Now that I have a running X I want to increase the performance to it. I am waiting for the cross drilled rotors to come in and will be installing new pads and calipers. Can you tell me any info you have on:

Stiffer and Shorter springs
Anti-sway bars
Exaust kits
Intake kits
and anything else short of adding a supercharger that increases performance

If you can include where to buy, what to look for, does it really help etc. Thanks

-KT

To stiffen up the springs on the front is easy... You can use cut down rear springs on the front. I bought the lowering stiff springs with the race car they were installed on. How stiff are you going to go?

A Sway bar set up is nice, but it depends on what you are wanting from the car... Daily driver or race car.

I am using a header with the longest primary tubes and this helps with torque. I believe it is from PBS.

I use a Dual-carb 40mm DCOE PBS Intake.

Here is their website and a few other links that will help you get a better idea of what you are wanting to get.

PBS Engineering - All Performance parts
http://www.pbseng.com/

Vick's - They guys are great and they race FIATS
http://www.vickauto.com/

Guy Croft - If I were only in the UK... Email him!!
http://www.guy-croft.com/

Hope this helps...


Later Daze,
Eric Flowers
1980 X1/9 "Celeste"


"Real men love hugging tight curves"[}]

Thanks, This car is my second car which I plan on using for Solo 2 and Sunday Drives in the mountains, so I want the springs as stiff as possible, how much should I cut the springs down? I am probably going to buy a set of 205/60's for it because the price is right, my guess is if Im running those I dont want to lower the springs at all.

Also do you know what the stiffness of the front and rear springs are? Are you running any emmision controls at all like a cat and muffler or are you just going straight out of the headers? A few guys at the last Solo 2 race I was at recomended stripping everything out and go headers to a supercan. Any suggestions about that, including a place to buy one?

One more question is what tire pressure do you usually run at for your races? Last race I ran 40 in the rear and 35 up front, back end seemed real loose but I think that is because I was just using the tires I had on the car.

Thanks for your time, really helps.

-KT

You are doing exactly what I have in mind for my X. If you run that size of tire you will not like the "pickup" performance...

Exhaust is completely open... I have a header turned into a Flowmaster and it seems to sound and works fine, but since I am still waiting on brakes parts to arrive, I have no clue as to the raw full throttle sound or performance...

Have you been to the Seattle X/ Xana website? or Mirafiori.com? There is a racer's forum at mira that is completely for racers and FIATs... If you haven't and you want links let me know...


Later Daze,
Eric Flowers
1980 X1/9 "Celeste"


"Real men love hugging tight curves"[}]

Just an FYI, I put on the 205's tires, I really like the way they grip, but if you are planning on putting something on this large you will have to space your wheels about a half an inch or so, otherwise the inside of the walls will rub against the springs. I also had to do a bit of fender trimming (just had to move in the edge about a quarter inch) to ensure that there was no rubbing lock to lock.

1980 X-1/9 Black
# 99 DSP
"Roxanne"

Figure I would give a quick update so if someone comes along wondering what to do to make their X perform a bit better has a bit more idea.

Extras I've recently put on

K&N open air filter, Removes the air can and decreases intake restrictions, obviously only available for injected, but I only paid about 35 from vickauto. Seems to help a bit, espically in Colorado where the air is kind of thin.

Front 7/8" anti-sway bar. The guy at vickauto said this was the most important upgrade you can do to the X. And smokes he was right, this really keeps the car sitting down, problem with one this thick is now the back inside tire picks up off the ground when I take a turn fast. Easy to fix that add a rear anti-sway bar. I paid 130 for the front, real real easy install.

Rear 5/8" anti-sway bar. Definatly keeps the back tire down more, but unlike the front bar, I hade to drill holes and mount brackets to the frame via drilled holes, and it is noticable that regardless of how hard I tighten the bolts there is still movement in the bracket. When I get more argon I plan to weld these brackets to the frame. Again about 130, bit of a hassle to install but not bad.

Feredo auto-X pads. I would not recomend upgrading to these 50 buck per pair pads unless you have steel lines and a clean brake system. The pads do stop a bit faster but my X, and I am sure is the case with most of them, is the rubber hoses gets old and clogged so the pedal is not as firm as would be nice.

I'll keep posting when I do more stuff to her.

1980 X-1/9 Black
# 99 DSP
"Roxanne"