Two Mondays ago, when I asked you all to name Cars Named For Cities, some of the comments understandably strayed from cars that were intentionally named after cities to the many cars actually named after racing circuits, but which got in on the technicality of just happening to share the the name of the city they’re in. [“Really? There’s a race track in that happenin’ town of Talladega?” said no Ford marketing man ever.]
Since people seemed so eager to explore the car model/race track naming connection, let’s do that. I’m all about giving the people what they want. However, I am also about making you slackers think, and drawing out the obscure references that result. So, since you’ve already had a chance to mine the deep well of city-based car names just fourteen days ago, I am going to make it interesting by specifying only cars that are named for racing venues that are not named for the city they reside in. In other words, Daytona and Le Mans are verboten today. However, if you’re aware of some car maker introducing the Circuit Paul Ricard SportWagon Brougham, then step right up.
I can already hear somebody say something along the lines of “What about Mulsanne — part of a track named for part of a city; can I post that?” My answer has three parts:
- Stop being pedantic; that’s my job here.
- You know you’re going to post it anyway, so why are you asking?
- This whole series is just clever comment bait. You really need to repeat Hodgson’s Law to yourself a few times.
However, there are a few caveats (there are always caveats):
- The track name has to be part of the model name, not just a descriptor or a nickname (Yeah, I’m lookin’ at you, ‘Ring Taxi).
- Concept cars and kit cars are okay, but let’s stay away from homebuilt specials and works racers, which tend to have somewhat indistinct “official” naming.
Difficulty: 1/3 cup sugar per 1/2 gallon of vinegar.
How This Works: Read the comments first and don’t post duplicates. Bonus points for adding photos. Remember, you can simply paste in the raw image URL now, thanks to the magic of Disqus.
Image Source: parkwayspecialistcars.co.uk, rrocwa.com.
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