A real shame

So i'm driving down the road and what do I see. A 1980 something X 1/9 in terrible shape. I stopped to inspect it and found that it is picked pretty clean of parts and body panels. Not much left of the car itself and then I look at what's left of the dash and to my surprise -










6,154 miles showing on the odometer. Technically this is the lowest mileage X 1/9 I have ever seen in person. I don't know the story behind this X, but I do know it has been sitting in this shape for many years.

Too bad ...

You should grab the faceplate of the cluster if you can.
A clear bezel is more valuable then the gauge cluster itself.

Wow, how hot did it get in there to completely melt that needle on the speedo, toasty.

WTF with the speedo needle?

and 55 MPH IN NZ?

A real shame?

Dennis,

More than likely, its 106,154! If I remember correctly, the speedo face configuration has changed over the years. Early models had the trip odometer on top and the mileage counter on bottom. The early mileage counters were 5 digits and a 6th for 1/10 of a mile.

Later models had the mileage counter on top with 6 full digits (no tenths) and the trip odometer on the bottom.

As this was an earlier style, I suspect that clock turned at least once when it hit 100,000. Or it could be like your old car and had turned at least TWICE!



Ed

Dennisrh said:

6,154 miles showing on the odometer. Technically this is the lowest mileage X 1/9 I have ever seen in person. I don't know the story behind this X, but I do know it has been sitting in this shape for many years.

Click to expand...

Sad indeed, but it looks as if that car died that other could live.
I'd bet on 106K miles rather than 6K miles.

Yeah... looks to be a '79 or '80 carbed car...

Someone like you or Matt if ya got this for nothing could salvage all the remaining bits and pieces and dash pod as well as cut out the windshield frame.

Some good parts there that are valuable to many for a few hours work.

BTW... is that a PERFECTLY flat rear bumper gasket I see there?

Amazing...

All you had to do was circle the "55" on the speedo and sports car drivers would not go any faster...:wacko:

That drivers window is half up which tells me the regulator is still there. Should be the new style electric which are getting hard to find, if it still works.....

also grab...

The firewall insulation looks Mint, Someone was looking for that a while back.

Everybody beat me to it.

Mine has an odometer reading of 6,500 +/- miles right now, too. But I am afraid it is as Ed suggested.

Probably is 106K miles. I must be too young to remember the days when cars had odometers that could be rolled over. Actually I'm not, my first X was a 1980 and it had that same style odometer. That was a long time ago though. All my other X's were newer and had the odometer that went past 100k. I'll have to stop by and ask the guy that owns the car what he would charge me to take a few of the pieces people are asking about.

*jvandyke: It gets over 105 degrees here in Austin in the summer. My guess is that the speedo was facing upwards toward the sun at some point in time and thats how it got hot enough to melt the needle.

Ya know... Extremely LOW MILEAGE, OLD cars...

were just NOT driven. Sometimes the owner passed, sometimes he/she was a collector and just had so many to drive. OR... Sometimes he/she was one of those people who just enjoyed having them and/or bragging about them, and/or was looking to have it as an investment.

One thing I learned from watching "American Pickers" on TV is that not all OLD or RARE things are especially valuable, even if they are GOOD or GREAT. I kinda think our X1/9's fit that category... and it usually is the PERCEPTION of the BUYER (and not the SELLER) as to what is valuable.

A GOOD example is a 1969 $3,500 Z/28 Camaro that fetches megabucks today and a 1969 $8,000 L78 Corvette fetches 25% of that.

So... I for one take much PRIDE in the 173,000 miles on my X1/9 and the 169,000 on my Vette. Badges of Honor... and speaks well of the caretaker I think.