Having recently replaced my top strut mounts and noticing the fast improvement it gives, I came accross this curiosity:

This is the top strut mount of the Cinquecento, "with integrated ball bearing" (hope it's a needle bearing).
It's strikingly similar to the X1/9s:

Minus the bearing, of course. My feeling is that the bolt pattern is the same. A possible alternative?

Thanks ppalma

That's worth knowing

Given that all strut mounts look approximately the same it isn't so surprising but no they don't fit...

If you want some really nice mounts one of the vendors on xweb used to sell them. I also picked up some beautiful adjustable units from a vendor there

Shame... I was hoping the FIAT engineers were as lazy as I am. There's really no good reason for the strut mounts not to be all the same accross "weight classes". Anyway, I'm happy with the ones I got, they have a needle bearing to replace the plastic one, and they make the steering a bit sharper. They also removed a bunch of knocking noises from the suspension, so I'm happy.

The newer designs are FEA optimised (another part of the FIRE process) to put things in exactly the right place based on the expected suspension geometry. The older designs basically put the strut top in the centre of an imaginary ring described by the position of the mounting studs - as was the normal engineering practice of the time. They do try to maintain a single part across as wide a range as possible though so the optimisation is based on a range of variables and boundaries...