The next addition to the long line of cars was a Bertone X1/9 'Gran Finale' which was one of the last of the line for X1/9 production. As mentioned a couple of times earlier this was one of the best handling cars of the seventies and even early eighties, sadly however by the time I got this 1500 version most manufacturers had caught up, I tried to remedy this by adding the obligatory Koni's and lowered springing but this failed to remedy the situation, seemingly just making the ride harsher proving how well engineered the package was in the first place. Generally the 1500 has a less responsive chassis than the 1300 due to several reasons those being more weight due to increased safety protection added in 1979 to pacify the safety obcessed American market and also the 1500 model's Strada/Ritmo 'parts bin' base, as I found during my own suspension 'refit' the location and ridgidity is not that of the 1300/128 arangements on earlier cars. The uprated and refurbished suspension performed best on smooth well metaled surfaces, elsewhere it performed less well almost proving too stiff for road use. One place where the car excelled was on trips to France where every available orifice was utilised for storage of duty free and chaper French goods, the French motorways are very well surfaced and are much smoother than our own meaning that inthe X1/9 it was like driving on carpet a very soothing experience, also it was the only time the suspension was noticed to begin to 'float' due to the extra weight being carried !

Several cars of this type over the years have been branded hairdressers cars, the only reason I can give for this could be that these comments were envious of the obviously good time being had by the car's owner, the 2 seater car creating visions of some sort of playboy lifestyle like Magnum PI or something. This can lead to a level of resentment from other road users the like of which is best never experienced !

The latest I.C.E. arangements were added to the car using all I had learned from previous cars to create yet another winning combination hard given the restricted space involved, I even added my own design of removable Subwoofer to the front boot area as the passenger cabin's size meant the small speakers used generated little or no bass.

This car was sold to the local Fiat dealer in P/X for my next car which I came across quite by accident whilst on a trip to the parts department for the X1/9.

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