Rob, this might interest you
 

Rob had one like this. :thumbup:

Fred sent me a copy of the article. As interesting as it is, and as fun a car the X-1/9 is, after owning two I don't think I want another. Even with a Honda engine, it's still a Fiat, and by definition, it's hard to keep it together.

To quote my wife after the second one wouldn't start after a stop, "I'm never riding in this car again." That was the end of my second X-1/9.

Not any more both of our Fiats have been great:LOL:

I would take one of these in a heartbeat...if they weren't so pricey. I owned 4 X1/9s over the years and loved them. Drove my buddy's E-Mod SCCA monster...an X1/9 stripped down to ~1700lbs, powered by a turbo 13B rotary (300+ H.P.).

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...7853cd0bb6.jpg

:thumbup:

Its the strangest thing. Some X-1/9 owners think the car great. Others think that it was a lot of fun, but almost impossible to keep running. I had two and they were so unreliable, so poorly built and so hard to keep running that I'd never buy another one.

Check out the one at www.professionalautoexchange.com Wonder what the price is?
So my question to Rob is which was worse for reliability the fiat or the triumph?

That's a real tough question. I think I had more problems with the Fiat, but my TR-6 was pretty bad as well. The difference was that something on the TR-6 was always broken, but the car would run. The X-1/9 simply wouldn't run. My TR-6 soured me on British cars and my Fiat did the same for Italian cars. When Liz and I finally got rid of my original X-1/9 in 1982 we bought our first Honda Accord. It was like a breath of fresh air.

Slow learner? Just asking, since you bought one of each since. :)

That and time helps you to forget.

Anyone wanting a new Fiat should buy it now. I predict the company will be gone from the US market within 5 years or less.

Maybe sooner. I heard that Fiats arent selling very well in the US.

That I believe is a big part of it. I always said I would never buy another British car but find myself occasionally putting mg or triumph into the search bar on Craigslist. I have only had one Italian car and didn’t have any major issues with it but put a lot of research time in studying and looking for it and had some good luck thrown in too.

My MG club, the Central New Jersey MG Club had it's annual "Britfest" today. I was there at 7:00 am as part of the setup crew. By about 10:00 am we had approximately 75 British Cars. The featured marque this year was the Austin Healy 3000. There were about 8 of them. There were MGBs (silver and rubber bumper), Triumph TR-3s, TR-6s, TR-7s and a few Spits. Lotus, Morgans, even 4 McLarens. And my favorite, there was an MG-TD and two MG-TFs (my TD is not running yet so I couldn't bring it). I'm sure there would have been 50 more cars if the weather had been better.

I mention all of this because as I walked through the aisles admiring the cars I completely forgot the promise I made to myself about never owning another British car and started to dream about all of the British cars I'd buy if I had the money and garage space. The allure of British sportscars is overwhelming.

Luckily reality set in and I came back down to earth. As I drove home I thought about what a great car my S2000 is and promised myself that I'd get my TD running in time for next year's Britfest so that someone else could look at it and dream of all the British cars they'd buy if they had the money and garage space.