Best Idea's For Tuning A X1/9

Low budget $500
Suspension
No Change
Brakes
Performance Pads
Wheels/Tyres
No Change
Engine
Change the air filter box and replace with a K&N, ensure you fit ducting from one of the side air scoops, some for of heating ducting can be used for a cheap alternative to expensive motor sport stuff.
Re-jet the carb - trying going up 2 sizes on the main jets and air correctors, you can remove these without removing the carb and can be done while testing on the road. To access them remove the air filter and the jet sit between the inlet chokes. Tip - If you don't have long nose pliers that fit try using a MacDonalds Straw (the only good thing they produce and exactly the right size for weber jets) with the ends cut in a cross shape. This way it will slide over the jet and grip it.
Ignition - Change the coil and plugs for some performance ones, this will help produce a strong spark creating a full and healthy burn. Change the ignition to an electronic type, this will ensure things remain crisp at higher revs.
Change the exhaust rear box for a CSC system, very competatively priced at 80 pounds or $135 online at gazzello racing in the uk.
Results - Power increase by 15hp from 85hp to about 100hp with more power higher up and a greater ability to rev. Brakes will cope with as much as you can throw at them. A much faster car.

Medium Budget $1500
Suspension
No Change
Brakes
Change to Uno Turbo discs and calipers with performance brake pads
Wheels/Tyres
Increase tyre size to 185 section
To keep within the budget you will be looking for secondhand alloys and you don't want to go bigger than 185 section tyres. If you want to retain 13" wheels the Lancia Montecarlo phase 1 alloys look very good and are 5.5" wide or even Uno Turbo phase 1 alloys will suit. Most other options will involve going for 14" alloys where a range from Croma Turbo to Strada Abarth will fit. Dependant on which model they come from you may need to use spacers to attain the correct offset.
Engine
As above exept
Change the exhaust as the standard exhaust is totally inadequate and restrictive. CSC do a performance manifold and system for about 200 pounds or $350 plus shipping. You can get this from gazzello racing in the uk.
Performance cam bought from guy croft or gazzello racing, although this is stretching the budget to the maxium.
Results - Another 15 hp taking power to 115hp, (carbs now totally restricting the power, if these were weber twin downdrafts power would increase by 25hp at least to 125hp)
High Budget - $3000>
Suspension
New coil springs or Leda coil overs
Brakes
Uno Turbo with ducting and motorsport pads ferrodo DS2500
Wheels/Tyres
Increase in size and rim width to 205 section tyres at least
Bodywork
Flared arches to cover the increased wheels size
Engine
N/A engine with Guy Croft Stage3 head, gas flowed, larger valves and very high compression. Tubular manifold and matching system, twin 40 downdraft webers and highlift long duration cam (Kent cam - Scott Development spec). 15 row oil cooler. Electronic ignition. Lightened flywheel and high performance clutch.
Power output should be 155hp. You can takes things further with this engine, dry sump, forged pistons and if you can find it from Italy the Ferraris 16V head. With fuel injection and an engine management system this would put out over 220hp but is extremely expensive and represents the absolute panicle of the engine.
Turbo transplant
Take one Uno Turbo engine, substitute the cam carrier from the X19 engine and modify the gearbox to accept the flywheel sensor for the uno turbo ignition. Fabricate piping for the intercooler and mount near the side are scoop. Install the wiring loom for the ignition and fuel ECU which are plug in and play only requiring power and an earth. It's that easy to do it the only problem comes with the temptation to raise the boost.
The turbo engine provides 105hp as standard at about .7bar boost. With the addition of an adjustable fuel regulator like an FSE type the fuel pressure can be raised and the boost can also be raised. A 'safe' limit of boost for the Uno engine is 1.1 bar which will give about 150hp although care should be used to edge up to this limit. I have run engines up to 1.5 bar of boost (200hp) which is the limit for the turbo and this has already surpassed the limits for what the standard engine mangement systems can deal with. If you want boost past 1.1 bar and are loooking for big power you should consider an engine management system like MOTEC, a larger turbo and different injectors. Professional set up is required I'm quite sure the engine will take up to 2 bar of boost without changing the standard pistons which would give over 280hp.

Great article Brae91,i was interested in the csc exhaust where can i buy it from.You mention gazzello racing but i cannot find a link for there site,are they still going?

Hi,

thanks for the postive reply

yh the website is

http://www.gazzella.cc/cart.php

hope this helps

Brian

Thanks Brian

Sorry but you're dreaming on a lot of that. The caveat has to be that the car is in perfect working order to start with and I do mean *perfect*.

Your budget (sub $500) list is all good recommendations but you'll be lucky to get 5bhp and even luckier to find a 1500 engine that still produces 85bhp to start with!

The biggest limiting factors on an X1/9 are the brakes and suspension. The solid discs are fine but the calipers are not. A set of Tarox discs would solve any problems in the disc department but the calipers are awful.

The medium budget option is more on target for recommendations but cost is out if you are trying to get to 115bhp. You might manage it for that much if you had your own workshop and did everything yourself. You can't ignore the suspension though, in fact I would blow the majority on the suspension and live with less power. Stripping excess weight out of the car can go an awful long way to making up the performance! The main reason is the gearbox just won't take it unless nursed along, there are ways around it but it chews up a big chunk of your budget.

High budget? A Guy Croft engine is an awful lot more than $3000, double that in gbp and you still wouldn't be looking at a realistic figure for getting the power you want.

A high performance NA engine would top out at about 160bhp (on the road) and cost about 10000 once you've got everything in the car. A turbo engine equivalent means sacrificing the rear luggage area (or some of it) and will get you to the naughty side of 200bhp without much trouble for the same money.

A full on fast X1/9 is going to cost big money, simple as that - the wrong side of £20,000 if you're doing it right. Racking up a £100,000 bill isn't hard (and I know of such cars).

It can all be done on a budget - just ask the autocrossers in the states but it takes a great deal of ingenuity and hard work. The recommendations aren't wrong (although I disagree on the focus) I just feel that the expectations set are unrealistic (on price and performance).

hey jimbro1000

just before u think this is me saying all this it isn't i found it on a fiat abarth website. i thought i would help people here so i copyed it on this forum to help people.

Regardless of who came up with the list it has more than a few problems and technical errors.

Anyone who tries running an Uno Turbo engine at 1.1bar will quickly find that the engine is very short lived (1 bar is a more realistic limit) and the turbo will only work upto about that level and roughly 130bhp (too many variables govern this).

The engine *will* handle 2 bar of boost but only if you throw about £8000 at it to fix a whole variety of pitfalls. Failure to attend to all these problems will result in an expense lump of scrap metal in the front of your car. The idea of using the stock pistons to do so is quite laughable though. How do I know - we've done it but it took an incredible amount of work to get there reliably.

The problem is that this is a real minefield area, taken at face value the information isn't bad but would lead to some very expensive mistakes.