The Fiat X 19, you don’t see many of these on the roads these days, apparently they were made from
1972-89 , and designed by Bertone, I think they have a great Retro look, my Uncle owned a Green one for a while but I never went in it, I know the early Italian cars were terrible for rust, ( sounds familiar 
) and not sure about their reliability, but did anyone own one of these ?
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I inherited a 1987 D reg from my Dad.
It’s no sports car, but on a quiet country B road with the roof off its great fun. Much like an NA.
We only use it in the summer and it was waxoyled many years ago, so it’s not rusting.
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Owners club showing 1 member and 201 guests online.
I wonder how many from here have popped over to have a look 
My mate had one many years ago. Was terrible if I remember correctly. Would never start, if it did it was only about 7bhp, road holding in slight damp was life threatening, and the door handles:rofl:
I think it’s very pretty in the second picture tho. A better quality one than my mate had may be nice for tinkering and summer days. His was a ruin on wheels.
Yes they aren’t powerful, it’s a Fiat 128 1.5 single cam engine, 85 bhp on a good day, but typical Italian it revs high to 7k rpm.
Great packaging, boot front and rear, and the targa panel roof fits in the frunk.
Not an everyday driver though, not reliable like an MX-5.
You can get all the mechanical parts from a company called Eurosport.
I’m sure his was a 1200?? Could be well wrong it’s been almost 30 years. It was light weight tho, luckily, made it easy to push. It was a cheap rusty banger run on a shoestring, I’m sure good ones are less troublesome.
Ah now we’re talking!
Had at least one in my garage since 1985. Currently have 3 - a 1.3 (128 engine) and 2 1.5’s (Strada engine)
Massive fun, years ahead of the rest, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise 
The MK1 models from 72 to 78 were 1.3. The MK2 with the big bumpers for USA were 1.5. 78-1989.
I’ve heard various horror stories about the lovely looking little Fiat X 19 cars, but like most cars, if an enthusiast keeps one in good condition, they’re probably great fun on a Sunday afternoon, and to me anyway, they look sharper the the Triumph TR7.
How about one of these, a Smart car, another Marmite sports car, again, I know little about them, but like the look of them, although I was told they are pretty cramped with small engines.
The semi auto gearbox on the Smarts takes some getting used to, I’ve heard.
Uh, I guess this was inspired about a click bait article about 20 forgotten sports cars, except they weren’t really forgotten. Back in the day I used to hillclimb a MX5, and Gordon Fogarty’s Lancia-engined X-19 was my “target”.
Hmm, reverse rev counter
My Mum’s friend had an orange one. It was a very pretty car and great fun to drive. However it was extremely unreliable. I remember the window winding mechanisms failing on both sides when the windows were down. The window winding mechanism was a (appropriately) spaghetti like system of pullies and cables which was a nightmare to fix because the cable had snapped, wrapped itself around everything and was impossible to get at 
.
I think those horror stories may have helped to keep a lid on values. Considering what they offer and that there are only about 300 X1/9’s left on the road, they are still pretty cheap compared to some cars of the era.
New series of Wheeler Dealers features a very nice early green quarter bumpered US 1.3, which may generate a bit of interest. The Volvoesq bumpers and other plastic bits bolted onto the 1.5’s in later years did nothing for the cars looks - Less is more!
I hired a Smart roadster for 3 days whilst on holiday.
Truly awful CVT gearbox, which on it’s own was enough to put me off buying one. In addition, I’ve read of poor reliability of the engine and leaks.
Shame really, as otherwise, I really liked it. Very light, and felt like I was driving the speed being shown in kmh, as mph. If they’ve given it a decent gearbox, I think that I would have probably bought one at some point.
I’ve never seen the forgotten sports car programme, but whilst reminiscing with a family member about past cars, my Uncles X19 came up, and we got to talking about cars ,and sports cars in particular we don’t often see now including the MG Midget, Lotus Elan, Triumphs etc.
But in spite of its reputation, I always thought the X19 looked good unlike some of the cars around at the time, although one mans meat is another mans poison and all that .
Click bait from a few days ago…
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A tidy rust free low mileage X1/9 is £8-10k these days.
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Just run through it , thanks, love the Blue X19, and I’ve seen a few of the old W10 MR2s about also, they look nice as well, it must be a wedge thing 
Had the same experience with an awful gearbox in a FourTwo.
This was a courtesy car from a local tuner that also had modified the FourTwo. While it had at most 80hp, it felt like a triple that given its weight. All in all, hilarious concept, but the fun factor and terrible gearbox are the most memorable aspects of that car to me! Incidentally, it had just had its engine replaced as the prior one had “expired”
The X1/9 is the reason I am here today on this sports car forum. I bought my first one second hand in 1978 and it was a revelation. Slow perhaps by today’s overpowered standards but it was a gem to drive back then. Remember the competition was ancient stuff like Triumph Spitfires and MG Midgets and the X1/9 was from another era by comparison.
In 1980 I bought a new one (my first ever brand new car) and I loved it, Campagnolo wheels and all.
In the early 1980’s I was one of the founder members of the UK X1/9 Club, which is still going strong today. I made a handful of friends at the time thro the club who are still best mates today, nearly 40 years on. Between now and then I have been a member of various car and motorcycle clubs, and along with my car buddies we all climbed the performance ladder into Porsches, Audis, BMWs, Ferraris and all sorts of performance tackle.
In recent years though I have become very jaded by cars and bikes that are simply too fast for our roads, and sold the last of my Porsches some years back. I had bought a Eunos Roadster about 10 years back as a motorcycle substitute, and have since progressed on to a modern ND SE+, which frankly is the nearest thing available today to a modern X1/9 replacement.
They say “what goes around, comes around” … and I guess I’ve come full circle!
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