To all those shadetree mechanics... don’t feel too bad. What those guys did was nothing short of astonishing. However:

We all admire the prowess of rally drivers – as we all bloody well should.

Coniston Blue is a colour, but using it on a –purportedly – British car doesn’t show great taste. Obviously nobody seems to remember what happened in a certain place called Coniston Water?

This is obviously an extremely late comment but... I’d like to suggest you have a look at The Nest, another film inspired by Assault on Precinct 13.

(ooops - shudda said 901 gearbox)

1. Win the lottery. (Unfortunately for point 2 you have to win big so no chickenfeces prizes here);

Didn’t the 912E and the 914 have more or less the same engine? Just think of it as a four-adult/four-door version of both!

We may not like what Bangle did, but he’s kind of necessary. The car industry is hyperconservative by definition (you don’t want to alienate your customer base every few years, do you) so people like him make things go forward. Not with smooth transitions but with leaps and bounds.

Do proper Minis qualify?

Please do not confuse today’s “Abarth” with what Abarth was from 1949 until they were bought by Fiat.

Jason, I think someone did this... not so long ago.

And what’s that over there? Did Porsche also build motorcycles? Yes, one. A Porsche engineer by the name of Mr. Hess, probably a motorbike enthusiast, could not stop himself from fitting the engine of a Porsche 356 into a bike. Similar to the Münch Mammoth with the NSU TT engine and a perceived weight of 300 kg,…

Hmmm, regarding the Panamericana (incidentally, a birthday present for Ferry, who interestingly enough was not enthralled with its colour)... I think the “buggy” looks were accidental.

Jalopnik devotees?

Except what you are talking about – and that picture illustrates to perfection – would be a raid car (or, if you want to get technical, a “rally raid” car.)

It is a big mystery to me why so many people in the US always seem to think rallying involves something akin to Baja.

Regarding Le Mans ‘77, saying Ickx was entered as a driver for both 936s is also a little inaccurate. For 936 number 4, Ickx was the designated replacement driver.

Properly speaking, wasn’t the 936 engine an evolution of the one in the earlier 911 Carrera RSR Turbo (1974; 2.1 litres; 3.0 litre class) rather than a development of the later (and bigger) 935 (1976; 2.8 litres; 4.0 litre class)?

You may not have noticed that I started my posting with “OK, it’s just a film”.

Out of sheer curiosity - did you really throw him back into the greys?