Bernice, of the Italian Stallions 24 Hours Of LeMons team (that's her on the left, replacing a head gasket on a Fiat SOHC in the bracing 36° air at Arse Freeze-A-Palooza '08), wants us to know "This FIAT engine often ignored in the US due to its small displacement, regardless it is IMO one of FIAT's best engines from the 1960's. While the FIAT twin cam gets much of the glory and noted attention, this is actually the better of the two in some ways. Designed by Aurelio Lampredi, famed Ferrari engine designer before he went to work for FIAT. He is also the one who designed the FIAT twin cam from this era. Production of this engine ran from 1969 to 2005. By the mid-1980's FIAT produced over 6 million copies with numerous variants."

Originally designed to power the Fiat 128 (which, as we know, Enzo Ferrari chose to use as his daily driver) the Fiat SOHC had a good long run, from 1969 to 1999. In addition to 128s and X1/9s, a version of this engine was used in that Balkan legend, the Yugo (including turbocharged examples). The Ritmo/Strada, Punto, and 127 also had Fiat SOHC power, and a number of Lancia machines were fitted with this iron-block/aluminum-head workhorse as well.

[Mirafiori.com, Wikipedia]

While not as quick as its Alfetta stablemate, the Mille Miglia car still came in a bragging-rights-enabled 35th place. We need more Alfas in this race!


After retiring their hopelessly battered Alfetta, the California Mille crew came storming back with this replacement. Chief Perp Lamm came pretty close to exercising his right to claim any car for $500 when he saw the Webers on this thing, but decided to let it race instead. 24th place, which should disprove those "unreliable Alfa" stereotypes, right?


Even with an all-night wrenchathon mixed in, this car did way better than I ever imagined possible. The Stallions' all-woman crew kept this fine sports car going for most of the weekend, grabbing 47th place and a great 1:39.258 best lap time. Pay attention, future racers: the X1/9 has what it takes for LeMons… and you can get one for cheap!


This thing is a genuine LeMons legend. A veteran of every single California LeMons race, it's been a hit at the Concorso Italiano, performed thousands of parking lot donuts, and is even now being prepped for a 200 MPH Bonneville run. It's mighty fast on the racetrack- check out that 1:34.512 best lap time- and this time it had a best-yet 18th-place finish. Sure, they could drop a junkyard Toyota 4A in it and break down less frequently, but that would be wrong!

I predicted that the Stallions would finish just 27 laps before the race, though I was hoping they'd do better. Come on, I thought, it's an X1/9! As it turned out, the Stallions managed to knock off 260 laps at Thunderhill- nearly ten times my guess. Not only that, they turned a best lap time of 1:39.258, which is down in BMW E30 and Acura Integra territory.


Of course, it is a Fiat, so the team members probably knew they wouldn't be kicking back in a nice warm motel room and swapping race stories on Saturday night. Hey, why is the engine running so hot?


Turns out that some sort of cooling-system drain valve on the engine let go late on Saturday, which resulted in overheating and a blown head gasket.


Hey, no problem! Here's Tony removing the cylinder head, no doubt enjoying the bracing effects of Thunderhill's 34-degree night air and howling winds, while her assistant- also named Tony- helps out. That's right, this team has an all-woman pit crew, and they got the Fiat back in working order in time for the next day's racing. For having selected an X1/9 and getting numerous mistaken black flags, the Italian Stallions grabbed the I Got Screwed trophy for the race. Be sure to check out their website when you're done here. Thanks to Mad Science Senior and Mad Science for many of these photos.
And here's some in-car video for you; be sure to turn the sound way, way down before you hit the Play button!

You see, we've got a mole inside 24 Hours Of LeMons HQ, Ecurie Ecrappe member TheEastBayKid, and he's leaked the super-secret Arse-Freeze-A-Palooza '08 team list to us.You'll get to see the whole thing pretty soon, once I've got all the links to team sites sorted out, but the real highlight is the fact that not just one but two Fiat X1/9s will be on the track at Thunderhill next month. There's a '76, run by the Famila Italia Advance Team out of Portland, Oregon, and there's the '80 that the Italian Stallions of Woodside, California, will be campaigning. They're sure to show those six MR2 teams a thing or two about real mid-engined race cars, right?

And that's just the beginning of the fun for you fans of Italian racing machinery! In addition to the pair-o-Fiats, the Team California Mille Alfetta will be back in action, along with a second TCM Alfetta stablemate. Not only that, the Pendejo Engineering Alfetta will be returning to Thunderhill as well; you might recall the heartwarming Alfa camaraderie between the two teams last year, when they made one good engine out of two garbooned ones... and then proceeeded to blow up that engine as well! The Alfettas are very quick on the track, quick enough that they'll contend for sure if they can be kept running.

You think the race still lacks sufficient Italian iron? Well, rumor has it that the Ecurie Ecrappe '71 Spider will be on the track, too, making a grand total of six Italian cars in the race!

[eBay Motors]