Welcome back to Shitbox Showdown! Today I’m dragging you all along on another trip down memory lane; I hope you don’t mind. But before we get into all that, let’s see how our cop cars did yesterday:
That’s what I expected. The Taurus is a cool idea, but a good ol’ V8 Panther is hard to deny. Personally, I might hold out for a livery-spec Town Car instead of a cop-spec Crown Vic, for the cushy interior.
Remember the cars you loved as a kid? How many of them have you since realized are kind of lame? Happens to all of us. But the thing I’ve been noticing is that as I get older, the “kind of lame” cars are the ones I actually crave. Maybe it’s just a natural result of aging to the point where I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks of what I drive, or maybe it’s because most new cars are just so damn boring that a silly throwback is an enticing alternative. These two were both cars I thought were the coolest things on the road when I was in junior high. Thirty-year-old me wouldn’t have been caught dead in them, but fifty-year-old me thinks maybe twelve-year-old me was on to something. Let’s check them out and see if you agree.
1980 Fiat X1/9 – $4,995
Engine/drivetrain: 1.5 liter overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, RWD
Location: Portland, OR
Odometer reading: 61,000 miles
Runs/drives? Starts and runs, but needs old gas cleaned out
I mean, come on. How can you not love a mid-engined Italian sports car, even a tiny one? Fiat’s little X1/9 is the real deal, too. It was designed by Marcello Gandini at Bertone, who also designed the Lamborghini Miura and Countach and several other cars you’ve had posters of. Its little 1.5 liter four-cylinder engine was designed by Aurelio Lampredi, famed Ferrari engine designer. Heavy hitters, both. But instead of the stratospheric asking prices of their other creations, this gold X1/9 can be had for comparative pocket change.
The X1/9’s basic layout is a formula that would later be copied wholesale by Pontiac engineers for the Fiero: Take the engine, drivetrain, and suspension from a front-wheel-drive economy car and relocate it all to just behind the seats of a small doorstop-shaped sports coupe. The X1/9 takes its engine and drivetrain from the Fiat 128, a charming, boxy little sedan that’s another personal favorite of mine. The seller says this car’s engine will run, but has some old bad gas that needs to be cleaned out of the tank (and pump, and filter, and lines, and injectors). If the rest of the car checks out mechanically, the best solution might be the famed “Italian tuneup.”
The X1/9 has a removable targa roof, which stores in the frunk when removed. Unlike some other targa-top cars I could mention (C4 Corvette, I’m looking at you), the X1/9 doesn’t turn into a shaky, floppy mess with its roof off. Fiat designed this car to meet safety standards that never came to be, and as a result, it’s a rigid platform.
The natural enemy of all Fiats from this era is rust, of course, and despite being a west coast car, this one has not escaped its wrath. The back edge of the trunk lid and the bottoms of the doors are getting a bit bubbly. It also has a little wrinkle on the right front corner below the headlight; hopefully the headlight still pops up all right. But overall, it’s exactly the condition I like for a car like this: just a little scruffy around the edges, but still looks good when you turn and look back at it in the parking lot.
1985 Dodge Shelby Charger – $4,000
Engine/drivetrain: Turbocharged 2.2 liter overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: El Cerrito, CA
Odometer reading: listed as 111,111 (probably means unknown)
Runs/drives? Doesn’t say, but I’m going to assume it does
When I visited my dad in Las Vegas a couple of years ago, we took a tour of the Shelby American factory. There was a smallish museum attached to the factory with a lot of cool cars in it, but I was dismayed that not a single one of them was a product of Shelby’s involvement with Chrysler Corporation in the 1980s. There was a wall mural, but no cars. Not even this one, the most obvious choice, the one that started it all: the Dodge Shelby Charger.
It’s a simple formula, and one that Carroll Shelby knew well: Stick the biggest engine in the smallest car, and go tear shit up. For mid-1980s Chrysler, there was no “biggest engine;” the overhead-cam 2.2 liter four was pretty much it. But starting in 1984, it gained a turbocharger, and it woke up the little L-body Omni and Charger nicely. The four-door Omni version was called the GLH, which stood for “Goes Like Hell,” and for an econobox at that time, it most certainly did.
This car has had its original turbocharged 2.2 replaced by a later “Turbo II” engine. I know there are differences, and I know it means a bump in power, but I don’t know the specifics. I do know we have at least one commenter who will happily explain it; I’ll leave it to them to do so. The seller doesn’t say whether this car runs and drives or not, but I am operating under the assumption that it is able to leave this driveway under its own power.
The engine isn’t the only part of this car that came from a different car. Shelby Chargers were pretty thoroughly color-coordinated; the paint color (blue with silver stripes, silver with blue stripes, burgundy with silver stripes, or black with silver stripes) matched the interior. This car’s seats appear to have come from a silver and blue Shelby. The partial blue stripes visible on the roof are also suspect; I wonder if this might be the by-product of two wrecks. A smattering of “spare parts” of various color schemes are also included.
So there they are: A pair of cars that a younger version of myself would have gone nuts over. They’re in a bit rougher shape than they were back then, but then, so am I. And I have to admit, nostalgic as I feel towards them both, I’d probably be better off with model kits of them than the real thing. Still, it’s cool to know that they’re still out there, still broadly viable, and still more or less affordable. I’d have a hard time choosing, but I don’t have to – you do.
Oh, and by the way, a quick programming note: due to some discussions on Discord, I’m going to try going back to the original Friday formula tomorrow, and have a run-off between the week’s four winners. So choose wisely today – whatever wins, you’re gonna see it again.
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
We owned a 1978 x1/9 and loved it.
With the top off you could drive in the rain and the airflow would keep it from coming into the car-just don’t stop though. My wife & I would rush to get under an overpass pop the front trunk, hop out & throw the top on-we could do it is seconds.
That car was the epitome of slow car fast. We drove it flat out all the time and yes rust was an issue, but it was reliable with a surprisingly comfortable ride especially compared to a 914.
Every time I see one in BAT my mouse pointer slides towards the “Place Bid” button.
Fiat all day. But I can’t believe you used the term ‘safety standards’ when talking about an X1/9.
This couldn’t be easier. The fiat is a $7 prosecco, and the dodge is a dog’s breakfast. One of these is fit for human consumption and it isn’t the dodge.
If the Chrysler product had been a Conquest I might have had to go for it over the Fiat but with the Dodge being FWD and having no potential for big engine transplants I had to vote for the scrappy Italian. The other one may be a Shelby but it’s not Shelby enough.
Both Junk, but at least the Shelby is likely to have parts at the local parts store
This is glorious. I have a special respect for anybody who dives this deep, who commits this fully.
I went for the fiat that has real racing genes. I aint falling for the Melvin Shelby CPA econobox.
I can’t believe I chose a Fiat, but… Too many red flags with the Dodge. Plus the Fiat seems fun and speaks to me in a way I don’t know how to describe.
That Fiat would be a good candidate for EV conversion. Not that I could afford it myself, but that’s where my mind is.
IMHO, Honda engine swap. Whatever will fit (Civic? Fit?). It would make the car a little more reliable, too!
I’d go definitely for the Fiat… and if it was on my side of the Pond with that price there’s good chances I’d already bought it.
My folks had a pretty-sure-it-was-also-an-’85 Charger Shelby for a few years before I was born, and apparently it went, well, like Hell. Trading it in for a Bronco II was a practical decision, but not a fun one. Shame this one’s not the correct blue-with-silver (well, maybe part of it is under the faded red…) but it’s still my choice today by default, largely so I could eventually let my mum drive it.
Also, I’m a bit scared of how the Fiat likely looks underneath.
Ill take a Bronco II over THIS shelby still.
Almost bought an X1/9 in Chicago a couple years ago, but the seller wanted as much for a car in clearly worse (and probably non-running) shape. Remarkably he disappeared after I asked about things like title and VIN.
Ah well. Lit the 80’s midengine bug under my ass, though. Gimme dat wedge car.
That Chrysler, though. Yikes. I don’t really want, or want to pay for, either, but if someone is offering me a car at knifepoint I’m going Fiat.
Considering you could have put in a 70s Chrysler engine and got more power tells you not a shelby
Bad decisions are better when they are Italian. Fix it again, Tony for me.
A horrible car, but I truly admire your knowledge and your generosity to share it. A blue-blooded Autopian, you.
Another X/19 vote, I have always loved these, but once I understood their shortcomings moved on when car shopping came around. The Charger as well I always liked, this just isn’t the right one. While super clean low mileage ones can go for 10-15k, other more sorted ones seem 1/2 that, and this one frankly looks like a pup. No interior photos are a huge red flag.
I hate to sound crass, but I’ll need to peek under the bra of that Fiat before I’d put my money down. As presented, the images are pretty thorough (including a random motorcycle picture), and although it will require a lot of work, this is where’d I’d go with my hypothetical investment.
“There was a swirl of gray-blue smoke, a flash and a “BANG” as if from a backfiring exhaust, and then he was there. rootwyrm had been SUMMONED!”
Rust on the Fiat seems minimal enough to deal with.
Oh you sweet, sweet, Summer Child.
“It’s a bit of a given to say rust is going to be an issue on an old car, but you have to remember that the X1/9 isn’t just an old car. It’s an old Italian car, and they like to rust. There isn’t a panel on an X1/9 that is able to avoid the dreaded tin worm, so even if it ends up with a seller huffing and puffing at you, check everything and check it twice. Door bottoms, the floors, the boot floors front and back. The inner sills can and will dissolve, the windscreen surround, the arches, the bonnet, the boot, the roof edges the… you get the idea. Oh, and as an added bonus, the bulkhead is triple-skinned, so if that’s rotten you’re in big, potentially car-killing trouble. It’s an engine out job to repair rust here.
The main issue, other than the metal being past tense, is that replacement panels are harder to find than the back-end deposits of a rocking horse. If an X1/9 is rotten, it’s going to mean searching high and low for panels. Failing that, it’s going to mean custom fabrication or repairs to what you already have. This is a costly exercise.”
https://www.carandclassic.com/magazine/fiat-x1-9-five-things-you-need-to-know/
X1/9 all day. This is the car that I wanted when I was 14 or so and thought I’d be saving up for my own car. Even the condition and price remind me of what I could have found then. Then we got my Spider, so that’s the Fiat I’ve had for…33 years now. But I’d still love an X1/9. It needs a good cleaning and is a little rusty, but nothing you can’t leave as-is. Tons of part support, community support, and the parts are cheap.
My fat ass won’t fit in the Fiat, so Daytona it is, for better or worse.
Youd be surprised
I really wanted to vote for the Dodge, mostly because they looked cool in “The Wraith” and it’d be fun to flaunt a slow car with the Shelby badge. But old turbos sound like a maintenance nightmare. I’ve always liked the look of that Fiat, so it takes my vote by a slim margin. Had the Dodge been a non-turbo, even with an automatic, I probably would’ve chosen it.