As we were bantering around a couple weeks ago about the X-11's, I figured I'd finally get a photo of my old X-11 scanned and posted. Bought new in May 82 as I was getting out of college, I had wanted one since the 81 models came out as I preferred them over the 80 debut edition.
I had the car until Apr 90 after I moved back from Ottawa to Calgary, 3 years in the Ottawa salt didn't do the car any favors. It was still peppy, but was getting dated.
The photo is of me and the car at California's Malibu beach in October 1983. I was a little slimmer back then, and the shorts were worn a little higher than today.
-- Edited by seventy2plus2 on Saturday 18th of December 2010 10:40:38 AM
Nice Clint, red looks good on that. I posted mine before but it belongs along side your I say. That was a fast little car for what it was,of course the Hooker headers I got direct from Cali helped mine breath pretty well, cowl induction hood was a cool feature and that lumpy cammed HO 660 was a decent engine. It was my first brand new car too.
Once again I say that I was really surprised with these cars and I liked them. If I found one I would have a hard time passing it over. It would have to be really cheap but they are quite neat.
To be completely honest these little puppies could keep pace with the Z28, Trans Am and Mustang GT through the quarter mile, then the V8's had more pull than the 2.8 litre. Mine was still strong at highway speeds because of the headers and wide open exhaust, collectors merged behind engine then we ran a 3" pipe straight to the back with a small resonator and dual outlets. The Thruway shop just west of main on Danforth did that set up Cam. The cowl induction was great and when the solenoid popped the flapper open it really sucked air and growled. I think the 81's we as good as they got, after than the engine was snot the same but it did get fuel injected I think but less torque.
I probably still have a Motor Trend review, a head to head face off with a Saab turbo which was a pretty expensive and respected car back then. It was no match for the X11. I always thought it was an odd comparison test because I never would have considered a car like a Saab,
This car was on the cover of Motor Tend once, it was a concept off the XII.
-- Edited by 73SC on Friday 17th of December 2010 10:31:45 PM
I found a very interesting link on the XII. CLICK HERE
They call it the first front wheel drive muscle car. Apparently the car sold to the public in 1981 was basically the race car Chevy was campaigning in SCCA. The link describes the engine work as well, special heads, higher compression and an Isky cam.
To be honest I think my car was missing part of the cowl induction setup. I think it was missing a sleve that married the air cleaner snout to the part on the firewall the sealed against the hood. I too had the reviews of the auto magazines, and I remember one of them called the transmission a gear bag instead of a gear box.
But the thing could really corner, and I remember hauling all my furniture from one condo to another when I lived in Ottawa, including a large sectional sofa.
There was a rubber oblong seal about 4 inches wide that sealed the dual snorkle to the inlet on the hood Clint. The torque steer on that thing was wild when you pounded it from a standstill. The thing I remember impressing my buddies were the wheels and tires. Mine were Goodyear Eagle raised black letters, I can't remember how wide or what size they were but they cleared the wheel lips by a good margin, in fact I got black mud flaps, I know I know but they looked pretty good and worked keeping my windshield clear. With the tires extended beyond the body the mud and road crap got tossed on the window when driving spiritedly. The car could corner like it was on rails as Clint pointed out.
I had a '80 X11. Bought it new. Gutsy little car 4 sp. 13in tires. Just like the picture on that site to go to, same colour and all. I had it licenced on and off til '05 (latter yr as a backup car). Yes torque steer was something else. Gave to brother-in-law and he crashed it in '09.
-- Edited by Brian on Saturday 18th of December 2010 12:55:55 AM
-- Edited by Brian on Saturday 18th of December 2010 12:58:42 AM
There was a rubber oblong seal about 4 inches wide that sealed the dual snorkle to the inlet on the hood Clint. The torque steer on that thing was wild when you pounded it from a standstill. The thing I remember impressing my buddies were the wheels and tires. Mine were Goodyear Eagle raised black letters, I can't remember how wide or what size they were but they cleared the wheel lips by a good margin, in fact I got black mud flaps, I know I know but they looked pretty good and worked keeping my windshield clear. With the tires extended beyond the body the mud and road crap got tossed on the window when driving spiritedly. The car could corner like it was on rails as Clint pointed out.
Yup, I'd seen the rubber oblong seal in a couple photo's, but it was missing on my car, and I didn't realize it until well after I bought the car. I guess I could have ordered one later.
I too added mud flaps shortly after buy it, they actually kind of finished off the car. The car had Goodyear Eagle GT's, I went through a few sets of them (you can kind of see the raise white letter outlines in the photo).
This got my curiosity up, so I went through my files and found the original window sheet, stating the tires were 215/60R14's. Price was $12744 including dealer prep. I paid $10,900 + $750 rebate reassigned to the dealer for a total of $11650. (I didn't realize I still had the bill of sale from when I bought it Apr 30 1982, and also from when I sold it Apr 4 1990).
It was a good car, but could have used a 5 speed tranny as there was quite a ratio change between 2nd & 3rd, and the dash was typical 80's plastic. Odd thing was the passenger side seat reclined, but not the driver seat (even states it on the window sheet, was a $53 option). Lets just say a few of the young ladies I kept company with got to use the reclining seat!!!
Very nice X11 you had there Clint. I wish i would have been able to hold onto mine but it needed more work than i could afford. I had mine for about a year. By the time i got it in 93 the owner had painted it a dark brown. I've posted a pic or two of it before but can't find the post, don't have the pics on my computer now. It still had the decals on the doors, they'd been painted over. I don't think mine had all the cowl induction stuff on it. Most likely went missing by the time i got the car. Mine had a sunroof installed, first car i had with one. If you count the t tops i've had three cars with an open roof of some sort. I always thought the radio postion a novelty with it being sideways in the dash. I really liked the wheels on it too, used to be a Celebrity Europort around, i think 83 or 84 that wore the same style, minus the "Citation" script of course. The front of that car just looked plain mean with the blacked out grille. My 81 was the second car i had and still one of my favourites!
-- Edited by blacktransam on Saturday 18th of December 2010 09:06:14 AM
Apparently I missed the earlier thread on the X-11. I bought mine in 1981. It was the first one in our town and it was so early on in production that the script that was on the side of the cowl induction hump was a decal. They were designed to have this emblem in plastic plated chrome but when my car hit the end of the assemble line the plastic emblems had not arrived so a decal was made from the same design and put on the hood in place of the plated plastic emblem. We had two kids about 6 & 7 at the time of purchase and we folded down the back seat and the kids camped in the back on family trips. those same two kids later both drove that car to high school. When the car was about 4 years old and it had been rusted proofed twice, I put it in storage for my daughter. I later put it back on the road with 44k miles on it and eventually at 75,000 miles it was ten years old and the oil pump failed when my daughter was driving and the motor ceased. Being a GM employee, we were able to access the warehouse inventory system and I contacted an employee there who told me there were two long block motors in a GM warehouse only 100 miles from my house and they were scheduled to be sold as scrap due to their policy of not stocking parts after 10 yrs. I inquired as to the scrap value and I was given a price of $400. I drove down to cash sales and bought the motor. Prior to finding this motor, I had checked and my 40% discount price on the assembly was $1,000. By the way this was know as a Z block. The block, heads and cam were all different than a stock 2.8 V-6. After my son drove the car his senior year of high school in 1993, we hung on to it another couple years as a back up car. By that time both kids were in college and did not have cars at school so we sold it. At the time of that sale it still did not have any rust on it because I had taken it back for a re-spray of the rust proofing on the underside and it was being stored for winters. My car was red with black interior, an automatic, rear window louvers, black mud flaps and in the latter years all decals had been removed. I saved the original wheels and replaced them with a set of enkie gold rims. They shared the same bolt pattern and wheel sizes with the Pontiac Grand Am.
Apparently I missed the earlier thread on the X-11. I bought mine in 1981. It was the first one in our town and it was so early on in production that the script that was on the side of the cowl induction hump was a decal. They were designed to have this emblem in plastic plated chrome but when my car hit the end of the assemble line the plastic emblems had not arrived so a decal was made from the same design and put on the hood in place of the plated plastic emblem. We had two kids about 6 & 7 at the time of purchase and we folded down the back seat and the kids camped in the back on family trips. those same two kids later both drove that car to high school. When the car was about 4 years old and it had been rusted proofed twice, I put it in storage for my daughter. I later put it back on the road with 44k miles on it and eventually at 75,000 miles it was ten years old and the oil pump failed when my daughter was driving and the motor ceased. Being a GM employee, we were able to access the warehouse inventory system and I contacted an employee there who told me there were two long block motors in a GM warehouse only 100 miles from my house and they were scheduled to be sold as scrap due to their policy of not stocking parts after 10 yrs. I inquired as to the scrap value and I was given a price of $400. I drove down to cash sales and bought the motor. Prior to finding this motor, I had checked and my 40% discount price on the assembly was $1,000. By the way this was know as a Z block. The block, heads and cam were all different than a stock 2.8 V-6. After my son drove the car his senior year of high school in 1993, we hung on to it another couple years as a back up car. By that time both kids were in college and did not have cars at school so we sold it. At the time of that sale it still did not have any rust on it because I had taken it back for a re-spray of the rust proofing on the underside and it was being stored for winters. My car was red with black interior, an automatic, rear window louvers, black mud flaps and in the latter years all decals had been removed. I saved the original wheels and replaced them with a set of enkie gold rims. They shared the same bolt pattern and wheel sizes with the Pontiac Grand Am.
almost sounds like a twin to my car, except mine was a 4 speed. I also had added the rear window louvers. You likely had a/c which was not on mine, but I wished I had it with that black interior. I had seen some cars with the decal emblem on the hood, always wondered why some were decals and some emblems.
Nice story and information on your XII Norm. I suppose being my first new car I have a soft spot for the XII. It got traded in on a 1986 Monte Carlo SS which is the car I wish I never sold,
