Blown Engine

[Paul]

I had a 1972 128 SL Coupe that almost always had a better time than any Porsche at our autocrosses, even my 1970 914.

Later I occasionally took fastest time of the day in an X 1/9....

FIAT owns Ferrari...

[QUOTE=Paul]I had a 1972 128 SL Coupe that almost always had a better time than any Porsche at our autocrosses, even my 1970 914.

Later I occasionally took fastest time of the day in an X 1/9....

FIAT owns Ferrari...[/QUOTE]


Yeah imagine that, lancia too. I had a 128 SL other than being geared too low and a bit underpowered it was one of my favorite cars. When I see what they sell for now on EBAY I'm shocked. I learned to drive on a 600, my dad let me and my bro solo at age seven, what a guy!! I had an X 1/9 too, my dad built race engines before he owned his own dealership and we built that 1/9. It had a triple angle valve job, shaved head, iskindarian cam ground to our specs and the biggest weber we could mount on it. You could blow right through the redline and keep revving, it never came apart. Many guys who feasted on the slow moving x 1/9's were surprised to have their ass handed to them. One dude followed me all the way to work to ask how it was powered, ahh the good ol days..

[Tool Pants]

Since we are talking about Fiats....

I had two X 1/9s. 1975 and then 1981. 21 years of ownership. If I remember correctly Fiat was based out of New Jersey.

In 1999 I thought it was time to move on. Fiat/Berone had been out of the US market for a decade or so. But I could not let go. I did not care about the fix me again jokes.

What gave a slight push was a visit to Costco. The tires that fit were pirelli P3s or something like that. You could no longer buy that tire. Around 1998-1999 I went to Costco and there was a P something tire that was a bit wider but it would work.

I filled out the order form in the Costco tire shop for 5 tires (full size spare) and wrote down a 1981 Fiat. There were a bunch of young people working around the place. Counter guy told me to come back in an hour. You could not see the shop from the counter. They put a cone on my car in the parking lot with #24 on it.

I came back in an hour and the counter guy said they were still working on my car so I sat down next to the counter and looked at his motorcycle books, as he had just bought a Harley. As I was reading the books a young guy came in from the shop and said they could not find the "flat" on car #24 that they were supposed to replace. I said #24 was my car and did not have a flat and followed him into the shop.

They had taken my Fiat apart looking for a flat spare. None of my 5 tires were flat. They were looking for a flat on a Fiat. They did not know where the spare tire was. One of the guys said he even looked in the glove box for the spare.

I later bought a Boxster and then months later I donated the 1981 to a charity for a tax write-off at XXX dollars. I felt quilty so a few days later I went back to the donation place to see if I could buy back my Fiat for X dollars, but it was gone.