So I've switched to the dark side...

Andrew Coles

Andrew Coles

Say no to rice
... and I'm loving it. Only as a daily driver, the X19 is still king however. Does anyone else have one of these fantastic little cars? In our local Fiat club and Alfa Romeo club, I'm the fourth to get one and there's a few others hunting around for one...

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I dig mine. Bought it in 1989 when they first came out... I've rebuilt or replaced EVERYTHING! 2 engines, 2 transmissions, 3 differentials,

6 clutches!!!

Most of that is because I put a supercharger kit on it and drive it like I stole it.

But even though I really enjoy it, I do miss having to deal with the quirk of older cars... My miata will destroy my friends MGB, but his car smells better (ah, the aroma of 20w50 Castrol GT with vintage leather...) and makes sounds my Miata will never make. Same with the X1/9 I'm sure.

I'd wanted a X1/9 from back before I was driving... My family had a 4door Fiat 128 (76) and the Dad across the street had a 1300 X1/9... once I started driving the 128, I was always dying for a X. I clearly remember being aware of them when I was 11 in 1975.

About 2 years ago I was walking into a WalMart early one morning after a night at work and a familiar sound spun me around in my tracks... it was the SOHC Fiat motor firing up in a Yugo... Sounded like my highschool 128 had started up right behind me! The fire was relit... now I just have to get the 2 X's I bought last year to agree to a merger.

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By the way, all that grass you see in the picture is now dead and/or gone due to the insane temps and rainless dry conditions we're having down here!:sad:
 
Nice car!

I bought my number one son a '92 Miata SE in black & tan for his HS graduation back in 2000. He still has it, though his daily driver is an '07 Saturn Aura. The Miata has been a great car, low maintenance, much fun to drive but comes in second (in my mind) to a well-sorted X. It also doesn't ride as well as the X.

I am sure you will enjoy the car... the Japanese version (read: reliable) of the old Lotus Elan.
 
I work on those

Almost every weekend at most SCCA and NASA events. I like nearly everything from a mechanical perspective. Except the rear brakes :(

I owned a 91 for a while but its part of hooverspeed.com car stable now...
 
Baby sat one for six months....

about 3 years ago now.. I absolutely understand the attraction and the practicality,and the reliablity, etc. Who am I to argue with such success. But for me the car simply lacks soul. While I was driving the Miata 2 days a week just to keep it charged up, I was also enjoying, for the first time, my '71 Spider after years of rolling resto. The thing that struck me was that there just did not seem to be 20 years worth of improvement in the actual driving. In fact I would say, based on those two particular cars that the Spider was really a better sports car for my tastes. It was for sure faster and handled more predictably, rode much better. My wife thought so too and the Miata simply was not in the same universe with our '84 X.
Now, all that being said I would put a Miata in my garage (if I had one) in a heart beat simply to have the comfort and convenience and reliablity and 90% of a good sports car available 365 instead of 240 days a year;the latter figure representing the down time inevitable in my Fiats.
 
I dig my Miata but to me it's like this... First off, all those parts I've busted and replaced were definitely abused... I've got no qualms about that. They were treated like 'wear items'! (except for the crank breaking... didn't really see that one coming!!!)

But when my miata is running, it is usally insanely trouble free... just add some premium and point it across the nation where you are going... when you get to where you're going you'll have all sorts of stories about the stuff you saw, radio stations you listened too, etc. But when you drive an older car like a X1/9 or a MGB you're generally more involved with the car... you're watching the gauges like a hawk, you're listening for that freaky noise you think you heard again, etc... you get to where you were going and chances are you have more stories about your own car than you do about the boring miles of country rolling by.

I bought the X1/9 to restore because something silly inside my was panging for a car that could make a drive across Kansas into a thrill!
 
That's a very nice way to put it....

and I'm the same way-want to be involved in the car and the immediacy of the driving and not really allowed off the hook the whole time. In all the miles in the Spider and the X I never experienced what I sometimes did in the regular everyday car-that is that I got somewhere and had no immediate recollection of the actually getting there. Boy, in the Fiats I remembered every gear change and every fluffed double-clutch and every corner.
 
In my opinion, when price is included in the equation, the Miata is possibly the best sports car ever built. If there was a coupe I'd probably own one.
 
I have a 97 Miata STO. I enjoy driving the Miata. It has a different feel than an X1/9. The Miata I use as a daily driver during good weather. The aftermarket support for a Miata is fantastic. I drive the X1/9 for pleasure. The X1/9 is a time machine in "The Twilight Zone", it takes me back thirty years when ever I am driving it. As soon as I step out I am back to my current age. Side note one of the Miata's designers, (Tom Matano?), had an X1/9 and a Scorpion.
 
+1

DaveR said:
I have a 97 Miata STO. I enjoy driving the Miata. It has a different feel than an X1/9. The Miata I use as a daily driver during good weather. The aftermarket support for a Miata is fantastic. I drive the X1/9 for pleasure. The X1/9 is a time machine in "The Twilight Zone", it takes me back thirty years when ever I am driving it. As soon as I step out I am back to my current age. Side note one of the Miata's designers, (Tom Matano?), had an X1/9 and a Scorpion.
Click to expand...

Aftermarket includes a good amount of performance mods as well.
 
Don't tell anyone Andrew

because I know you've seen my daily driver, the White RX8.
Let's keep the Mazda secrets between ourselves.
BTW, nice car.
 
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