This Fiat X1/9 Racer Has Homemade Active Aero
With a Yamaha R1 motorbike engine mounted in the middle, this little Fi-Fi sounds as crazy as it looks.
There's adding aftermarket parts to your car, then there's this. As you can see, this Fiat X1/9 doesn't feature many parts bought off a shelf; instead, everything looks to have been made in the owner's garage with random bits of building materials. I don't mean that in a bad way, though, because he seems to have known what he was doing. The Fiat's exterior is fitted with all kinds of trick aero that moves purposefully to generate higher downforce as well as crazy looks, stealing the attention from all of the supercars at this track day. Who do you know that could build this kind of stuff at home?
The car doesn't just look the part—it's actually fast, too. The 1,000 cc Yamaha R1 motorbike engine is said to produce 175 HP way up in the rev range, providing this maniacal machine with plenty of oomph. It's inherently lightweight as are all Fiats of old, promoting speed even more than the factory originally intended. The homemade aero only adds to it.
You can see the flaps move as the car steers and brakes, proving that all of it does work. The shutters open and close variably with driver inputs to the throttle, making us wonder if it's as easy as it looks.
Combined with the dramatic color scheme, it looks truly radical. The air intake for the mid-mounted engine is propped up like the telescope from a cartoon submarine, and that's enough to make me want it even more.
Watch and listen as the car takes to the track and impresses the crowd and drivers alike.
