On a quite Winter Sunday in New York City thought I’d revive this old topic about car names. I re-read my old reply of a few years ago when I owned the now gone “Brown Beauty” (at least I thought she was a Beauty, but what did I know?)
A few months ago a Beige 280SL came to live to live with me. I thought it was a little unfeeling and very unpoetic to refer to such a lovely automobile as “My Car” or simply “The Car”. And it would be quite mysterious to non-owners to name it “Paul’s Work” or “The Bracq” although either would be correct and fitting.
On a good day going downhill with a stiff tailwind, my Tunis Beige ‘Goda’ (originally sold in Italy) could be “The Italian Stallion”; going uphill into a headwind maybe “Old Beige.” Same car, different moods.
Even though the car has Italian roots, “Italian Stallion” confuses outsiders who know that a Mercedes is a German car so, they wonder, (if they think about it at all), why call it “Italian”?
Of course “Beige Beauty” is very alliterative but with all its faults, is it a little immodest to call it a ‘Beauty’, Beige or otherwise?
I sometimes drive around wearing a souvenir James Bond “007” cap. Most appropriate for my car as the VIN ends with “007007” (or as “M” would say “By Jove, the VIN has two ‘Double Oh Sevens’” So is it Ok to call my wheels the “Bond-Mobile” or is that just too silly?
If you have a clever or superbly appropriate name for your klunker (oops) wonderful car, please share it with us.
Richard Madison, driver of “She Who Must be Repaired” (Which prompts me to ask, is it correct to refer to these strong, tough, roadworthy, 170 horse, 3,000 pound machines as “She”?)
Richard M (NYC): 1969 280 SL, Tunis Beige, Euro Model (Italy).
Can be seen at
www.panix.com/~rmadison/mercedes.shtml
