picture taken by me (Aniruddha)
The Fiat X19 was
the successor to the fiat 850 spider, a light weight mid-engine sports car.
Fiat offered a sports car in the all economic segment and the 850 spider was
the entry point into the sports car segment. Now coming to the X19, yes, it’s
an odd name for a car especially from an Italian company. X19 happens to be the
prototype name and the reason behind this can be found in the history of the
car.
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| 850 spider source https://img.hmn.com/fit-in/900x506/filters:upscale()/stories/2020/08/10164834/HMN0920-ISX-01-e1597241711360.jpg |
The main drive behind the X19 was none other than Nuccio Bertone, who at the time was building the bodies for the 850-spider in the late 60’s, in his factory. In the year 1969 fiat had given Bertone the task to redesign the 850-spider based on the new Fiat 128, which had a 1.2 L engine and was front wheel drive. However, Bertone had other ideas, he designed a fully new shell and placed the 128’s carried over engine in the middle along with rear wheel drive. This allowed Bertones chief designer Marcello Gandini to reduce the frontal length, and he could give it that iconic wedge shape.
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| Nuccio Bertone with Marcello Gandini https://www.coachbuild.com/2/images/books/Dalton_Watson/Marcello_Gandini-Maestro_of_Design/Marcello_Gandini-Maestro_of_Design_+Nuccio_Bertone.jpg |
Fiat however said it’s too exotic looking for the mass market, and it almost looked like a replica of the Miura. This did not stop Bertone who was convinced that it would have a great success in the US market. During the 1969 Turin automotive show Bertone displayed a radical looking wedge shaped open top car with a mid-engine and an integrated role bar. However, there were some changes, the running gear was from an A1 12 and an Autobianchi badging. All this was done parallelly to the development of a Targa top sports car that would comply with US regulations. The name given to the experimental car was X19, later this would also become the name of the car when launched in November 1970 in Sicily on the Targa Florio roads. The superb handling characteristics were noticed by Gian Paolo Dallara who ran Dallara a racing team.
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| The concept car shown at Turin auto show |
Dallara was an Italian racing team founded by Gian Paolo Dallara in 1972 he had worked for companies such as Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini. Later on, Dallara and Bertone built a X19 race car that was shown in the 1975 Paris motor show. It was meant to race in the group 5 category. It made 120 hp and weighed 200 kg less than the standard car the car also had a widened track, wheel arches and a big rear wing. This car managed to reach 230km/h which was great for its time.
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| https://img.17qq.com/images/mqgmhwkpgsy.jpeg |
The body of X1/9
was built by Bertone at Grugliasco plant about six miles west of Turin, the
body was then crated over to the Fiat plant where the Fiat 128 coupe’s 1280cc
inline-fours which was launched the year before was installed. This engine was
designed by Aurelio Lampredi a former Ferrari supremo.
Who was Aurelio Lampredi?
He was an Italian
engine designer who started working first at Vespa then moved up to Ferrari,
the best way to remember him would be as the man behind the 4 ½ L Ferrari V12
engine which ended the domination of the supercharged engine from Maserati in
1951.
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| Aurelio Lampredi |
Technical specifications of the X1/9
It had a SOHC inline-four was adopted to feature an aluminum sump and an aluminum head, mounted transversely. The engine was mated to a four-speed transmission, the output from this engine was rated at 74 hp at 6,000 rpm and 72 lb-ft of torque at 3,400rpm. The X1/9 came with 66 kg weight gain over the 128 coupe this however did not impact the top speed as the car was very aerodynamic, in fact it gained a few mph over the 128 coupe.
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| Taken from petrolicious |
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| Taken from petrolicious |
Stopping power was provided through disc brakes on all four corners, corners and canyons were conquered with the help of four-wheel independent suspension, featuring McPherson struts. The straight-line speed was something that was kept away from the spotlight, it was mainly the dynamics of the car and the way it carved corners that was the talk of the town.
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| picture taken by me (Aniruddha) |
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| taken from petrolicious |
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| picture taken by me (Aniruddha) |
picture taken by me (Aniruddha)
Each generation
The X1/9 landed on US shores in 1974, this model year had slimmer bumpers front and rear than the later on 1.3L model. 1975 saw a restyled bumper which was larger and heavier. 1979 saw the relaunch of the X1/9 with substantial changes, there was an increase in power and torque output thanks to a 1.5L engine taken from the Fiat Strada and a new five-speed manual transmission which meant relaxed highway cursing. In 1980 the single weber Carburetor was swapped with a Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injector, this helped fight the stricter emission norms and to restore some amount of lost power.
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| picture taken by me (Aniruddha) |
This car was the first ever Fiat to feature a mid-engine rear wheel dive layout. What made this car even more special was that no one had built such a small and inexpensive mid-engine sports car before, as they were using the same drive train as 128, there was very little development cost that went in. Though this car had a tiny footprint it did not compromise on space, Bertone put the spare wheel behind the right seat and the fuel tank behind the left seat, just in front of the engine compartment. There were two trunks one small one in the rear to store the Targa top and one in the front. It is said that Fiat was to build a convertible X1/9 but strict crash regulations caused them not to build one.
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| picture taken by me (Aniruddha) |
The Dallara X1/9
All wasn’t great however, yes everyone spoke about the crazy handling but the car just didn’t have the punch to add to the cornering ability 0-60mph was achieved in 13 seconds. The unfortunate fate of this car was that Fiat stopped development of this car by 1982, and the entire tooling was given to Bertone who built this car till 1988 without any major changes. The car was a revolution when it was launched and frankly till date as well but it wasn’t developed properly, this negligence from Fiat was partly due to the fact that it was never developed as an in-house fiat car. Almost 12 years later the Toyota MR2 arrived having seen the potential of this market. Having seen this car in person I must say those aerodynamic headlights, and wedge shape give it a very distinctive look even today.
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| https://img.17qq.com/images/gkswsknky.jpeg |
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| Toyota MR2 |
Very informative. Keep your blogs coming on a regular basis.
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