My nineth car was another sports car and was a Fiat X1/9 'Lido'. Named after the Lido nightclub in Paris this special edition that marked the end of 1300 X1/9 production was Metallic Black in colour with White Alcantara and vinyl interior trim (a nightmare to keep clean at the best of times). It also had a Limited editon plate fixed to the passenger side fornt wing, the car's number was 0350 of 0700 as it was thought at the time, this later turned out to be 1000 but i'm not sure that even Bertone really know how many were made ! This X1/9 was a much better car than my previous one and was still on its original Pirelli P3's after 50,000 miles. Also this car is one of the few I truly wish I'd held onto as it was so good. I fitted Koni's all round to it which made the handling pin sharp, making it one of the best handling cars available for sensible money (only Lotuses and Caterhams performed better better around corners as they were 50% lighter).

The strange thing sticking up above the roof you may have noticed is called a snorkel which is a replica of an air intake fitted to the Abarth X1/9 prototipo cars which never made it into mainstream rallying as they were embarasingly faster than the works Stratos cars of the time !!! Due to my limited budget at the time this car was a bit of a revelation as it was just so good costing me only £2500 as I remember, this however wore off and I made the huge mistake of selling it. One of my friends bought it and holed a piston a day or so later.

(lesson number one : never sell cars to people you know !)

A very short period of not owning a car was experienced before vehicle number ten was purchased.

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