Dennisrh
True Classic
So Jjay911 posted a question in another thread. Has anyone ever been killed or hurt in an X 1/9? I have not, but had I been in any other kind of car I probably would have been. I have been in three major accident s in an X 1/9 and walked away from each unharmed. So here is the first of my stories.
I was 16 years old and had just purchased my first X, a carbureted powder blue and 100% stock 1980 Fiat X 1/9. 6 months after purchasing it, I felt quite confident in my ability to drive the car. One night I was on a 4 lane road in a residential area. It was raining and me with my infinite youthful intelligence was driving about 80 miles per hour. The road ahead slightly curved to the left and knowing the limits of my X fairly well, I knew I didn't need to slow down to take this curve. Unfortunately, I did not take into consideration that the road was covered with somewhere around 3 inches of water. I hydroplaned and continued heading straight when the road turned left. I slid into a small group of trees that separated the street from an apartment building. I barely missed the first tree, however I was not so lucky with the second tree. I hit the second tree directly in front of me. (directly in front of the driver’s seat, not the center of car) The tree was not a particularly large tree maybe 1 foot in diameter and when I saw I was about to hit it I actually thought I would knock down the tree. This was not the case, even small trees are well rooted and very hard to knock over. My X bounced off the tree spinning in a counter clockwise direction. The X spun a complete 360 before impacting with another tree of about the same size. I struck this tree with the right rear quarter panel and right rear tire. The X began to spin clockwise from this impact and slid sideways into the brick wall surrounding the apartment building. The driver's side of the car was smashed against the wall and I couldn’t open my door, so climbed out the roof.
The first thing I noticed even before even getting out of the car was that the steering wheel was about 3 inches from my chest. The doors had both been broken open and now stuck out about 6-8 inches past the door frame. The back wheels were off the ground and ironically the engine was still running and the transmission was still in gear so the back wheels were still spinning. The back wheels were off the ground because the center of the car about where the jack insert is, had bent down and was firmly lodged in the ground. There wasn't much left of the front of the car. The left front fender was unidentifiable. It had crushed into the frunk and became a jumbled mess of metal, while surprisingly there was not a lot of damage to the passenger side fender. Basically it looked like someone grabbed the front left fender and right rear fender and tried to crush the car like a tin can.
I walked about 100 feet past the first tree and found my targa top which I can only imagine must have flown off the car with the first impact. The targa top was a bit beat up but was still in one piece. I held it over my head as it was still raining and waited for the police to come. I waited probably about an hour and no one came. If I had been hurt I would have probably died since my car was lodged so far back in the trees that I could not be seen from the street.
Eventually I got tired of waiting and walked to a friend’s house that didn't live too far. I called for a tow truck and went back to my car. The tow truck driver said he couldn't tow the car without a police report so he radioed the police. I still remember one of the officers telling me "I have seen much less serious accident where the people were dead inside. You must have angels watching over you." All I could think was, those angels must live in Italy and make cars cause this little car is what saved my life. The tow truck driver had to extend his cable and use a tow strap to extend far enough to hook onto my car. He then pulled my car this way and that to get it around the trees. It took him about 2 hours to maneuver his truck around to pull my car through to the street. I had the car towed to my house. The next morning my neighbors came knocking on my door to ask if I was still alive.
This is the story I tell people when they ask why after all these years I still drive an X 1/9 or tell me it’s so small it’s a death trap. I have driven an X more than half of my life and hopefully will continue to drive one for the rest of my life.
I would love to hear others stories, so feel free to post any amazing stories of your X.
I was 16 years old and had just purchased my first X, a carbureted powder blue and 100% stock 1980 Fiat X 1/9. 6 months after purchasing it, I felt quite confident in my ability to drive the car. One night I was on a 4 lane road in a residential area. It was raining and me with my infinite youthful intelligence was driving about 80 miles per hour. The road ahead slightly curved to the left and knowing the limits of my X fairly well, I knew I didn't need to slow down to take this curve. Unfortunately, I did not take into consideration that the road was covered with somewhere around 3 inches of water. I hydroplaned and continued heading straight when the road turned left. I slid into a small group of trees that separated the street from an apartment building. I barely missed the first tree, however I was not so lucky with the second tree. I hit the second tree directly in front of me. (directly in front of the driver’s seat, not the center of car) The tree was not a particularly large tree maybe 1 foot in diameter and when I saw I was about to hit it I actually thought I would knock down the tree. This was not the case, even small trees are well rooted and very hard to knock over. My X bounced off the tree spinning in a counter clockwise direction. The X spun a complete 360 before impacting with another tree of about the same size. I struck this tree with the right rear quarter panel and right rear tire. The X began to spin clockwise from this impact and slid sideways into the brick wall surrounding the apartment building. The driver's side of the car was smashed against the wall and I couldn’t open my door, so climbed out the roof.
The first thing I noticed even before even getting out of the car was that the steering wheel was about 3 inches from my chest. The doors had both been broken open and now stuck out about 6-8 inches past the door frame. The back wheels were off the ground and ironically the engine was still running and the transmission was still in gear so the back wheels were still spinning. The back wheels were off the ground because the center of the car about where the jack insert is, had bent down and was firmly lodged in the ground. There wasn't much left of the front of the car. The left front fender was unidentifiable. It had crushed into the frunk and became a jumbled mess of metal, while surprisingly there was not a lot of damage to the passenger side fender. Basically it looked like someone grabbed the front left fender and right rear fender and tried to crush the car like a tin can.
I walked about 100 feet past the first tree and found my targa top which I can only imagine must have flown off the car with the first impact. The targa top was a bit beat up but was still in one piece. I held it over my head as it was still raining and waited for the police to come. I waited probably about an hour and no one came. If I had been hurt I would have probably died since my car was lodged so far back in the trees that I could not be seen from the street.
Eventually I got tired of waiting and walked to a friend’s house that didn't live too far. I called for a tow truck and went back to my car. The tow truck driver said he couldn't tow the car without a police report so he radioed the police. I still remember one of the officers telling me "I have seen much less serious accident where the people were dead inside. You must have angels watching over you." All I could think was, those angels must live in Italy and make cars cause this little car is what saved my life. The tow truck driver had to extend his cable and use a tow strap to extend far enough to hook onto my car. He then pulled my car this way and that to get it around the trees. It took him about 2 hours to maneuver his truck around to pull my car through to the street. I had the car towed to my house. The next morning my neighbors came knocking on my door to ask if I was still alive.
This is the story I tell people when they ask why after all these years I still drive an X 1/9 or tell me it’s so small it’s a death trap. I have driven an X more than half of my life and hopefully will continue to drive one for the rest of my life.
I would love to hear others stories, so feel free to post any amazing stories of your X.
