Trains.com

Car Richard Pryor Stole In Slver Streak?

2998 views
14 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    March 2022
  • 93 posts
Car Richard Pryor Stole In Slver Streak?
Posted by roundstick3@gmail.com on Friday, April 29, 2022 5:55 PM
  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Friday, April 29, 2022 11:34 PM

Fiat X1/9, I believe.

Those things could be fun.  As I recall, the Dallara 'icsunonuove' (that's X1/9 in Italian) had 200hp in that bitty and highly stiff frame.  Gandini of course did the Countach and other famous designs...

For those who remember certain Niagara pictures...
https://silodrome.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Fiat-X19-768x498.jpg

  • Member since
    September 2002
  • From: Maricopa, AZ
  • 269 posts
Posted by DanRaitz on Saturday, April 30, 2022 9:43 AM
If women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy .... Red Green
  • Member since
    April 2007
  • From: Bridgman, MI
  • 283 posts
Posted by bogie_engineer on Saturday, April 30, 2022 9:49 AM

I bought a new yellow X1/9 like that in Silver Streak in 1974 when they first came to the US. A fun little car. Although I was a GM employee at the time, my rank and salary were too low to be eligible for the salaried employee discount program. I parked in the back of the lot at EMD where the non-GM cars were tolerated. This was my 4th Fiat, I know I was a glutton for punishment, so knew to get it rustproofed immediately. But the Ziebart dealer had never seen one before so they did the complete underside including the radiator; eventually, they agreed to pay for the radiator cleaning.

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Saturday, April 30, 2022 10:19 AM

bogie_engineer
But the Ziebart dealer had never seen one before so they did the complete underside including the radiator; eventually, they agreed to pay for the radiator cleaning.

Look on the bright side... you wouldn't experience any radiator corrosion, at least not from the outside.  (And especially if the engine weren't running due to inadequate heat exchange... Whistling)

I managed to thread neatly through the era without ever getting near driving an X1/9 (although I had a friend with a TR7 and another with a Lancia Scorpion).  Part of that was general fix-it-again-Tony prejudice; someone a class ahead of me in high school had a 124 Spyder, which was beautiful when it ran and still beautiful when it didn't, which was often.  I now have a neighbor across the service drive with a near-immaculate one which he keeps running nicely.

As an amusing aside: in the mid-Seventies, the PRR yard south of the Princeton campus had only been recently 'repurposed' as student parking... in fact it had been illegal to have a car there as an undergraduate until not too long before... and every year folks would abandon some interesting things as they graduated or moved on.  One of these was a Fiat Abarth 500, which had one of the most delicate cast headers I've ever seen on any engine.  I actually tinkered with this to make illegal runs over to the Burger King that had just opened up in Hamilton (there being at the time NO other accessible fast food south of Belle Mead) and it was a nifty little thing, but the old adage that you had to spend your weekends tuning and retuning to keep going was true for that car...

I have always suspected that one of the reasons behind the Fiero involved the success of the X1/9 -- you might be in a position to know this 'from the inside'.

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,279 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Saturday, April 30, 2022 1:48 PM

Overmod
 ... 

I managed to thread neatly through the era without ever getting near driving an X1/9 (although I had a friend with a TR7 and another with a Lancia Scorpion).  Part of that was general fix-it-again-Tony prejudice; someone a class ahead of me in high school had a 124 Spyder, which was beautiful when it ran and still beautiful when it didn't, which was often.  I now have a neighbor across the service drive with a near-immaculate one which he keeps running nicely.

Still have the 1979 TR7 Convertible that I bought new.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    September 2002
  • From: Maricopa, AZ
  • 269 posts
Posted by DanRaitz on Sunday, May 1, 2022 9:36 AM

Of the two cars he stole in the movie, I'd take the first one (Jaguar XKE 2+2) over the Fiat X1/9.

 

Dan

If women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy .... Red Green
  • Member since
    March 2022
  • 93 posts
Posted by roundstick3@gmail.com on Sunday, May 1, 2022 9:57 PM

bogie_engineer

I bought a new yellow X1/9 like that in Silver Streak in 1974 when they first came to the US. A fun little car. Although I was a GM employee at the time, my rank and salary were too low to be eligible for the salaried employee discount program. I parked in the back of the lot at EMD where the non-GM cars were tolerated. This was my 4th Fiat, I know I was a glutton for punishment, so knew to get it rustproofed immediately. But the Ziebart dealer had never seen one before so they did the complete underside including the radiator; eventually, they agreed to pay for the radiator cleaning.

 

Earl Sheib " I paint any car for 99.95" or something like that 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Sunday, May 1, 2022 11:38 PM

roundstick3@gmail.com
Earl Scheib "I paint any car for 99.95" or something like that 

Indeed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auvf7DDw5z0

There are still Earl Scheib places, but since 2010 they are independently owned.  Uh oh, better get MAACO... 

  • Member since
    March 2022
  • 93 posts
Posted by roundstick3@gmail.com on Monday, May 2, 2022 7:06 AM

99.95 in 1975 how much per week did the average 45 hour a week college student working stiiff make? Party Girl nils daddy's car how many tables waiting would she have to to make 99.95...Even 50 hours working for Penn Central as a yard dog did not make you a rich man at the end of the week.

  • Member since
    April 2001
  • From: Roanoke, VA
  • 2,019 posts
Posted by BigJim on Monday, May 2, 2022 7:51 AM

Correct me if I am wrong, but, the first car he stole in Silver Streak was a Jaguar XKE."Pure ***"!

.

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,279 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Monday, May 2, 2022 8:07 AM

roundstick3@gmail.com
99.95 in 1975 how much per week did the average 45 hour a week college student working stiiff make? Party Girl nils daddy's car how many tables waiting would she have to to make 99.95...Even 50 hours working for Penn Central as a yard dog did not make you a rich man at the end of the week.

When I hired out on the B&O in 1965 the first 'full rate' job I worked paid almost $3 per hour.  A friend of mine who worked for a unionized supermarket chain in the area was earning a near equivalent amount in that same time frame.

The friend got a car painted by Earl Sheib - seems that beyond glass - windshield, back window etc - masking was a extra cost option and Earl painted everything that wasn't masked.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    December 2008
  • From: Toronto, Canada
  • 2,560 posts
Posted by 54light15 on Monday, May 2, 2022 9:12 AM

I was in the Navy in the 1970s with a guy from Waukesha, Wisconsin who worked at an Earl Scheib. One day, all they had to work on was a 65 Corvair. The entire crew worked on it and gave it a paint job worthy of the Pebble Beach concours. The owner took everyone to the bar after work and bought the crew all the beer they could drink. 

The two guys that I knew that had Fiat X 1/9s both spun them into telephone poles and punched the rear axle through the gearbox case and that was the end of them. 

  • Member since
    September 2002
  • From: Maricopa, AZ
  • 269 posts
Posted by DanRaitz on Monday, May 2, 2022 9:37 AM

BigJim

Correct me if I am wrong, but, the first car he stole in Silver Streak was a Jaguar XKE."Pure ***"!

 

 

2+2 

IMCDb.org: 1967 Jaguar XK-E 2+2 FHC Series I in "Silver Streak, 1976"

If women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy .... Red Green
  • Member since
    December 2008
  • From: Toronto, Canada
  • 2,560 posts
Posted by 54light15 on Thursday, May 5, 2022 12:29 AM

When the E-type (or XKE) Jaguar was first introduced, Enzo Ferrari said that the only thing wrong with it is that it wasn't a Ferrari. High praise, indeed. 

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy