The Life & times of Sparky the wonder car

[Dead Sparky front]

[Dead Sparky side]

This is my memorial to Sparky the wonder car. Sparky and I became friends' one day in late 1996. When he came to live at our house he was an abused little x1/9, he could barley back out of the garage, for you see a previous owner had carelessly stripped his reverse gear, and let poor Sparky fall out of tune, his tires were bear and his battery was dead. In those first few months after convincing his previous owner to let him stay with us I would take him out for a spin to raise his spirits. I replaced his dead battery, and bald tires, but something was still troubling him, whenever I would take him out in the rain he would get depressed and stall. I was looking at his motor one day when my wife accidentally turned off the garage light, (Normally I do not appreciate such activities) but to my delight, but what did I see, why a faulty spark plug wire shorting to the body making a large "spark". From that day forth the little red car was known as sparky. It was several months later when I had just finished installing many new parts such as a battery, transmission, tires, brakes, headlights, clutch, brake & clutch master cylinders, rebuilt the alternator. After finishing all those repairs it seemed like old sparky felt like he had a new lease on life, his engine picked up a little quicker, his tires squealed with excitement, his headlights a little brighter. But poor Sparky only got to enjoy that excitement for a few hundred miles. While returning from work late on the night of March 25th, 1997 a drunk pulled out in front of me, I hit him broad side at 50 mph, poor sparky was killed instantly his front end really no longer existed, his doors permanently closed, in fact we hit so hard that his engine compartment buckled and started to come into the passenger compartment. The only way out of Sparky was to unbuckle, pop off his targa top & climb out. I was able to walk away from Sparky with only a very small scratch on my knuckle. The driver of the truck had a blood level of 0.017%, while not legally intoxicated it was enough to decrease the number of fun loving X1/9's on the road by one.

There are several lessons to be learned here. #1 Always wear seatbelts and make sure others do to. #2 Is having one for the road worth the risk of putting someone else all over the road. #3 FIAT makes darn good cars. #4 You never plan to have an accident so make every day count.

We can all take solace in that sparky has willing donated his vital organs that others might continue to drive the road less traveled.


Sparky's Vital Statistics:
Date of Birth			June 1981
Died			March 1997
VIN			ZFABS00AXC8143210
Version			128.AS1
Engine			138BS.031, fuel injected 1500cc
Mileage at time of death			116k
Color			Red

Alas poor Sparky, he served me well.
Welcome to The Sparky Memorial Page, Please light a candle and take a seat.
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