I would say you missed roughly a hundred million germanophonic people in your list of people who pronouce it more along the lines of "Por-shuh"/"Por-sher". The o is elongated and slightly stressed, the e is abbreviated and unstressed, but certainly not silent. Sorry for sounding like a condescending smartass. I'm…

In Germany during WWII, there were quite some attempts to use the carbon-gas generated by heating wood and coal for ordinary cars (often converted by the owner in a DIY-job), to compensate for the lack of gas and diesel available. Basically, you'd fill the oven in the trunk with chopped wood, light a small fire in…

Best he can hope for is getting recognition for being the inspiration. I highly doubt that they will even give him a cent, unless he scores a winning streak of very pro-custom-car judges.

Not a particularly nice price, but also not a crackpipe. Folks, you don't buy cars of that age and breed on mileage (which isn't at all excessive if you keep in mind that's a 26 year old vehicle - therefore doing less than 4000 miles a year; I'd rather buy a car that was regularly taken out than one that spent ten…

What a great idea. Really looking forward to the mass of idiots who got used to their auto-braking car which is oh-so-convenient for trodding along in heavy traffic, and who will subsequently cause thousands of rear-enders when they switch over to their non-autobraking husband's/parents'/rental car one day.

Count me in, too. I really like the italian edgyness of the 80s and 90s, producing cars like the Delta Integrale, Alfa 75, and the Ghibli obviously. In a way, one could add all post 308 / pre-360 Ferraris into that category as well. Nothing wrong with having straight, clear lines on a car.

Excellent place to insert my favorite rallye story. The year is 1980, Rallye Portugal, Arganil stage. It's foggy as all hell, visibility 5-10 meters. Walter Röhrl gave his navigator Christian Geistdörfer the command right before they started, in broad bavarian accent, to strap himself in real tight. For good reason.…

Would have loved if they just went "meh..." and left it there. Would probably have become a source of amusement for new generations of video gamers, when it eventually became part of the new Gran Turismo etc.

I wouldn't say dildo, it's more like a dog squatting down to take a dump...

Lancia started having those quality issues after being swallowed by FIAT mostly, and they suffered from the same problems as most other italian manufacturers during the seventies - receiving bad steel from Russia and having a workforce that was always ready to go on strike and leave unfinished cars sit outside in the…

This happened in Aachen, which is essentially a huge technical university that happens to have a city right around it. Guess the police is in fact used to nerdy pranks like that.

I don't know (never been to Arabia), but I always figured those pictures of sand-covered supercars were inevitably what happened if someone let their car sit in a parking lot for just a couple of days and a sandstorm occurs... or maybe it's really those ultra-rich Arabs who just keep forgetting they have another…

So with all that weight saving technology, they made a car that is about 3.9m long, 1.6m wide, produces 68hp, has seats for two people and weighs 1740lbs. Amazing progress over a 1974 Golf Mk1 1.5l, which is about 3.8m long, 1.6m wide, produces 70hp and weighs 1775lbs, while offering seats for 5 people. Am I…

I'd also say, having driven both kinds of transmissions, the manual is more fun to me in a roadcar. Might be a different story in a more track-focussed car like the GT3 (haven't driven one of those), but I'm fairly certain that if you happen to drive your GT3 on the road some time, like going to work on a nice sunny…

Well, what do you expect... we Germans aren't exactly known for being pedantic about such technical things.

Well, they are somewhat likely to be mistaken for packing material, since the entire body is made of cotton and resin. I know of more than one birthday parties over here in Germany which included a Trabant playing the gift-role, usually handed over by a bunch of chuckling friends. The market price used to be around…

Whether you believe him or not, the very real possibility exists for anybody willing to sell a performance vehicle (especially something affordable) that it attracts the wrong kind of test driver. People might end up doing some ridiculously stupid stuff in your car, which will usually come back to hurt you a few days…

Terrible idea. Either design the car around natural gas pressure tanks (which can be done quite nicely, look at the Opel CNG range of cars - no reduction in trunk or passenger space, and a small gas tank available for emergencies as well), or, if you want to retrofit, just use small cylindrical tanks that fit in the…

You're right... I almost forgot about rotaries. The rough idling sound of a well-ported rotary alone is to die for, never mind something like the 787B...