I have built several track specific X1/9s. One was a particularly fun project. We had access to a bunch of left over roll cage tubing that was one grade too thin for the new cage specifications for IMSA's Grand Sports division. And at the time I had an X1/9 chassis that had been stripped for parts. Windshield, interior, various body panels (hood, deck lids, one door, etc...) and the driveline. The tub wasn't great as the floor pans were rusted out from sitting with water leaking into the floors. The windshield cowl was rusted pretty badly at the base of the windshield like so many are. but the rest wasn't terrible. I loaded the tub on the trailer to take it to the crusher and stopped by the race shop on the way. I was standing there talking with a good friend (who recently bought my '74) when he ask where I was going with the tub. "To the crusher" was my response. Well, we were standing beside the rack full of obsolete tubing and one thing lead to another and a few minutes later I was unloading the tub at the shop.
The idea we had was to build an X1/9 to run hill climbs and track days that was as fast as possible, for as cheap as possible. That afternoon we had the windshield off and the next weekend I had cut away the radiator box, the floors all the way to the rear passenger compartment bulkhead. Ultimately, I cut away all of the bulkheads but the one between the cockpit and the front trunk. Plus all of the floors. Then we started with the tubing and bender. When deciding on the roll bar, since I am tall and without a windshield we didn't want a full cage it was decided to cut the entire targa bar off from the top of the doors. I bent the main roll hoop (a couple of inches taller than the targa bar was) and then a front hoop across the top of what had been the dash. We cut away much of the dash structure, replace by a bar that would support the pedals and steering column. A few more bars tied in the strut towers and some spare 1" square tubing filled in between the rear strut towers in place of that big stamping. The floors were replaced by a large flat sheet of aluminum, as was the rear passenger compartment bulkhead. The forward engine compartment fire wall was cut away. Removing that and the rear bulkhead makes for an enormous engine compartment with easy access.
The car was now mostly a tube frame with an X body around it. I made a faux targa bar by adding a piece of fiberglass sheet, cut in the shape of the bar and attached to the sides of the main hoop by welding on a little bracket and pop riveting it in place. The aluminum floors and buckheads were also pop riveted in place and sealed with windshield RTV. We put a cheap, 8 gallon, plastic fuel cell in the front trunk. I took a big hammer to the aluminum floor to make clearance for a Kirkey race seat and welded a pair of cross bars to the center tunnel and rocker to mount seat brackets on. We ended up pulling the 1300/4 speed driveline from another friends '78 autocross car. I had built the engine/transmission a few years earlier and it only had a few events on it. The hood was made from the same fiberglass panel material that the targa bar sides were. I pop riveted some aluminum angle to it for rigidity. The same was done for the engine cover/rear trunk. And we also cut away the rear panel and welded in three small crossbars to support a section of metal screen in place of that bodywork. The idea being to allow air to vent right through the rear of the car.
We pooled our fund to buy the seat and harness, the cell, a few suspension parts (it used Granada springs and a set of KYB struts), brakes a quick release steering wheel and I contributed a set of 13x6 wheels with Yokohama race tire takeoffs. I think all total we had about $1000 out of pocket in the car.
We took it to a few autocrosses and it was a blast to drive. The three of us drove it. I was the only person with a license to track it at the time. It did way better than it had a right to on track. With the 4.42 final drive it would turn right at 8K rpm down the back straight at Road Atlanta. I forget how fast that is. 120mph maybe? I'll have to do the math again.
We ran the car for two seasons. I tracked it maybe 5 times? We weighed it at the shop at under 1300 lbs. As a result it was way quicker than anybody expected. While crude and lacking development it drove quite nicely. The roomy engine bay had me thinking about drivelines. Another friend had an Acura Integra racecar he had crashed in turn 1 at Savannah. I kept trying to talk him into donating the driveline to the project in exchange for driving. Ultimately, my original partner dropped out of autocrossing due to his son starting to race quarter midgets. And the other, who provided the driveline, had a bout with cancer. The car was left in storage for a couple of years. Then the race shop got moved and that meant the car had to go somewhere. I gave up my interest to the guy who had the bout with cancer, he took back his driveline for his other car and sold the chassis to a guy I didn't know. I never saw the car again.
I have always wondered where it went and with the advent of Lemons have contemplated building another and using a Toyota 2ZZ driveline. Sub 1500 bls and 200 HP would be a damned quick car.
