Red - National Champ X1/9 Autocrosser gets Another Shot

In the spirit of biting off more than you can chew, Meet Red.

Red came to me from the 3rd in a line of highly talented driver/owners, who may have all trophied at scca nationals with this car. The original builder had a pile of nationals wins, both in solo and pro solo. The name Red is originally referenced in a letter from the original builder to the 2nd owner. Red may have had her name longer than I have had mine, so I'm not changing it now!

Here I am staring into the sun for a project car selfie:

Next was getting home and reviewing the package. I was going to line up all 3 (Red, Bertie, and Ron) but before I could get there some thunder rolled in and I had to hurry to get stuff up before the rain. 

The package included the car, the trailer, a huge pile of spares and parts, and some excellent documentation. 

This car was last raced around the turn of the century, yet there are still setup notes in oil pencil on the fenders:

In addition to all the wheels and tires on the trailer, parts also filled the truck bed.

But, maybe best of all is the "Book of Red". A three ring binder with a factory service manual, and oh so much more.

National winning setup and alignment specs, letters emails and handwritten notes with thoughts and performance insights between competitors and vendors.

How about a clarification letter from the scca dated 3/17/1990?

How about shock Dyno graphs from 2001?

Yeah, cool stuff for sure. Budget? This was very budget friendly. Like I may be able to bring this to a future challenge friendly.

Now I just need to get a racecar that hasn't been touched in nearly 20 years up and going again.

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

Have you noticed that each X1/9 you buy seems to be in better condition than the last?

In reply to Stampie :

And still in Challenge elligibility.  That's the big trick

I was building an X1/9 for road racing and got a call from Jim Susko offering to help me set it up. We ended up partnering up on a couple RX7's after we clicked on the Fiat program.  I've been all over his Fiat and RX7 people will know his GForce suspension that we developed on our two cars.

I got to drive Jim's car at a divisional event in Michigan. Nobody knew who I was because I hadn't done anything but local events before I started wheel to wheel.  At the end of the first day I was in first place ahead of Jim by about .3 sec.  I got to harass Jim and the rest of the field was crapping.  At the time I think Jim was the defending over all ProSolo champ. He kept saying he had a bad day, didn't feel right, etc.  He came back the next day a ended up beating me by  just under a second on the combined times.  I did my job a took points from others by finishing 2nd.

Anyway, this new X you have is a weapon. Enjoy it. If it would have been closer to me I would have been after it.

In reply to jgrewe :

Wait you got to drive this car? Or one of Jim Susko's cars?

Stampie said:

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

Have you noticed that each X1/9 you buy seems to be in better condition than the last?

Bertie may look rough, but remember she drove me all the way home from Dallas (to Chicago) with zero issue - except me being dumb about a window.

Awesome, I'm going to come visit and expect a test drive!

this is the beauty I once owned the day Jeff and I dug it out. Yours are waaaaay better lol

Awesome find! The 4 spoke Revolution wheels are one of my favorites!  The racing world needs more 70s and 80s awesomeness

A couple of years ago, there was also a red, windscreenless, X19 that I thought was part of the package of the yellow one.  What happened to it?  

The new car looks great, BTW.

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

Jim Susko's car. It was brown originally and then it was painted yellow. His goal was to get it on the cover of Sportscar and he went back and looked at years of the magazine and found that red or yellow were the two colors that showed up on the cover car the most.

Jim was making complete coil over kits for the X1/9's for a while. Your car may have a set on it. He was using Koni double adjustable inserts but could build them to fit anything.

My weapon comment is based on how much grip Jim's and my car had.  I couldn't do much in ITC because of the cam in the engine mainly but I could drive around people in the twisty bits. Jim had built a progressive slide throttle and with the SP rules being a little more open he had a lot more power. I was at the dyno test when his 1500 pushed 115 crank hp out of a stock internals engine.

alfadriver said:

A couple of years ago, there was also a red, windscreenless, X19 that I thought was part of the package of the yellow one.  What happened to it?  

The new car looks great, BTW.

That's Ron. That was the original bike engine car build, before fdat got in the picture. Ron is currently kinda waiting for a purpose. While also holding a lot of boxes for me. 

In reply to jgrewe :

Totally awesome. Yes, the suspension currently on the car is Susko designed. (I've got the receipts and the notes and shock Dyno plots).

Other Susko parts include a titlon clutch and PP (not even installed, it's in one of the spares boxes, but I see the Susko receipt for it), all 4 camber plates (apparently a slick design that fits on top of the strut tower but under the hood of an x1/9 - which at the time most put the camber plate under the strut tower), and then the intake system that is made from Weber sidedrafts fitted with x1/9 injectors.

Came to see if you had more pictures up, she looks super clean man!

Glad you couldn't control yourself.  I think this beast will be a real keeper and its got a really great story/provenance.

As someone else had commented, its LOL that you keep acquiring X1/9's, and each one is remarkably better than the one before it. 

Gonna try and get it on the road/to an event this year?  Or take your time and wait until next year?

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

Is it cut up badly?  Or would a powertain install be reasonably straight forward?

Asking for people interested on this board.... 

also- for this new car, what class would it be in??  It *seems* that it might be Street Prepared.  Having looked into the newer classes a looooong time ago- it was hard to find a home for a vintage car.  Maybe the smaller engine in the X1/9 would be easier, but the 2.0l in the Alfa was too big for some of the new classes- and I liked them a lot, since they allowed changes that are pretty darned typical for  hot rod vintage sports cars.

This was a screaming deal to be sure, I would have been all over it if it had been closer. Watching with envy to see this in a future challenge!

alfadriver said:

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

Is it cut up badly?  Or would a powertain install be reasonably straight forward?

Asking for people interested on this board.... 

also- for this new car, what class would it be in??  It *seems* that it might be Street Prepared.  Having looked into the newer classes a looooong time ago- it was hard to find a home for a vintage car.  Maybe the smaller engine in the X1/9 would be easier, but the 2.0l in the Alfa was too big for some of the new classes- and I liked them a lot, since they allowed changes that are pretty darned typical for  hot rod vintage sports cars.

what drivetrain?  

Ron still has all the stock suspension attachment points but one motor mount has been removed (passenger side, would be easy to put something back) and much of the engine firewall has been removed. It would be a relatively simple process to install an engine that fits in the (now much bigger) hole. 

For Red, I think FSP would be the natural fit. The x1/9 was competing in DSP way back when, then was reclassed to CSP, now it's been reclassed again to FSP. From the quick reference - Street Prepared Category:

• Clutch and flywheel...................................................................113
• Emission control systems – remove ........................................ 111
• Fenders for tire clearance – modify or replace ......................100
• Ignition, fuel, air induction, ECU – modify or replace .......... 110
• Limited slip differential(s)........................................................113
• Radio/stereo – remove ............................................................103 
• Sub-frame bushings .................................................................103
• Spoilers/splitters, small...........................................................102
• Tires, DOT (no treadwear limit).............................................104
• Update/backdate complete components (engine, transmission, etc.)..............................................................................................99
• Wheels (any size)......................................................................104

In reply to RACEC4R :

Probably will have to wait until next year. I will be taking my time to do things right, and F-dat needs some love this year.

Pulled the battery today and put it on the charger. Showing 0.6v so I'm not hopeful...

Cool thing is, Red already had the trickle charger harness and my trickle charger plugs right in! Score.

I just learned something AWESOME about the car. 

In 1998, at SCCA solo nationals, the owner of the car at the time had the guy I bought it from co-driving with her. SHE got 3rd in DSP (45 entries that year) while the guy I bought it from got 2nd. 

Yes, you read that right. DSP. Not DSPL. She would have crushed the DSPL class by over 3 seconds that year. 

Overall a pretty tough act to follow man.  Damn.  That's so awesome.

Best get your wheelman boots on to do Red the justice it deserves!

I'm secretly salivating at the chance to co-drive this beast.  I've never been in the presence of such greatness and capability.  I frequently bring a sledgehammer to the course and traipse around like a hamfisted-ogre.  Can't even imagine a fine-tuned device such as this.

Can you even imagine not needing to sort a vehicle/chassis (beyond getting systems up and running)?!  I can't.

Likely any mod will make the car worse it seems, lol (minus tires and a wee battery).

I saw this in the For Sale section and was hoping someone here would pick this up.  Looks like a great project.  I'm jealous.

Today I made a shelf for all the spares.

I've had these leftovers from a Menards display for years. Like maybe literally 7. Just now getting to build them into shelves.

Brushed off the cobwebs and added 2x4s and wheels. I only put one screw into each joint at this point for reasons that will be come clear.

Then brought it into the very flat and level shop floor area to get it straight up. Added a diagonal at the back and added the rest of the screws. This allowed me to get all 4 wheels evenly on the ground and get the thing plumb before the screws made it more permanent.

And then I loaded it up.  Nice. Yes that's a rebuilt trans in an Ikea bag. Still rolls great and with the heavy stuff on the bottom it's not tippy. 

Next I need to consolidate (and sell/junk) some of my other fiat parts.

This was way more work than it should have been. But we're officially up in the air!

(I do have some projects for the truck that need to happen first though, so don't get too excited yet).

The good news is the underside is nice and clean rust wise,. It there are various dents and use-marks. 

That's perfect, because I want to use it and not worry about trying to keep it perfect!

Glad to see this project start to get some attention.