X19 Road Trip Adventure Down Under

Terry

Terry

True Classic
Seven X19's, 13 people, 3000 kilometers, two years in the making, finally about to begin!
Our local Fiat club members have planned the trip of a lifetime in our X19's. We will be driving in convoy from Adelaide, Australia to Melbourne where the cars will be placed on a ship to be transported to Tasmania, where we will be circling the Island over a two week period.
We have planned the trip in great detail and have allocated spares to each car. Over that past few month's we have all prepared the cars for our long journey and fixing all of the jobs that have been neglected or put off to get them as roadworthy as possible for the trip. The cars involved will be: 78 1300 green, 78 1500 blue, 79 1300 green, 81 1500 red orange (mine), 2 X 82 1500 silver, 89 1500 FI red.
We will be leaving Adelaide on the 7th of April 2012 and returning on the 21st.
One of our members plans to do a blog of the trip along the way and I will also post updates and photos here.
The trip coincides with the 40th Anniversary of the launch of the Fiat
X19.
Several of the cars in the photo below will be involved, including mine, which is in the forgeround on the left.
Cheers, Terry
78 X19 1300
81 X19 1500

 
outstanding, with you in spirit, wishing great weather, great times, and safety to all, enjoy and send us lots of updates! Sounds like a Top Gear episode.
 
Ready to go

We leave tomorrow morning. The weather looks good and the cars ran great on our shakedown run last Sunday. I packed our car this morning and have never had so much weight in it before. Packing space was not such a big problem for the two weeks that we will be away but with a full tank, spare parts and tools along with our bags the car feels the extra weight.
I am taking my computer along and will update with photos along the way.
Cheers, Terry
 
Cool trip...

Would love to have something written up for RICAMBI. It is always nice to see what our Australian friends are up to.
 
Have a good trip Terry

Make sure to post the link to the blog so we can follow along.

Good luck!!! :italia:
 
We made it! (lots of photos)

Sorry for not keeping the updates going as promised. We were travelling in places where I could not connect to the internet. We had a wonderful trip, and I put 3,477 kilometers on my 81 X19 in 2 weeks. We had a few issues with the cars, but we made all of our intended destinations on schedule and all 7 cars returned to Adelaide yesterday.
It was great travelling in convoy and the roads in Tasmania are just perfect for spirited driving in our X19s. My car performed flawlessly and seems to be running better now than when I left. We did the 700km drive to Melbourne mostly on the highway with speeds of 110kmh.
We did not need to use any of the many spares that we took along with us. One car which was heavily modified and put together with a new head shortly before we left did have an overheating issue, but with a bit of chemical seal in the coolant, it went the distance ok. Another car had an issue with the starter, but with a "whack" with a BFH it sorted out ok. Another car had an issue with a leaky waterpump and a faulty ignition switch, but again made it the distance. Another one had a wheel bearing which was just starting to make a noise on the way home. All in all very good considering we did so many miles.
The cars attracted a lot of attention wherever we went and the kids especially were excited to have a look. They liked the green ones the best!
Tasmania is a wonderful place with incredible scenery and history. Some of the Island is very remote, and if you google the map, you will see that the whole of the south west is a primevial forrest. The trees are several thousand years old and the Huon pines only grow to the height of about 4 meters in 200 years. The Southeast is the home of the Port Arthur convict penitentiary which was established in the early 19th century for convicts from the UK. It too is in a very remote location and is an amazing place to visit. Our group did a "Ghost walk" at night escorted through the ruins of the pentitentiary.
It was the dream trip of a lifetime in our X19's and it was quite a feat to get all 7 cars and 13 people organised to go on the 2 week adventure.
The cars travelled well fully loaded with luggage, fuel and spare parts. There was a "MG Nationals" event in Tasmania as well and over 300 MGs were there too. They were amazed at the amount of space that we had compared to their cars.
We were also amazed at how comfortable our cars were for travelling long distance.
We came home appreciating the design of our cars even more!
Click photos for larger size.
Leaving Adelaide at Crafers

Loaded on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry at Melbourne

First stop in Tassie, Sheffield

Caught in the snow at Cradle Mountain!

Pauls car (89 Bertone) under investigation for waterpump leak


Mt Wellington near Hobart Tas

Near Port Arthur Tas



Coles Bay Tas (my car is the red orange 81)

Port Arthur Tas convict ruins

Mt Wellington near Hobart

The "Nut" at Stanley Tas

Strahan Tas

Richmond Tas
 
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Terry, VERY interesting writeup, mate..........!!

........and a good practice run for your next Xcursion.......over the ditch here to NZ with the same team! Let me know when you have it planned! :happy:

cheers, Ian - NZ
 
G'Day Ian

Yes, It would be a great follow up to travel to New Zealand in our cars. I read an article a couple of years ago how one of the MG clubs here in Australia did that and had a wonderful time. I think it could be a bit expensive for us to ship our cars there. I have no idea what it would cost. It would be interesting to find out what the rules are too.
It's really hard to get so many people organised to take the time off for 2 weeks these days as most of us are still working. It took two years of planning, saving and getting the cars ready for us to do the Tassie trip. I would love to make a trip back to your spectacular country.
Our webeditor has put up more photos and a story on our fiat/lancia car club of SA website for more infomation.
Cheers, Terry
 
Great trip, thanks for sharing. Your trip has made me even more impatient to p/u the Trailer Queen in NH and drive it home to WY.
 
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