Hi, I'm Pete and I have a 1985 VS, which my wife and I have owned for about eight years. We are the third owners, and when we bought the car, it only had a genuine 26,000 miles on it despite being over 20 years old.  Due to the number plate, my wife has christened him Nobby, so Nobby he is.  He had been resprayed all over silver when we got him, but we had him returned to the original silver over dark metalic grey (with a thin red pinstripe) very soon after we got him. We managed to drive him to Turin five years ago, and got pictures of him outside the original Fiat factory (now a hotel).  We took a long and leasurely drive down Europe, through The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria and Italy before returning via France again. 2500 mles without a problem.  Unlike the year before when we gat as far as The Netherland before the trouble started.....but that's another story.

Nobby is my second X1/9, the first I had in 1976 when stationed in Germany with the RAF.  I had gone to a Ford garage to order  an Escort Mexico when I saw it for sale, lime green, second hand and less than two years old.  I had never seen one before and was smitten.  I bought the car without even a test drive! In 1976 a lime green Exxy was cooler than any Escort, so there was no contest. It was left hand drive, but that wasn't a problem for the three years I owned it in Germany.  Coming back to the UK and she had to go, especially as the dreaded rust was becoming a serious problem.  She went in 1980, sold for £375, cash. 

Nobby will hopefully soldier on, and when I get around to it I will post some pictures of him in the Dolomites, strutting his stuff!