This post is one I've been working on for quite sometime, its a follow-up to a much older post What's in a Name? and Other Crap. However, this one is about car names and strangeness that occurs from that.
First off, a car thats an options package of another car can have a really long name, or create some interesting mix-ups. For example, name the car below?
"Oh that's easy Wallio, that's a '65 Chevelle." BUZZ! WRONG! That is a '65 Malibu. All Chevelles were Malibus, but not all Malibus were Chevelles. Yea, I know, its a bit confusing. But not as bad as Pontiac in the early days of the GTO.
Pontiac had the Tempest, and an options package called the Le Mans package, and then from '64 on, the GTO package. However, the GTO pack could only be added to Tempests equipped with the Le Mans pack. So in reality a '64 Goat was officially a 1964 Pontiac Tempest Le Mans GTO. And you could buy a Tempest, a Tempest Lemans, or a Tempest Le Mans GTO. How confusing is that? Obviously very, as the public shyed away from the cars offical names and called them simply "Le Mans's" or "GTOs". This is an instance of a car taking on an incorrect (official) name, although at least in this case it was at least part of the model name.
In the case of the Delorean DMC-12, since it was the only car Delorean ever built is simply referred to as a Delorean rather than a DMC-12. It also didn't help that the 12 stood for $12,000, which was supposed to be its price. It didn't come anywhere ear that though.
Pictured above, however, is a car that got its brand renamed after the model. That is a Pagani Zonda C12. The first Zonda. Now Pagani was founded as a company in 1992 and until 2011, has built only one car, the Zonda. While the Zonda didn't actually go on sale until 1999, the fact that a car company went 19 years with a single model made the make and model one in the same. Several sources, including reputable magizines and TV shows often incorrectly refer to the company as Zonda. What really creates confusion is how many different official Zonda models there were/are. Because of the fact that there are so many different Zondas, many people believed that Zonda was again the brand, and the individual types were the models. For the record, here is a list of all the Zondas ever built, with their official names:
Zonda C12
Zonda S
Zonda S 7.3
Zonda S Monza
Zonda Roadster
Zonda F
Zonda F Roadster
Zonda F Clubman
Zonda F Clubman Roadster
Zonda F Roadster Final Edition
Zonda Cinque
Zonda Cinque Roadster
Zonda Tricolore
Zonda Uno
Zonda GJ
Zonda RAK
Zonda HH
Zonda PS
Zonda 750
Zonda Absolute
Zonda GR
Zonda R
Zonda R1
Yea, how insane is that? Its easy to see why the Zonda could be considered a brand in of itself, but all those names officially need Pagani in front of them. But what's in a name right? Not much, as several car companies don't bother to give their cars "proper" names, but rather a letter or number designation. Mazada, Mercedes-Benz, and Saab all spring to mind, as does BMW, who recently messed themselves up with naming "rights".
BMW is another company that uses numbers to distinguish their various lines. 3, 5, 6, 7, and until recently 8 were all used for respective "series" the bigger the number, the bigger and more expensive the car. Various letter and numbers then follwed to tell of engine size and drive train for example 325i or 635xi which would be a 6 series powered by a turbo 3.5 litre engine with all wheel drive. High preformance Bimmers were built by BMW's "M" division who made it easy by just putting M in front of the number, so M3, M5, M6, the stillborn M8. Trouble hit when BMW decided to make a hatchback.
This is the BMW M1, a late '70s mid-engined supercar built by BMW. It was built before any other "M-Car" and was a one-off. There was no 1 series to go with it. Well, a few years ago BMW built a 1 series, and of course wanted to release a "hot" version. Problem is, it would have to be called the M1, and the orginial M1 is a cult classic. BMW fanboys everywhere where beyond pissed, and said this could not occur. So it was released as the 1M Coupe. Lame, but there is a precedent. The M verison of the Z series of roadsters has always been the "M Roadster" and the hot SUV is the X6M. Yeah, I know.
So thats a (not so) brief history lesson on car names. Lame ending, but after a week of working on this, I want it over. Wallio, out.
