Auto Italia, 2021, Part 1: The X Factor

Three strikes and you're in!  Attempt to attend Australia's biggest and best Italian car day # 1:  2019, my car's not ready.  # 2:  2020, the world is held ransom by the C-word (the other C-word!), with interstate borders locked down and the whole event abandoned.  # 3:  2021, travel restrictions lifted, the show's back on and - even though my car's still not quite up to the journey (I chose to fly in) - the opportunity to hang with the UMPH Canberra Bureau is too tempting to resist!

The 2021 installment of Auto Italia wasn't able to fully escape the Covid fallout, though.  With the usual Canberra venue doing duty as a drive-through C-19 testing station, organisers moved the whole shebang to a scenic park within the town of Queanbeyan, NSW, which is only a short drive from the ACT.      

The sheer numbers of Italian cars on display was almost overwhelming, so the UMPH team made sure that they concentrated their energies on the cars that mattered most:  a fleet of ten immaculate Fiat (and Bertone) X1/9s!  Next, they moved on to the Fiats, in general, followed by a healthy population of Lancias and a big field of Alfas.  However, by the time they had hoped to be snapping away at the Ferrar-a-Lambos, Maseratis, De Tomasos and Isos, the vast majority of them had racked off, apparently satisfied with their trophies and not that fussed that there was a good hour and a half left before the close of play!

If Batman had an X, this would be it!  It's not just Dark Knight looks, though; our caped crusader and his boy wonder sidekick Robin would have no problems zap, bam and kapowing their way around Gotham City with its 2.0 litre Lancia twin cam to propel them to their crime fighting quests!

Photo by Angus.

Photo by Angus.

This beauty is Mark W's car.  It's well known Australia-wide, thanks in large part to Mark's on-line presence via his Australian X1/9s Facebook page, website and numerous X-related (not X-rated, may I add!) videos.  

I was very pleased to have been invited to a dinner for X1/9 owners organised by Giancarlo the night before Auto Italia, held - very fittingly - at an Italian restaurant in Canberra.  This immaculate fuel injected Bertone X1/9 belongs to fellow dinner attendees Ashley and Maxine, who clearly love their car a lot, having driven it from Griffith, NSW, and who tell me that it's in very regular use.  Ashley's extra keen on originality and has kept it ostensibly stock and fitted only with proper Fiat parts.  That doesn't mean it's entirely standard, though; the motor's been stroked to 1600 cc and there are a few other period- and marque- appropriate mods in there, too.

Photo by Angus.

Unfortunately, I didn't time all my photo-ops as well as I might have and consequently didn't get to take Giancarlo up on his offer of a peek under the bonnet lid of his striking Dallara-styled X1/9.  What I can tell you though is that the performance is able to match the car's awesome looks, thanks to a turbo-charger!

Murray - another fellow diner - is pleased as punch with his ex-Tasmanian registered X1/9 and so he should be!  Coincidentally, I ran into the car's previous owner, Phil W, who was looking wistfully at my own example in Hobart just a couple of weeks ago.  Like so many people who've parted with projects they've carefully built over a long time, Phil's feeling the occasional post-sale pang of regret.  I would be, too!

Thank you, X1/9 people!  It was great to meet you all and I hope to do so again, quite likely at next year's Auto Italia and, fingers crossed, having driven up in my 1978 Serie Speciale.

Thanks, too, to the Canberra Bureau for CACT's logistical support and CACTUS (Angus) for his excellent photography.  We'll be seeing more of Angus' work in the next few UMPH posts.

Coming soon to UMPH the 'blog:  Auto Italia, 2021, Part 2:  Fiats That Aren't X1/9s.

Alastair 

(uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)

Images by Alastair and Angus.