This is not about rust, reliability or blindly buying a car so bodged together you sell for a £1,500 loss nine months later. The X1/9 was penned by Bertone in 1969 but was too cool for British Leyland. In Fiat hands and combined with the power plant from the legendary 128 the X1/9 soon became one of the best selling sports cars ever made and to this day one of the best handling cars money can buy.

Some of the cars Fiat made since have been cool but this is the yardstick.

A cool car, as long as it's not painted poo brown, lol!

Brown is 'back in' isn't it???

purf said:

Brown is 'back in' isn't it???

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only for the style blind. modders started it

x1/9 lower than a ladies fanny (1st pic) so has to be cool

Cool, Cool, Cool, no wait i'm wrong, its so cool its frozen solid, I have wanted one of these for years!!!!

mariocinq said:

Cool, Cool, Cool, no wait i'm wrong, its so cool its frozen solid, I have wanted one of these for years!!!!

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Ditto!

@ Dave

I think she is standing on the cill.

Most of them need lowering thanks to the stupid US import headlight height and crash laws...

First trip out in my mostly restored x19 yesterday... fantastic fun

"The X1/9 was penned by Bertone in 1969 but was too cool for British Leyland...."

Have the words "cool" and "British Leyland" ever previously been seen in the same sentence?

harvestmouse said:

"The X1/9 was penned by Bertone in 1969 but was too cool for British Leyland...."

Have the words "cool" and "British Leyland" ever previously been seen in the same sentence?

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Yes: the Triumph Stag.

Triumph, didn't they make bra's in the early 80's
LUIGI

2668GRIFFIN said:

Triumph, didn't they make bra's in the early 80's
LUIGI

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puntofan01 said:

Yes: the Triumph Stag.

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Hairdressers' car...
And it only worked when the original Triumph engine got junked and a Rover V8 slotted in...
IMHO, obviously...

really cool

purf said:

Brown is 'back in' isn't it???

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I'm old enough to remember brown in the '70s. Depending on the shade it was quite a good colour. Having said that, you could also describe it as dark beige! Ford's Tawny (and its later variations) looked good on the Mk1 Granada and Mk4 Cortina Ghia

http://www.newoldcar.co.uk/index.ph...rtina-1978-ford-cortina-2000-ghia-mk4-ref-299

Having said that, even this Ghia doesn't actually look that good in Roman Bronze.

http://classics.honestjohn.co.uk/reviews/ford/cortina-mk480/

http://www.kevinmcgowan.org/cars/html/cars.html

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/8754189239/

My brother has a 2012 Jag XF which is in a very dark metallic brown. Personally I think it looks great.

They were all at it. Vauxhall, Ford, Chrysler, VW, Renault, FIAT. Poo brown Strada anyone?

I went out with a girl who had a dark brown Hillman Avenger, and, I think it's safe to say that she was more of a go-er than the car.

I owned a red 1973 1.3 liter, 4 gear x1/9 that was modded in the 1970's by a famous mechanic in Turin. That things was seriously fast, and it made me smile every time I looked at it!

cool

"My First Fiat", silver 1980 1.5l 5-speed purchased in 1990 for the first mrs to replace her rather dinged & rusty Mitsi Mirage. The ultimate cool factor and I always drove it with a big grin!

Sold it after 3 years for slightly more than we had paid (not counting our cash infusions to keep it warrantable) to a very persistent "will you please sell me your car" guy.

Goes much better with the Uno turbo and appropriate suspension mods (a friend had one in bright yellow, definitely in a different universe).