1978 Fiat Fiat X1/9

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4 - Cyl.

Manual

Gasoline

Up for auction is a very presentable 1978 Fiat X1/9, with Ferrari-red exterior and brown interior. Bumpers have been changed to 75-style, one step away from the more elegant single rail or bumperless mod. Hard-to-find 74/75-style front indicators, with red turn signal lenses in the rear. Rust and collision free. Floorpans and chassis are solid with no holes, rear trunkwell floors are intact, a great indicator of the condition of an X19 chassis. Interior is presentable, the seats are firm and comfortable with some minor issues to the vinyl. Dashboard has some cracks as most of them do. Blemish-free OEM windshield. The odometer shows 72K on the clock and is confirmed with the original title. As North America's largest Fiat / Lancia parts and service facility, we received the car last fall and have performed a complete refurb on it. We’ve been over every single area of the vehicle, and it has been daily driven for a few weeks prior to sale. The car has completely refurbished brake and clutch hydraulics, and stops on a dime. Wheel bearings, control arms, ball joints, struts, springs, steering rack etc. have all been checked out and determined either to be in excellent condition or replaced as needed. Alloy Western wheels with new 175/70 tires. New Interstate battery. Targa top is in very good condition with nice gloss-black finish. The car has received a 1500cc engine (upgraded from the 1300cc that was issued stock), with fully rebuilt mechanical secondary Weber carb, PBS long-tube headers, Bosch ignition and hard-to-find stainless expansion tank. CVs/tripods/axle boots are fully checked out. 4-Spd trans with 4.42 final drive that shifts nicely into all gears and does not pop out of reverse. This is a great looking, well-driving car that is very presentable at 15 feet. It has a deep color, high-shine paint job that is a couple of years old. It does have a few dings, nicks and scratches need to be worked out to make the exterior "excellent". With the 4.42 final drive in the transaxle, this is not a long-distance highway car, but is a great urban commuter, hill-country, or drive-to-the-event autocrosser. To address some questions that folks have asked about the statement above regarding highway driving: Some X19s were issued with a final drive ratio in the transaxle that is geared fairly low. This means that regular street driving is comfortably in the 2-4,000 RPM range, but when on a freeway keeping up with 75MPH traffic, the engine will spin at 4500 RPM or higher. The car can easily handle this but it seems a bit busy compared to today’s cars that are geared differently. There is nothing wrong with driving this car on a highway, it’s just not what people are used to today. Other X1/9s are fitted with higher final drive ratio that brings the engine RPM at highway speeds down to 3-3500 RPM range, more comfortable on the freeway, closer to the behavior of today’s cars. The tradeoff is that ones with the higher ratio transaxle arrangement are not quite as peppy in slower traffic or at take-off from a stop. Midwest Bayless Italian Auto is North America's premier specialist on Fiat / Bertone X1/9 cars. We have serviced and restored more X1/9s in the last 10 years than we can count. We also race X19s in SCCA Road Racing. Buy from us with confidence, we stand behind the cars we sell.