Nearly 40 years ago, five British Royal Marines trained for two weeks straight. Their goal was unusual but impressive: to remove and replace a two-door Ford Escort engine assembly in record time. Working like a pit crew, they presented their stunning routine on camera in a studio in 1985. Incredibly, they did the engine swap in 42 seconds.

Now, the rules of this record-breaking program at the time were interesting and worth noting. The crew drives the vehicle to a starting line to prove it’s in functioning condition. Then, the driver shuts off the engine and turns it back on again. Once the engine stops a second time, the clock begins.

After the clock starts, the crew must swap the engine, load up into the cabin, and start the car. They must drive the car 10 meters, or nearly 33 feet, to the finish line. Once the back wheels cross the finish line, the clock stops.

The Royal Marines performed in such a coordinated, quiet ballet that it was hard to catch all their hyper-efficient movements. In a matter of seconds, the crew finished the engine swap, and the little Escort was running again, albeit questionably.

Let’s make some technical notes. The crew didn’t drain or add any fluids, and who knows what else they skipped. Pulling off and throwing the hood back on took little effort. The lack of bolts there is obvious, of course. It’s hard to tell what else wasn’t bolted down in the first place or reinstalled to spec, for that matter. At their pace, most of what was hand-tooled by the crew was likely only finger-tight. And sure, a 3.1-hour Escort engine job isn’t the most complicated example of an engine swap. The car clearly struggles some to drive the 30 feet to the finish line.

In the end, I don’t care what you or I have to say about the stunt; a 42-second engine swap – or any other R&R, for that matter, is objectively fast.