Sahara desert?

I imagine it started when someone mixed up “high rate of knots” with “speed”?

I think the usual fix for the brake problem nowadays is fitting bigger brake discs (within reason), a different master cylinder and deleting the brake servo. Wheel lockup may have been much more serious in the US version because of the taller front ride height. Surely the suspension geometry ended up all over the…

Oh never mind, “falling down a rabbit hole” is what posting is about anyway.

Let’s clarify a bit. The Audi Quattro, fantastic as it was, did not get to win all the events of the World Rally Championship overnight. They were not that good on dry tarmac.

I think you got their family tree slightly wrong. The Lancia Rally (SE037 is the Abarth project number) was an Abarth-designed homologation special (Group B) for rallying. Development started in around 1979-1980. The central cell is more or less shared with the Lancia Beta Montecarlo (or Scorpion in the US market). I…

The only way to get a Mini-based 5-speed to withstand the midrange torque of a standard-spec Metro Turbo engine is to use straight-cut gears. But then you have the problem of the drop gears not being up to the task either - unless you use straight cut-ones. Which kind of defeats the purpose of having a 5th gear for…

That was a feature of the first-gen Pandas. Depending on the engine (the 126's 600cc twin or the 127's 903cc four) the slats were on one side or the other.

Giugiaro (who fathered the original design) showed this open air version of the Panda in 1980. As far as I know it was – together with their more sober Panda 4x4 Offroader – the first ever attempt to make that car four-wheel drive (although it is quite likely 4WD was on the cards from the very outset of the Panda…

As much as I like the original Mercedes-Benz Geländewagen, all the new glammed-up, jazzed-up, boulevardier versions are (increasingly) ridiculous. And that AMG 6x6 is an utter monstruosity. A car for ultra-rich poseurs.

To their immense credit Germans loved the Panda (bless them!) but next time could you please find a picture of a Panda with Italian numberplates...?

You are so right in everything you just said.

“In awe”? Well, I sincerely hope you are not being sarcastic.

In my case... I have (or at least I used to have) an excellent memory. Also at some stage I had a somewhat unhealthy interest in the history of Porsche – particularly the early days – and the Schwimmwagen. Also ended up having access to some books on the subject. So I read quite a lot about those. Also read quite a…

Dang, content is blocked here. Thanks anyway!

Goodbye Pork Pie is a minor cinematic masterpiece, as simple as that. I haven’t seen the trailer so I cannot tell you whether it is very misleading or not.

Sure. But being a film from NZ Goodbye Pork Pie is not that well-known – and believe me, that is a pity. Same with Robbery: everybody seems to have seen (or heard of) Bullitt, not so many that one.

I strongly suggest you find Goodbye Pork Pie. Lovely 1981 film.

It would not surprise me: that would explain why pictures of Typ 87s in the battlefield never seem to show the roller.

For helping the Beetle becoming and icon of the counterculture you have to thank Doyle, Dane and Bernbach and their extraordinary ability to market it in the US. Bernbach, who was Jewish, specifically commented on the irony of being offered the account to boost VW’s sales.