in comfort. Cruised easily, if buzzily, at 80+ mph, iirc it was already 4000rpm at 60mph. Surprisingly practical with the double trunks. I always appreciate X1/9 related content.
I have an X19 that I fitted with a Honda b16a 1600 160 hp engine. The performance is amazing. The fun incredible. I also have a modern more powerful sports car, but the X19 is so much more fun. The astonishment of people when I take them for a spin is great to watch. More fun than you can imagine. I have been offered car swaps and name your price but I could not part with so much fun.
Due to my own advanced age and that of my laptop, this video just popped up and I have no idea how it fits into your reviewing chronology. Yet it as every mark of excellence about which I have for years bruited your brilliance, not just your automotive knowledge and erudition, but the true uniqueness of your superb presentational style - your out and out smiling enthusiasm and utter enjoyment of cars. This is not cringing sycophancy but utterly genuine admiration for your outstanding, youthful career which will surely be snapped up by national head hunters. Yet selfishly I would be sad as having been an architect of corporate culture in other areas, it can be the death of originality that you exude by the vast bucket full. But repeated thanks for your hugely entertaining reviews, and I look forward to my car adrenalin fix on Sunday as usual! Rob
Back in 1986 I needed a replacement for my Lancia Beta Coupe which suffered an unfortunate demise. The local Fiat Dealer had a Gran Finale in the showroom in metallic red. I thought it was a little over my budget but they were willing to deal and it was mine. 36 years later it is still in my garage. The issue with the gears is partly due to the linkage connecting the rod into the box. It incorporates two round plates separated by a rubber disc to cushion vibration but over time the rubber degrades leading to excessive slop in the movement leading to difficulty engaging gears. It is quick and cheap to replace however.
My first sports car, aged 18 in 1982. Wham!, bam, thank you ma’am … I loved it. Insurance cost me approx 40% cost of car 🙄. For sure, mine at MY1977 was getting rusty already, but I got it all fixed and resprayed. Usual Italian electrics 🥺 but wow was I a happy bunny. The original 3 spoke alloys worked very well. Started my petrol head journey into Matra Bagheera and then Lancia Montecarlo ( which was initially supposed be a big brother to the X1/9) …. No wonder my fingernails were permanently dirty 🤔. Now have McLaren, Ferrari and Lotus but would willing get back into one of these and feel just as happy. 😝
I had two different 128 3P's with this engine. Absolute riot to drive!! The first one was 10 years old when i bought it and already needed its doors replace for the second time due to rot.
Hello Ed, You're driving! We built one of these for Rallycross! On the basis that if you do the same as everybody else then you won't ever be better than them... We started with a tatty car but the chassis was very good, it was a 1500 5-speed. Our class permitted max 1600cc normally aspirated 2 valve engines. The original engine could have been modified for considerately more power but would still not have been competitive. I was a fan of the Fiat/Lancia twin cam as it has hemispherical combustion chambers, big valves and can be tuned to 180/190 hp in 1600 form. Our engine and gearbox from a Beta was built for us by Swiftune near Ashford, race cams, bigger valves, dry sump oiling etc, a full race engine. The gearbox was Punto turbo with a competition straight cut gear set from Italy along with LSD. The gearbox cost more than the rest of the car, this was usual in Rallycross at that time. There were two problems though - the Beta engine is wider and canted over by about 45 degrees and the engine to gearbox bolt patterns are different. We overcame those two issues by developing an adaptor plate between the two. The Beta flywheel was too big for the Punto bellhousing so we removed the ring gear and turned it down to fit the X1/9 ring gear thus enabling the bigger Beta clutch and the original X1/9 starter motor bolted to the Punto gearbox. It was all topped off by a pair of 45DCOE Webers. We took the engine to an engine dyno man and he set it up for us, jets, timing etc. One interesting fact he demonstrated to us was that running temperature has a big influence on race engine power output - the cooler the engine the more power it produces. He was able to control water temperature on his dyno rig and showed us a hot running engine produces markedly less power than a cool running engine, the effect was significant and we paid a lot of attention to good oil and water cooling when building the car. We had Koni adjustable dampers with adjustable spring pans and 2.25" springs of various gauges and lengths. Bonnet and boot lids were glass fibre. The car was really fast off the line but we were still working on the handling after two Rallycross events when a helpful person torched our garage one night and everything went up in flames, the car was destroyed. That was the end of that.
Ah man, I loved these back in the 70's and 80's, wish I had bought one when they were in my budget. On a side note, really enjoying the progress in your presenting skills, the structure of your videos, and the choice of presentation, is really getting to a level where I am surprised if you are not noticed by some big television bods.
Could be better for him to stay well away from TV progs. All the Top Gear presenters ended up turning my guts over with their infantile remarks and ridiculous pranks.
Hmm...needs to rein in the machine-gun utterances of 'incredible' and 'incredibly'. At one point they came faster than the X1-9's crankshaft revolutions...
I had a 'Kermit Green' '74 swapped to a 1500 with Weber DCNs and a header. Fun car. Gearbox was similarly unwilling, but chassis, brakes and suspension all did well enough. It wasn't fast, but it could be pretty much fully wrung out anywhere. Scooting it through a cloverleaf on the throttle was giggle worthy. I always liked that there was a legitimate, accessible mid-engined Gandini wedge on the mainstream market, and that it was actually a pretty decently usable car on it's own account.
Unusually for a young man the early 80's, I wasn't much interested in cars. But I remember the moment I saw an X1-9 I was in love. Metallic dark green with mustard seats on prominent display at a car yard and I kept going to look at it every few days wishing I could afford it. Absolutely perfect shape! Modern small cars are too 'cube' shaped for body rigidity I assume.
I drive my 86 X1/9 every day. Some serious undersealing by a prudent previous owner has preserved it all these year. What a joy it is to own and drive.
I had the exact same car, metallic light blue with funky stripped seats, back in the 70's in Switzerland where I lived at the time. It was the most fun car to drive I've ever owned and the best looking car as well. It could corner like on rails around the mountain roads and rev like my Z900RS. Wish I still owned it! Great video of a real gem of a little sports car from Fiat Bertoni. Thanks.
They still look great. A friend of mine in high school had one & I rode in it once. 1975. The flattest cornering car I ever rode in. He threw it into corners & it stuck like glue. When it did break loose he controlled the drift & kept going. Most fun I ever had in a car. I wanted one but they quit making them. I wonder how hard it would be to make a car this light & agile today & pass safety & emissions regs.
I owned a '77 R reg UK 1300 in blue. Absolutely loved the car, but not without rust and gearbox issues. Roof stowed away for most journeys, day or night, whatever the weather. In the end I couldn't afford to keep it, but always regret not being able to have another one whilst they were still around. Rarely seen these days. Excellent video, brought back memories to an older man.
its a lovely car. There is so much of the Lancia Stratos DNA in it or so it seems!❤ Perhaps as you said, it has left its imprint on the Stratos…And Ed you are truly excelling yourself with each new video. You are indeed a first class presenter. And its great that there is such a thing as You Tube Premium for people like us to get to see these wonderful presentations and learn so much more! Thanks!
For Gandini, this was a better rally car than the Stratos. In the Stratos he used the Ferrari V6 because he was requested to by Cesare Fiorio, but he considered it too heavy and top heavy for a rally car. The FIAT twincam was better. Infact the Fiat X1/9 Abarth was the car that should have replaced the Stratos on the World Rally Championship. In tests, the pilots valued it favourably, especially for the more predictable behaviour, the car had already been homologated to race in WRC but, at the last moment, FIAT decided to use the 131 Abarth instead.
Ed, brilliant, superb, fantastic and any other word I can think of! 50 years, damn I’m old, I still think of the 1970’s as “only a few years ago”. I had the 128 4 door saloon in the late 1970’s so can attest to the engine and handling. The X19, was beautiful, but a tad small for me and too expensive at the time. Great to see you out driving and enjoying the car you are testing. ❤
I've owned 2 of them. They were a lot of fun. Never had a problem with rust, but then, I owned the first one in west Texas, the second in southern California. They felt like they were running on rails.
You brought back the old good memories. In 1977, when I was studying in the UK, I bought my imported right hand drive 1977 Fiat X 1.9 (tax free), used it for six months, and then exported it to Saudi Arabia. Thank you.
My first car was a '76 X1/9. It gave me three years of great service, including the kind of driving it really wasn't designed for (12-hour American highway trips). Today I have a '93 MR2 which I love, but I still have dreams about my X1/9 and would love to restore one some day.
A really impressive mass market road car. In the late 1970's my sister owned one which I drove most enthusiastically whenever she'd let me. Based on this exposure my best friend bought a 5-speed version that we ripped around the rural hillside roads in our area near San Francisco. The center of gravity was so low they could hug the road as if they were on a track. Fun times indeed. Thanks for the insightful review on the history of this terrific little gem.
What a marvellously well prepared and presented review. On behalf of X1/9 owners everywhere, thank you. I've owned my 1500 since 1989 and my 3rd and 4th gear synchro is also rubbish.
What a delight to discover this video, brilliant. I have two late Bertone ones, took my 'holiday runaround' one-off SORN yesterday and gave her a run-out, took her to the hand carwash this morning, I have to drive her home to Cornwall later in the week, so a two and a half hour trip, after which, I will feel as if I have had my head stuck in a bee hive for the afternoon, but it's not too damaging to my back, she has done less than 30,000 miles from new and is a gunmetal metallic. My other one, a blue Gran Finale, has covered just 1,200 miles from new, 400 of which are mine, and she is a showroom piece. Finding third gear is crunchy around 50% of the time on my sliver one, reverse on both cars is a lottery between reverse, fifth and an unknown gear in between them both which does not engage but sounds like a bag made of sandpaper filled with square marbles,
I built that after buying a carb trumpet from eBay and realising it wouldn't fit under the normal cover. I think you're the only person who noticed it 👍
What a beauty! I was very nearly tempted to buy one, but unfortunately needed something with 4 seats and a boot! Lovely car though! It’s nice to see you driving it as well!!
Woulda coulda shoulda you could of bought it and got like a 2000.00 old camry for your daily that's what I did got a 88 camry for 1000 10 years reliable driving and my 87 x 1/9 few other cars too but just an example I hear that a lot and the solution you get a daily beater then your classic sport car for when weather's nice and weekends
@@alessandrolok5450 The X1/9 had a trunk in back (behind the engine under it's own separate cover) and a much larger trunk in the front which could hold a large ice chest and a beach chair. The targa top stored under the front hood/bonnet
Great review- the best one I have seen by far. These are hugely underappreciated cars- absolutely stunning design and head and shoulders above its contemporaries when released in 1972 with disc brakes all round and fully independent suspension. Handling is sublime, even by todays standards and the ride is comparable to a modern car. Not particularly quick in standard form but more than adequate and easily modified to make much more power to exploit the chassis. Much more fun and involving to drive than my old Capri 2.8i, Saab 900 T16s, Scimitar GTE and at the end of the day, that's what its all about for me.
I have never driven an X1/9 (or even sat in one), but this car was so distinctive in my childhood. Great video, Ed! Your passion and production of the vid were terrific. I was grinning the whole way through it. Cheers.
I bought a '74 X1/9 while a senior in high school (March 1974)... Had a lot of fun including sticking my downhill skis through the open top while I drove to the ski resort.... had a few electrical gremlins, but not too bad.... one quirk that took a while getting used to is the back window is very close to the driver and it's angles almost perfectly vertical... as you drove down the road the oncoming headlights would reflect back in your review mirror appearing llike a car was speeding up behind at about 120 MPH...mine was blue like the one in the review....wish I still had it for summertime rides.....thanks for the video
My dad had 3 of these in succession, he loved them. His first was a frog green 1300 model, it came with a set of sports bags sized to fit in the rear boot and a beautifully styled radio. I'm guessing most of those got dumped for radio cassettes in the 80s. The example you show here had the same seats, but I remember the door cards to be a lot more interesting.
Nice to see a driving video. You are so passionate of old marques and being so interesting with old tech. You actually hold me more than Jayemm with your presentation and quality of filming. Plus you review cars from my era that I grew up with. Fantastic video.
I owned a 1978 X/19 and the 4 speed gearbox worked flawlessly. However, the tiny engine required a full on GP start at every traffic light just to keep up with normal traffic flow.
I had a 1969 Fiat 124 Spider as my first car, and loved it. Always wanted an X1/9 because they looked so cool, and still would like to have one. Thanks for your great video!
What an awesome and iconic car. And another great video. Brilliant to finally see you have the opportunity to get behind the wheel of a car during these reviews. hope it continues.
I had one of these in the early 80s as a second car, loved it. I now have a Mazda MX5 NC which I bought last year to enjoy with the roof down. Great video as always, keep it up.
Love X1/9! My first car was a Fiat Strada, which shared this engine & gearbox. The engine was lightyears better than my friends' Ford contemporaries but the gearbox was made of glass, and even in front wheel drive, was changed by mail!
Great to see you driving a guest review car, though I was waiting for "and I've just bought this car myself" as the closing line. A friend had a 1500 example, SVN9X and we had a Strada S85 with the same engine and gearbox. Both kept jumping out of 3rd gear! Your review has earned you a new subscriber 😁
Fell in love with the looks and the concept. Bought one in 1981 and even drove it through the Black Hills, bison and all. Then the engineering faiilures appeared as I daly drove it in MN. The carburetor iced up in about 15 minutes in freezing weather. Salt from the roads made the brakes all freeze up and chatter constantly. The first warm and humid summer day the nylon window cranks stripped out and replacements were non-existant. My 1971 Vega didn't even have these problems!
Ed, your videos help me re-live my youth, most of which was working as an apprentice in a Triumph Stag specialist. asside from the Snags, we used to get many other sports cars come in for work: lots of Jags, MGs, Triumphs, Alfas, an early Masarati Ghibli but the one I fell in love with was the X-19. a little road legal go-kart, just point and squirt. watching your face driving it is like a replay of my own from that era. my only criticism of the driving experience is that it was underpowered, the chassis could clearly handle far more. I didn't ever own one. a combination of standard fitment Italian rust, the rather cramped awkward engine bay and need for more power put me off. however, a TR-7 obsessed friend from school did buy one and had the ride of his life sitting next to me one Saturday afternoon...
Thanks for that, really enjoyed your review of such a joyous little car. Nice to see you got to drive it too! I remember an earlier episode where you mentioned the difficulties of insurance.
Stunning little car... Such a pleasure to see you out driving and obviously enjoying the many talents of the X1/9, Sadly one of the cars that "so far" i have not owned...
Nice review Ed. I had a 1984 Bertone badged 1500 back in 2004 for a bit. Despite having photo evidence of a back to metal respray/rebuild it was still full of wob sadly and had to be moved on. Had a fantastic drive across the south downs in it once. I had wanted one since I was a kid.
I Had a 1981 1500 5 spd, I absolutely loved that car, even now at 60 years old I dream of having another even though I've had many much faster performance cars since there was something special about my Fiat especially on a sunny day with the roof off on winding country roads, such a well sorted and beautiful little car.
Brilliant Ed, well done. So glad that you got to drive it too. Yes, love the seats...anything that 'reeks' of the 1970's is right up my street. I still think it's 1977..!! lol
Just enjoyed watching this review and the seats were indeed comfortable enough for a long journey I drove one to Rome and back in the early '80s for a holiday, great fun.
Thats a beautiful example ...(to say the least) !!! ... They are just "fun" little cars with no bad points at all !!! ... My neighbor had the 1.5 litre model way back and kept it garaged all the time ... It had something crazy like 13,000 miles on it ..... but it started to rust !!! ... GREAT CARS THOUGH
"They are just "fun" little cars with no bad points at all !!!" I respectfully disagree. The rear brakes are so underloaded that they fail, quite often. The front brakes do all the work and always need a good firm shove on the pedal. There's scuttle shake, and the fibreglass roof squeaks and rattles like mad on all but the smoothest roads. The electrics are bad - Magneti Marelli quality in the 1970s was pretty poor. Accessibility in the engine bay is also bad, although to be fair Fiat did provide some removable panels to make maintenance that bit easier. Motorway cruising is not the X1/9's forte - it's twitchy, badly affected by sidewinds and the gearing in 5th is too low. None the less, you're right in that a well sorted X1/9 is one of the great sportscars of it's era - I never managed to unstick mine on any bend in the dry. It's narrow, very agile, and as the reviewer said the engine lives on revs. On a nice empty A or B road on a summer's day, they are fantastic fun cars. The design is brilliant and it's a shame rust has taken so many of them.
Nice one Ed, very well done. As a kid I remember preferring the X19 over the TR7 when it was released and was a cause of a few sibling arguments with my slightly older brother. If I recall correctly from all those years ago the TR7 was almost a Dolomite in a different frock but the X19 really was perceived as something different. Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing.
Very nice video... One thing to mention, is also the connection with this and the Toyota MR2 mk1, similar in shape and in genesis to the x1/9. Plus, I'm a radicated Lancia enthusiast, you should try a Fulvia Coupé. I drove a '73 mk3, and it was a revelation to me how entertaining can be a 90hp car how modern it drives
Exactly. You don’t need eleventy-bajillion horsepower to have huge amounts of fun behind the wheel, you know! …and cue all the 10-13 year old Ferrari/Lamborghini fanboys who will probably disagree.
You can get to 75 mph on a slip road with 40 bhp. Believe me. I’ve done it. You don’t need power to get somewhere, you need common sense and an ability to drive.
Back in high school in the 70s, a friend bought a new X1/9 and it was indeed striking when parked in the school's student lot filled with aging American muscle cars and hand-me-down mommymobiles. I got to drive it once; not much power but the thing could handle and corner. I've was smitten, and my love affair with European cars has been an affliction ever since.
I remember reading the ‘Motor’ road test of the UK Launch edition. I seem to recall it was supplied with a couple of soft bags that matched the seat material.
Ed, thus was so addictive and for me marks you transformation to a real car tester/reviewer: it was brilliantly written, filmed, presented and edited - plus with such obvious enthusiasm for the fun Fiat. Years ago I looked at one but sadly many of then were subjected to the dreaded metal worm, so I declined and eventually got an MX5. I am not being patronising of revers ageist, but this rad test really does mean you have come of motoring age! I truly hope that you both continue to use your well-earned degree and motoring stellar career . Your potential is huge 'co you so personable! And that's from a former reviewer, competitor and petrolhead who at near 76 has reached the end of all such thrills! I fear for various reasons I am not on social media and only come across your reviews on You Tube - but the anxiety of waiting merely heightens the pleasure! Robert
Way back when, I had a Fiat 128 hatchback and lusted after the X1/9. I used to do 8K rev shifts, floating the valves. I finally got some FAZA parts (40mm Webber downdraft, 1/4 race cam and headers) and had so much fun, when it ran.
You’re a natural, Ed. Just at home driving and presenting as....well, just presenting. If price and scarcity were not major factors we would all be running out to pick up an x-19 after watching this. Well done
Great video, Ed. Finding out you have only been doing Twin Cam for 3 years, I realized I must have been a fairly early subscriber, since I have been watching you for about 3 years. Going back through all your videos, there are not many I haven't seen at least once. Your video quality just keeps getting better and better. I remember when the X-19 was new. Fiat had some lovely cars in the early 70s, and this was one of the greats. The issue was that Fiat had worked very hard indeed to earn the "Fix It Again, Tony" reputation. The biggest problem they had here was that what needed fixing again was the body structure on all of their products. They were doomed to follow Citroen and Peugeot out of Canada simply because rust repair under warranty could have bankrupted the company if they sold too many cars here. When cars are rusting in the showroom with 10 miles showing on the odometer, customers do not care how well a car drives. They worry that the car will be no more than a pile of iron oxide before the final payment. That was the same thing that killed of sales of some of my favourite British models. It is a real shame.
I used to go into work with my father during the summer hols from school. It was a general jobbing workshop & there was an X19 which had come in for a bit of work & MOT. It was without doubt the most rotten car which at a glance looked ok that I've ever seen. The customer was adamant that they wanted sorted so jt had some serious reconstruction work carried out. That was very early '90s & it was a fairly late one from memory.
Just picked up an 86 with 29,000 miles .No rust! ridiculous fun! Wish it had the Twin Cam from my 124 spider which is a full house Abarth Rally engine...adding a header to the x engine...open up the breathing a bit
Being only a few yrs old in 1977 I remember thinking what a gorgeous car this was and it was one of my favourites on my list to own when I was older. I couldn't believe the same make was responsible for the 126, 128 and the Panda and were able to churn out the gorgeous X1-9 and the Spyder. Your can clearly see the origins of the mk1 MR2 with the X1-9.
At 23:10 Ed sums up the X1/9 pretty perfectly. I have owned and driven many (vintage) cars over the years, including Delta Integrale, Lancia Montecarlo, etc. I like my cars to be fast. The X1/9 is the least powerful car I have ever owned, and still own, and will never sell: I still can't quite grasp how this "underpowered", tiny, brilliantly designed car can give me more pleasure than any of the other cars I had (and for some, still have) - but it does. It's absolutely brilliant, and once you have driven one for a couple of hours, you will understand, and you will want to own one. Hec: My Integrale is up for sale, since I don't drive it any way near as much as the X1/9.
Great video, thanks. I don't remember seeing very many of these on UK roads. I do remember looking at one for sale around late 80s and was slightly tempted. Later production and only a few years old, it was already showing quite visible rust! Maybe it's an age/nostalgia thing - modern cars just seem to lack something that the X1/9 had.
Had a T reg 1.3 Lido edition in around ‘86 and in ‘88 I had an X Reg 1.5 … loved both of those cars, I was like Don Johnson and the coolest dude on the block in my roofless two seater! Those wheels on yours though… lancia, or Uno Turbo I guess?
Very pretty car! I have an ‘87 Toyota MR2 which is a very similar car and I absolutely love it. The weight and handling of these cars is what shines. And it’s just as fun as any high horsepower car. I’ve never driven a X1-9 but I appreciate them as the predecessor to my MR2. The T-tops in the MR2 are stored behind the seats which is cool, and the spare is right in the front compartment
Had a few of them. Drove one daily in my early 20s. Put a twincam engine in one, but the best engine was the 1600cc PBS stroked with 2 DCOE Webers. Would have loved to have the Abarth X1/9 that I saw at 38 Corso Marche in Turin. Clay Regazzoni's Giro d' Italia car. Had the 282 engine with twin IDF carburettors, 16v head. Saw the Runabout in Grugliasco at Bertone on the lawn. What a great, fun little car. I like the S1 1300 early cars, in European trim. A nice 1600 in an early car is the best combo. Colotti 5 speed conversion worked well.
