Ramblings
Bijoy has a new job, conjuring up names for future cars. Got names that end with an 'O'? You know who to write to
RECENTLY I SPENT A FEW DAYS DISCUSSING names for Mahindra’s upcoming vehicles. Trust me, it is a tough job. That made me think of how some car makers go about this job. Following column is as random as it gets. Read on.
Ferrari 812 Superfast. Now that is a great name for a car. 8 stands for close to 800 horses and 12 stands for twelve cylinders and if all that does not speak volumes of the colossal performance on offer, the Superfast tag will surely help you. And those who are familiar with the history of the exotic car maker from Maranello will know that the tag pays tribute to the ‘500 Superfast’ from 1964.
But nomenclature of Ferraris can confuse even the ardent Tifosi. Earlier it was easy – the engine capacity followed by the number of cylinders. Then they used engine capacity and number of valves (355 for example). But the 360 with a 3.6-litre V8 sporting 5 valves was called Modena for some strange reason. Then all hell broke loose with Maranello, Ferrari Enzo Ferrari, FXX, California (the original was really pretty), LaFerrari… The anniversary models were called F40, F50 and so on… Alright, there will be some reader out there who will know the exact reason why a Ferrari is called by a particular name, but hey, I am confused.
Lamborghini on the other hand is pretty simple, with just one or two models being produced at a time. And almost every car was named with a relation to bull-fighting legacy. Some are named after bulls (Miura, Murcealago, Diablo…) while some after breeding grounds and bull-fighting gear. Even the upcoming SUV is named after a mythical forbearer of bulls, the Urus. An exception to this was the Countach, which translates to a wild exclamation in Italian uttered by Nuccio Bertone when he saw the first prototype designed by Gandini. The name stuck. Yeah, it could mean ‘ holy cow’ if you insist.
Trust the Germans to make things as boring as it gets. I am certain there was a high level decision taken between Stuttgart and Munich to go either the numerical or alphabetical way. So Mercedes has the used up almost all alphabets with A, B, C, E, S, ML, SL, SLK, CLK, SLS and so on and confused things dramatically with GLA, GLC, GLE… and you guessed it, I have lost the way. Things were better when BMW had only the 3, 5 and 7 series with the occasional M1 and the 8 series. Now they have 4, 6 and how can I forget, the X series. Add to all that the AMG and M Sport variants and you can make the life of a car enthusiast difficult. Porsche, you have to say was creative recently, in all probability because they got bored by calling everything they produced 911, for ever. So you get Cayenne, Cayman and er… 718! Looks like they are fixated on numbers again.
Things are far better across the pond. Americans love their car names. Mustang, Corvette, Camaro, Charger, Impala… you could buy them then and you can buy them now too. Alas, Ford has not been able to name their largest-selling truck though and it continues to be known as the F150. I sincerely hope GM finds it prudent to bring back the Pontiac badge, just so that we can buy a Firebird! What a name to be lost in history. And, while I appreciate the guts of Elon Musk, I will give him negative marks for creativity since he called the third Tesla model, err… Model 3. C’mon, you could do better than that!
The Japanese continue to be strange. They have registered every possible automotive name in the whole world and that too in three languages so that they can name the thousands of models and variants they launch. So while no Japanese can pronounce Corolla, they sell in 160 countries and soon enough on Mars too. Strangely when Toyota decided to take on the Germans with the Lexus they went back to a sober alpha-numeral format. How boring!
It is time to hit the computer again to find names that end with either the alphabet ‘O’ or the numeral ‘zero’. If you think you have a good name, you know where to send it, right? ⌧
‘It is time to find names that end with either the alphabet ‘O’ or numeral ‘zero’’