Tuning Just a dream... X1/9 with a l5 engine from a marea or coupe

Currently reading:
Tuning Just a dream... X1/9 with a l5 engine from a marea or coupe

Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
26
Points
4
Location
Denton County, Texas
I want an X1/9. It'd be nice to have one like my profile picture and I'd look into putting the l5 turbocharged engine from a marea or from a coupe. Would this work and would it work well? Also, I'm more concerned about handling then power so if the l4 turbo would be better, then it'd be cool. lol It's the only thing on my wishlist. If I had an exxy I'd run the world twice.
 
My personal opinion on the I5 is don't do it - it isn't that its a bad engine, its just too big. The old I4 from the earlier generation coupe fits much, much better and is just as powerful but not quite as efficient on fuel. There is also a much wider range of the old dohc I4 engines as the design goes back further than the X1/9 itself. Go with the lancia version (getting a bit hard to find) and the fit is even better plus there is even a gearbox ready to go in...
 
Thank you for the response:D, nobody seemed to want to input on this in other areas. Also, do you have any idea where a kit like the one in my picture could be found? Maybe a dallara kit? The rubber/metal bumpers usually end up in bad condition and look faded. I'm really quite far ahead of myself right now though:yuck:... Hahaha.Ahhhh
 
Last edited:
Hi, regarding your picture it may be a eurosport kit, doubt you would find one in Texas though!
Having looked a bit closer it may well be a Faran (no longer available i believe)
 
Last edited:
Hi, regarding your picture it may be a eurosport kit, doubt you would find one in Texas though!
Having looked a bit closer it may well be a Faran (no longer available i believe)

Craaaaaaaap:/ well, if I can help it (I probably can't) I'll be in England or somewhere in Europe by the time I'm 25 (10 years... God I'm young.) I'd probably go with that and real grippy tires and wonderful brakes. But just to have one would be amazing. Nobody wants to give some kid from the next generation an exxy do they? Hahaha
 
The Faran kit is simply not going to happen unless you are willing to invest a substantial sum in getting moulds made from one of the few remaining originals.

Beyond that there are only a few kit options

1 - Dallara, there are actually a few variations on this and all "original" depending on when Dallara made the parts (they are all copies now). The difference is the shaping of the fender flares and whether or not there is a side skirt. Nearly all of the ones you'll find now are the same though.

2 - Bubble flares, this is where Dallara started from but never used themselves.

3 - Eurosport (type 2), this is a modification of the Dallara panels to give the car more of an 80's Ferrari 512 look.

4 - Eurosport (type 1), this is a copy of the original european IN model kit (not to be confused with the federal spec IN cars).

5 - 1300 style, it is quite possible to convert a 1500 back to 1300 styling, the parts are readily available (more so in the states than it is here in europe).

All of the panels and parts are still available unless you want a specific Dallara look in which case some parts are easier to find than others.
 
Well, mostly I'm looking at the front bumper. The lower part of the bumper doesn't set all that far behind the upper part of the bumper and it looks good that way, I don't like the way the Dallara front bumper has a shape like this
\
O / (front bumper)
I think that it'd look better like in the picture kinda shaped like this
\
O | (front bumper)
I'd either take the sideskirts off, or make them go straight down. I'd have to get a different spoiler, that one is not quite tall enough. I would want it to apply downforce though but then would the downforce do anything at typical x19 speeds? Jimbro, you should know about this, I saw your pictures and you've got a huge flick on yours. Remember, just owning the car is just a dream right now. And are those custom taillights or aftermarket? Also, is that a bottle of NO2 in the boot?
 
If you want that look then you will need a Eurosport type 2 as Jimbro calls it:

RedXFormerglory.jpg
 
Well, mostly I'm looking at the front bumper. The lower part of the bumper doesn't set all that far behind the upper part of the bumper and it looks good that way, I don't like the way the Dallara front bumper has a shape like this
\
O / (front bumper)
I think that it'd look better like in the picture kinda shaped like this
\
O | (front bumper)
I'd either take the sideskirts off, or make them go straight down. I'd have to get a different spoiler, that one is not quite tall enough. I would want it to apply downforce though but then would the downforce do anything at typical x19 speeds? Jimbro, you should know about this, I saw your pictures and you've got a huge flick on yours. Remember, just owning the car is just a dream right now. And are those custom taillights or aftermarket? Also, is that a bottle of NO2 in the boot?

Getting "downforce" in an X1/9 is something of a dream in its own right. It might look fairly aerodynamic but the X1/9 is anything buy. The most you can hope for is a reduction in lift.

The taillights on my car were hand made (by me) and are actually stadium score-board LED clusters.

The bottle of NO2 is actually a bottle of CO2 - it is used to cryogenically cool the induction system when I need maximum boost. On a typically hot summer race day this can make a huge difference in power.

The bodykit on my car is an early version of the Dallara bodywork
 
I thought so.
They look kinda sci-fi ish.
That's really cool and nice.
Oh okay. I was looking at your front end air work and it looks pretty good. Ever consider picking up air from under the car? You'd have to filter what it picks up though(water, dirt, rocks, roadkill, etc.)
 
Actually the aero experiments on my car have shown that I actually have really bad flow control on the front of my car. Bigger is definitely not better and compared to those pictures the front end has been seriously redesigned.

Some time with a scale model in a proper wind tunnel showed just how bad. The car has the torque to hit very high speeds but anything over 150mph is a deathwish so we had to make sure that the speed is limited and take further measures to decrease front-end lift.

Thankfully the car is not for use on the road - only on the racetrack so little chance of the kind of debris that you get in regular car usage. Even still the air pickup for the induction is well clear of the ground. The big scoops are for cooling - for the oil system, intercooler and general engine bay airflow. The biggest issue is water - a single big gulp of condensed water getting through to the combustion chamber would destroy the engine in a single stroke, and I don't mean in a small way either. I don't know about anyone else but a transverse mounted engine that sits just a few inches from my back can be a scary thing - a conrod letting go has the potential to shower the cabin with shrapnel at high engine speeds.
 
I wasn't talking about air intake but rather for use of downforce. In the front, where the targa used to go, open that up to the ground instead of the front, any air going over the car should also create a vacuum in the hole, thus pulling the front end down to the ground further. It's only a theory, you'd have to work out the quirks. It would drop your total top speed but it'd be completely worth it. I mean, what's a fast car worth without control? This is why I dislike most American cars.
 
Also, you'd have to make sure the opening under the car is smaller than the opening on the top, and is slanted back (but you probably already know that.) This is why I don't like the original front end design of a > shape. The effect I'm going for is the same effect as the fins you see coming out from under formula race cars like a /|\ shape(viewed from under the car). Or you could go with that kind of design but it might be pricey and may not let the car have enough roll without scraping the ground.
 
Last edited:
After another look at your car, would you have enough space longwise to do that? you'd probably have to start it right behind the bumper and have the windshield as the exit part of the aero but it looks like you've got reinforcement there... Also, what I meant about a filter is like a grate or something.
 
Last edited:
My understanding is that the biggest aerodynamic problem with the X is the rear window, i assume its to do with air flow vortexing as it flows down over the roof, but im a Farrier not a Pysicist!
 
Yes, I know of that problem, that's why the 80's Monte Carlo SS has a little spoiler in the back. From my understanding, the air vortexing behind the back window picked up the car and it spun and started rolling. They also made one with a longer back window to make it more aerodynamic. They did all of this for sake of nascar. Ugh. Repulsive. Those cars were also FMR which meant they had light rear ends. The X19 is RMR so the back end is heavy. The little spoiler in the back is probably just fine. But this is why I want a roof-level spoiler. The vortexing air may slow the car down a bit and (if his car has enough power at that speed) make it easier to lose traction in the rear but I doubt that it's really that bad seeing as the motor is there. If you look at the Bugatti Veyron S, it has a point in which this can happen as well and it goes 267! But the thing weighs more than a house and has two freakin V8s putting 600 bhp each(I think they could put plenty more(I've heard of V8s putting off the same amount alone)). Observe. Also, if you look closer you'll see that it looks like they fixed this by putting 4 slats in the roof that leads to the back.
bugatti-veyron-ss-4_1292.jpg
 
Last edited:
Mine has a large fuel tank in the front and a 2ltr engine in the rear all tied together with a roll cage, it does make for nice weight distribution but the only spoiler is a very small one on the rear boot lid, think its known as a "duck" something type spoiler.
 
Yeah the term is ducktail spoiler and it's the same kind of spoiler as the monte carlo but that spoiler is smaller I'm sure. Your car kinda sounds like what I want.
 
Last edited:
Mine was built as a rally car in 1995, it has a "modified" Faran kit on it, i say modified due to a few minor crashes so the front end is not quite original. It had been off the road for 5 years before i got it but needed very little to get it on the road again, just keep scouring the internet and im sure you will find one
 
Back
Top