Ah, an X1-9! A great example of a 'pocket-rocket.' A real step-up from the FIAT 850, which had a pretty body but not much for motivation, mechanically-speaking. I recall the 850's had more bright colors for them than Chrysler had for their hot cars from the
Rapid Transit collection (
https://www.allpar.com/cars/plymouth/rapid-transit-system.html 'Plum Crazy,' 'Top Banana,' and my favorite, 'Go Mango,' which sounds like a Jack Kerouac phrase from "On the Road"). One of my college classmates in MI had one, he bought it new, and that car was fun to ride-in. You had to rev it heartily to motivate it down the road. In the winter it was a recalcitrant starter. I recall it soon developed a thirst for oil. I have a mental picture of him starting the car, pulling the hood open, and pouring in another quart of oil, it seemed-like every time he got into the Italian revenge on the USA for losing WW II. Another of our classmates had the 'step-up' Italian sports car of the same period, a FIAT 124 Sport Spider. He bought it new, and sold it after taking it back repeatedly for a blown head gasket that apparently was beyond the ken of the Lansing MI FIAT dealer's mechanics abilities to fix. The last straw was when he got the call to pick it up, and got 5 minutes from the dealership before it overheated, again. He almost drove it through the showroom window when he returned. I think he got a brand-new MG Midget after that, in a pumpkin color, it was a really-pretty car, and to the disbelief of some MG owners, it was a better performing car than the FIAT, in-terms of reliability. He had a big pair of Lucas Flamethrowers mounted together, with spot patterns, on the front. Those lights would illuminate the sides of a farmer's barn so-well in the dead of winter, driving on rural MI roads, that the chickens would think it was daytime, wake-up, and start laying eggs, or making them.
I never bought a new car or truck with an 8-track, but then, I never bought a new car or truck until I was much-
much older. I did however, buy a used Cadillac 8-track and install it in my Dodge short-wheelbase van, back in the mid-1970's, wired to the biggest-magnet 6" X 9" speakers that I could find. I used-to haunt the flea markets looking for new 8-track tapes, which I kept in a large attache' case partitioned for them, and it was loaded with rock & roll like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Who, Grateful Dead, Jethro Tull, the Allman Brothers, Bob Seeger... .
A popular speaker was the 6 X 9
Mindblower which had great loudness, and which were very popular. I bet you had a lot of fun with your mix tapes, I did more of that after I got a DUAL cassette recorder and an AM/FM cassette deck to replace the 8-track.
Philip, I was the second owner of that yellow Fiat. He was a co-worker who flat-towed it from California to Florida behind his 4x4 Blazer. The dealer put alloy wheels on the car (shown in the photo below) and bumped the price to $5,500, pretty close to the price of a new Corvette back then.
In stock form the X1/9 was anemic (63 hp) and only 1290 cc (78.7 ci) but I eventually upgraded it with a free-flow exhaust header and dual two-barrel Weber carbs. I also had some rims widened by Andy's Wheel Service in Perrine, FL. He widened steel rims for stock car racers back then and charged $36 an inch, regardless of size. Those are the rims in the black&white photo. They are 7.5 inches wide (2 inches wider than stock) with 235/50-13 tires in the rear and 205/50-13 in the front. That's 9.25-inches wide and 8-inches wide respectively. You had to do something really stupid to lose traction.
The '72 Corvette I was driving at the same time has a 7,439.7 cc (454 ci) engine and nobody makes tires big enough to keep that beast from breaking loose.
In the decades the Fiat was my daily driver I never had to add oil between changes (except the time I left the oil cap off after a change). I did have to replace the clutch once and all four wheel bearings twice. When I got a quote from a local shop to do the wheel bearings, I invested in the special tools and did them myself.
I have purchased three new vehicles in my life: 1968 Pontiac GTO, 1971 Chevrolet Vega GT and 1989 Toyota Camry. After the Vega fiasco -- all of the recalls happened when mine had more than 50,000 miles on it -- my opinion of new cars, manufacturers and dealers swore me off new cars. Had a good experience with the Toyota in Australia but only bought new because I brought only basic hand tools with me on assignment.
I made the switch to cassette with dual decks in the home system and players in the Corvettes but changed again to CDs and now MP3 and iPods. My cars have always had oddball speakers. The Fiat had small enclosures attached to the C-pillar, the Corvettes have 4x6, 4x10 and 5.25 speakers and shallow subwoofers (not a lot of room in most sports cars).
You guys take me right back to my 80s childhood. I assumed the Lincoln town car was the car parked behind the Fiat!
I think that was about the last time anything Fiat was popular. At least until the 90s when the city girls bought out almost every available Fiat Uno in the country(South Africa at the time). It wasn't the sturdiest of vehicles and I remember a friend and I pranking a teacher once. Which involved picking up her Fiat Uno between the two of us and carefully placing it in the school square(somewhere not normally accessible by car)
It was often joked about that first responders found it faster to use the can opener on a Swiss army knife as they could have the occupant free by the time the 'jaws of life' was set up and ready to use. What madness came up with the Fiat Panda(AWD version of the Uno) was another thing I could never quite compute. Along with the UnoII which was the stretch 4-door version. However it was often handed down to kids once they could drive and remember almost all my girlfriends having one. At least it was easy to find spare parts and body panels. Least till it became a fashion statement to swap out for different coloured panels. I guess I had a hand in it too(enabler) as I did a fair bit of that 'bodywork' as favours for friends.
Congrats again on grandfatherhood! They say as parents you avoid teaching your kids bad habits and mischief whereas grandparents have no such constraints. Seeing my dad with my kids is almost polarising compared to my stern upbringing. Perhaps doing all the things he wished he could do with us. Just think of all that power to influence the next generation Bob!
Guster, you're right, that barge behind the Fiat is a Lincoln Town Car. It had a sound system but could easily have a rock&roll band in the back seat. The X1/9 is the only Fiat I ever liked enough to pay money for.
I helped my soccer team carry our coach's VW to the gated entrance to the field and set it sideways. There were a few inches to spare but it couldn't be driven away until we moved it again. Practice was rough the next day.
I have quite a bit of experience as a grandfather (we have 9 grandchildren from 14 to 26 years old) but I am going to have to ask Andy for help with great-grandfatherhood. I think he has several dozen great grandchildren.
Interesting coffee story. Our company had the same rule, so lots of people left a 1/4" puddle in the bottom (they were too important) which would soon burn. I have never drank coffee so I was immune to the issues until I was relocated close to the coffee machine. I like the smell of coffee but not when it is burning. So I took it upon myself to make coffee every morning and get up and make more when it was getting low. Coffee maker had two warmers for three pots total. Still wasn't much of a job until one morning one of the bosses cursed the coffee and shouted "does nobody know how to make coffee?"
I made no more coffee but dumped each pot as it got low. I didn't have to dump much, only a few people would make any. People came by and looked then went on by when they saw there was none. The consumption on that floor went way down.
Andy, I had a similar experience with the coffee-snob. She asked her husband to tell me the coffee was too weak. Went to the store and bought the cheapest, over-roasted dark brew I could find and took out the filter paper. Never heard another word but there was always a lot of coffee left over.
These days that would be a very very dangerous workplace.
Especially if it was an IT environment which runs on coffee and does not suffer withdrawal easily. Our property department signed a lease with a new vendor and all the old coffee machines were removed on Tuesday morning. Tuesday was the first day after a long weekend and end of daylight savings. There was no coffee available on the floor till quite late in the afternoon as they even took away the instant coffee dispensers. It got a bit ugly near the end with headaches and people snapping at each other.
The coffee shop downstairs made a killing though! Apparently they brought on 2 extra staff to help keep the coffee orders flowing.
Guster, IBM only had vending machines and those made a brown instant brew that resembled coffee. It also dispensed instant beige cocoa and yellow chicken broth. Other than color it was had to tell them apart.
Oh my!!
My guys just went to other floors. We had eleven floors in that building. First floor - reception, top floor - executive, that leaves nine floors of grunts.
Andy, you reminded me of one of my grunt stories. Long before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990 there was the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA) of 1968.
I was surprised when my manager called me into his office (never a good thing) and he asked if IBM could do anything to help me do my job. It took me a minute but I said "I could use an electric pencil sharpener." He chuckled and waved me out of his office. We had to use wooden pencils with light blue in them to mark changes on manuscripts before going to the editorial assistants (typists) to make the changes. The only pencil sharpener on our floor was a Boston crank style mounted at my eye level. To pushd a pencil in the sharpener I had to use my mouth while on tip-toe (my artificial arm was uncontrollable if the hook was above my shoulder).
Because I was on a list, my new manager two years later asked the question again and chuckled at my response. I invited him out in the hall to try to sharpen a pencil with one hand. His eyes got big and he apologized. A few weeks later a rather large pencil sharpener was delivered to my office by a member of the maintenance staff. Turns out it didn't have a grounded plug so they replaced the cord before I could safely sharpen a pencil. I still have it and it still has the labels my co-workers applied: Heine's Honer and the warning that it might be 230V.
Congratulations on your anniversary. I have been together with my wife for "only" 23 years. Have a few years to look forward to catch up with you.
Cheers,
Ken
Ken, if you remember to end every argument with "Honey, you're right and I'll never do that again," you'll be married for a very long time.
Congrats and deep respect for your persistence, Bob! 56 years means a lot of dedication, sharing and love has been passed back and forth between you and yours.
Ric, you're right and I'll never do... oh, wait, you're not my wife. Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate the sentiments. You know better than most how to keep a marriage going. No such thing as 50-50. If you think you are giving that kind of effort, your spouse sees it as not even showing up.
At least Bob was gentle in pointing out my faux pas. I realised both times I'd been posting from my Samsung tablet while traveling. This in itself is frustrating to say the least as every app has it's own "suggested spelling" features. Well turns out that Chrome(I still resist Tapatalk) replaces "great grandfather" with grandfather. Even forcing it to accept the previous sentence was painful to say the least. 
