Did your parents favor you with a cool name, something like Stone, Wolf, or Cthulhu? If so, I bet it makes getting out of bed every morning just a little bit easier. Probably makes every order at Starbucks an event too. Cool names just make everything better, and as we as a species are all about status and coolness, that even extends to the naming of the engines that power our stuff. You’ll note that I said stuff rather than cars because one of the coolest engine names in my book is Coventry Climax, and one of their most venerable offerings, the lithe OHC four that you might find under the tissue paper thin hoods of Lotus’ original Elites, got its start as a fire pump engine. Triton, Fire Dome, Blue Fire, Spitfire… Man, it seems like engines get as many cool names as do cars. Sometimes that name is a number, and I’ll bet that when you hear 302 or 318, you just automatically know what’s being discussed. You know we all love hardware, and especially that which makes great noises and offers the potential for the application of speed. There have been plenty over the years, and lots of those have been anointed with appellations that have gained reverence along with their fame. Which of those do you think is the coolest of all engine names? Image source: MotorSportRetro
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