92 replies to this topic

[bill moffat]

Once in a while a competition car will gain a nickname which finds favour over its official designation. Think of "toothpaste tube" Connaughts, the "lobster claw" Brabham and the Ligier "teapots". How many examples can we clock up between us ?

[Marcor]

Bugatti "Brescia"
Alfa Romeo "Monza"
Ferrari "sharknose"

Chity Chity Bang Bang (cars of Count Zborowski)
Mephistopheles (a LSR Fiat)

Bentley "Old Number 1"

Ligier was not "Teapots", it was Renault

Was "Disco Volante" a nickname or the real name ? (Alfa Romeo, Cooper in 1952,1953 ?)

[WGD706]

Ferrari 156 'Shark Nose'
Brabham BT46B - the Fan Car

[David M. Kane]

James Hunt's wife, the later Mrs. Richard Burton, was known as "Hot Loins".
That's the nickname I remember! Believe her real name was Suzy.

[bill moffat]

interesting. Marcor, with respect, I believe that the Ligier JS5 was the "original" teapot. It had an extraordinarily massive airbox and rapidly earned the nickname. The Renaults became the "yellow teapots" a couple of years later.

I thought "hot loins" was the label applied to Jane Birbeck, a later girlfriend of James Hunt. I might be wrong, but either way I reckon he was a lucky man !

Returning to car nicknames the early, ungainly, Toleman F1 was referred to as the "Belgrano"...altho' I realise this is not terribly PC.

[Stefan Ornerdal]

Wasn't there a Lotus in the early 80s called "Igor"?

Stefan

[917]

When I read "Old Number One" Cecil Kimber's 1925 MG comes to my mind.

[jarama]

...and what about the "Yellow Submarine" - Chaparral 2K? Pennzoil.

Carles.

[ensign14]

Parnelli Jones' Agajanian-owned Watson roadster Indy 500 winner from 1963 was named 'Ol' Calhoun'.

[Ray Bell]

There were the 'sucker cars'... the Chaparrals with the additional snowmobile engines.

[2F-001]

Porsche 935-78... ''Moby Dick''

Porsche 917-20... various pig-based nicknames I've heard.

I presume ''Ol' Yaller'' had another name of some sort.

The much used Minister Formula Ford block ''Patch''.

[2F-001]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
There were the 'sucker cars'... the Chaparrals with the additional snowmobile engines.

I think there was only one, wasn't there Ray?

[David M. Kane]

I believe you are correct, but I do agree with you that ALL of Jame's girlfriends had "HOT LOINS", otherwise you couldn't play with that crew.
Whatever happened to Bubbles?

[WGD706]

Anthony "Bubbles" Horsley?

[jarama]

In addition to "Mobby Dick" and the "Pink Pig", there were other Porsches with nicknames, such as the "Baby" (935 1.4-l.), the "Dreikantschaber" (356B 2000 GT) or the "Flunder" (908.02 Spyder).

Carles.

[David M. Kane]

I did NOT know his first name was Anthony. The last time I saw him live was
at Watkins Glen when the Hesketh Team was in all of their glory and their race car cover was a stolen Wide World of Sport banner that they had "borrowed" at the Monaco GP.

I still think their paint scheme was the best ever.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by 2F-001

I think there was only one, wasn't there Ray?

Indeed, you are correct...

There were names for some of the ERAs too... Romulus and Remus etc...

[Geza Sury]

I'm surprised no-one mentioned the Bugatti Type 32 (built in 1923) known as the 'tank'.

BTW, we already had a thread like this, you can read it here: http://www.atlasf1.c...&threadid=14310

[Marcor]

Some other "Tanks":
the Bugatti winner of the 1937 24 H of Le Mans,
the 1100 cc Chenard & Walcker (winner of La Coupe Georges Boillot)
and the 1100 cc BNC (winner of Le GP des Frontières at Chimay).

[Lotus23]

"Le Monstre", Briggs Cunningham's Grumman-bodied Cadillac at LeMans in the early 50s, comes to mind.

Certainly, the "Birdcage" Maseratis -- were they Type 62s? (I'm doing this from memory...)

What did Karel de Beaufort call his 4-cyl Porsche -- "Little Fatty"?

[Lotus23]

Has anyone mentioned "Babs" of the infamous Pendine Sands?

[dbltop]

And what about the drivers? Gilles was known as "Air Canada" in his early days. Presumably for his unauthorized take-offs ;) My friends and I began calling his brother (Frere Jacques) , CN Rail because he was often up against one. There are so many others, The Flying Scotsman, Il Leon, to name but a few!

[Lotus23]

The Penske/Donohue 917-30 Can-Am Porsche -- wasn't it called "The Turbo Panzer"?

In the U.S. at least, the term "Snake" applies to virtually any Cobra built. The "Dragonsnake" was a name given to those few specially built for 1/4 mile drag racing.

356 Porsches were often affectionately referred to as "bathtubs".

Dan Gurney's "Pacesetter" Ford was often referred to by that name only. Was there more than one built?

[mr.fixx]

Anyone remember, early Arrows, nicknamed "Doodlebugs" . I think this was late 70's
or early 80's.Remember seeing them in Montreal. Very unusual F1 car.
Could anyone direct me to a picture of one of these to refresh my memory?

[bill moffat]

sorry..I seem to have reinvented a previous thread !

Just a few more...the early Hispano Suiza's were known as "Alfonsos" whilst a development of this car was known as "the sardine"...something to do with a narrow radiator cowl I think.

Graham Hill drove the "smokestack" BRM whilst various pre-war Austins had such obscure nicknames as "Sergeant Murphy", "Black Maria" and "Rubber duck".

I wonder whether any current FI driver / team has a nickname for their car..I doubt it somehow ( probably a regulation preventing it ).

[Doug Nye]

By the 1960s it was fairly unusual for Formula 1 cars to carry pet names on their body panelling - Ian Raby's 'Puddle Jumper' tag appeared on his Brabham BT3 for example while Rob Walker's Jo Siffert-driven Cooper-Maserati of course had its 'Torrey Canyon' lettering applied after the tanker which contrived to ground itself on the ledges off Land's End, broke up and smothered the Cornish peninsula in oil before the RAF bombed seven bells out of the thing and ignited the slick.

DCN

[Vitesse2]

Dave Brodie's Escort Run Baby Run was mentioned in the previous thread. I recall another modified saloon from the same era, which went under the name Purple People Eater - anyone remember what that was?

And going way back, the Mercedes called Grossmutter (Grandma)

[Henri Greuter]

A few I can remember, maybe some are already mentioned: (in which case: sorry)


one of the 122CI, later 91 CI Duesenberg race cars (2 / 1.5 liter) raced at the board tracks and at Indy was painted yellow and earned the nickname "The banana wagon". Pete de Paolo won the 1925 Indy 500 in that car.

1978 Lotus 79: Black Beauty
1979 Renault RS01 F1 car: Jody Schekter called that car "The banana" in Kyalami.
1969 Porsche 917 named so by Gerhard Mitter: the Ulcer
1971 Porsche 917-20: Pink Pig, Der Truffeljager von Zuffenhausen, Big Bertha
1969 Porsche 908-2 spyder, The Flounder,

"Batmobile" has been credited to: BMW CSL Coupe GP2 but also to the 1981 Interscope-Cosrworth Indycar.

"The great white hope" was Tom Bigelow's 1982 Eagle-Chevy at Indy that year

McLaren M16 Indycars were occasonally referred to as "Corner Demon"

1967 Paxton-Pratt&Whitney (the original STP turbine): Silent Sam, the Wooshmobile
1989 March-Porsche 89P: the Ant Eater
1990 March-Porsche 90P: the Pancake
1982 DW-Chevy (a horrible contraption practiced only at Indy that year by a certain Ken Hamilton): The cropduster

Any IRL car at Indy in 1997 entered by A.J. Foyt carrying the number 1: "Christine" (after the car in Steven King's book: three different cars using that number were crashed!)

Once I knew many more nicknames but right now I can't come up with them.
Sorry.

Henri Greuter

[Henri Greuter]

with regards to my previous mail: Sorry for the out of place smilies. I don't know how they got in to begin with!

some more nicknames I know being used at Indy

1963 Kurtis-Novi 500F : "Tired Iron" (chassis was from 1956)
one of the sister cars was named "the Yellow Peril", strangely enough the source which says so telss this to be valid vor the #56 Novi instead of the #6 Novi, the #6 was indeed yellow, the #56 was pink! A hiccup I suppose.


Henri Greuter

[bobbo]

On a personal note, my Renault R8 Gordini was named Alice. I also had a 1970 Chevrolet Nova 6 cyl the gang called Reuben, because we frequently sat on the hood and played (bluegrass style!) "Wildwood Flower/Reuben James" while I was in college. And a friend raced a Chartreuse TR4 which we called the "Chartreuse Caboose" as it almost always came in last . . . those were the days!

Any one else have personal names for their cars?

Bobbo

[jarama]

The transporter-workshop Pegaso truck for the works team was known as the "Bacalao" (the codfish).

Carles.

[biercemountain]

The McLaren CanAm cars were known as the "Orange Elephants"

[BertlF]

Isn't the F2002 Ferrari named "ant-eater" because of his nose-cone form?

Bert

[917]

Henri,

it's very simple: if you write ) : without a blank between you have the shortcut for this: (but you have the option to disable smilies in a post)

Kind regards
Michael

[Stefan Ornerdal]

My Renault R8 Gordini was called "Javelin"
My Triumph spitfire was "Darkness" (guess why!)
My Alfa Romeo Giulia GTJ 1300 was the "Pearl"
My Mazda 323F was "Pearl II"
And now, as a careful husband and father, I have a Volvo, "Iron" of course.

Stefan

[Henri Greuter]

917,

thanks for the info
I really don't know which buttons I hit to get those smilies in. If I must do it on purpose, I can't get it done and believe me I gave it a few tries.
(love your alias, these were my first love in racing, the coupe versions of the real ones that is. Never cared for the can-am spyders)

back to topic:
Another nickname, wasn't one of the Benettons named the shark? I forgot which one.

Another car which had some referrings, if not Nicknames

The Martini Longtail 917 atle Mans in 1970, wasn't that called something like the Psychodelic car or PsychoPorsche, or the Hippie car?

Henri Greuter

[Lotus23]

I imagine these have already surfaced:

"The Golden Submarine": wasn't it a fully-enclosed racer from the 20s or 30s?

"Poison Lil": all I remember is the name. Help needed on this one! (Mike Argetsinger -- does this ring any bells?)

"Mephistopheles": wasn't it some 12-liter monster from the teens or 20s?

And of course, drag racing opens a whole Pandora's box: Garlits' "Swamp Rats"; the "Chi-Town Hustler"; "The Chizler"; Roland Leong's "The Hawaiian"; Romeo Palamides' "The Glass Slipper" and a host of others come to mind.

LSR cars ranging from "Jamais Contente" (sp?- my francais is poor) to Arfons' "Green Monsters" and the list goes on...

On a personal note, the Lotus23 was just "The Lotus", but the Cobra was "Barney".

[2F-001]

''Big Bertha'' (and later ''Baby Bertha'') were also used for Gerry Marshall's Vauxhall based, Repco powered saloons.

And I think the ''Batmobile'' tag was also applied to John Greenwood's Corvette.

There was a turbo-Hart engined Pilbeam in British hillclimbing, nicknamed ''Puffing Billy'', run by the Thompson hillclimbing dynasty.

[ensign14]

Originally posted by Marcor
Ligier was not "Teapots", it was Renault

The original Ligier had the most extraordinary airbox which looked like a teapot - were the Renaults 'tea-kettles' on the basis that Jabouille blew smoke a lot?

George Wicken's Cooper = 'C'est Si Bon'
Not forgetting Chitty Bang Bang, Hoieh-Wayaryeh-Gointooeh and others from the Heroic Age.

[dmj]

Am I wrong or no one yet mentioned Squalo/Supersqualo Ferraris?

And there certainly were some more Old number Xs. One famous is Old number 8 hillclimb SS 100.

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by ensign14
The original Ligier had the most extraordinary airbox which looked like a teapot - were the Renaults 'tea-kettles' on the basis that Jabouille blew smoke a lot?

George Wicken's Cooper = 'C'est Si Bon'
Not forgetting Chitty Bang Bang, Hoieh-Wayaryeh-Gointooeh and others from the Heroic Age.

A few more that come to mind....

"Hell's Hammers" - a string of 500cc F3s went under this name didn't they?
"Puddle Jumper" - Ian Raby's cars, I think?
"Mucky Pup" - a Cooper sports car of some sort, wasn't it?
"Chocolate Drop" - the works Chevron B26, in brown with a yellow stripe.
"Old Speckled Hen" - a trials MG
"Cream Cracker" - ditto...
Wasn't there an AC or Alvis called "Slowly-catchee-monkey" or similar?

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by 2F-001
''Big Bertha'' (and later ''Baby Bertha'') were also used for Gerry Marshall's Vauxhall based, Repco powered saloons.

Baby Bertha is an all time favourite car of mine. I saw her at silverstone this summer... and she's still looking as fine as ever (follow the link!)

pete

[2F-001]

Baby Bertha was at the Goodwood Fos this year too, with Gerry ''giving it large'' in his entertaining style of old.

Actually, one very exciting race I remember seeing involved a rare defeat of Baby Bertha. This was a support race on practice day for the 1976 Silverstone Six Hours. A near race-long duel between Marshall and Jonathan Buncombe's Hillman Imp, saw the B Bertha pressed and harried like it had never been before. I think the brakes (or the tyres) suffered somewhat and Buncombe pressured Marshall into a decisive 'moment' and passed him to win.
It should, perhaps, be admitted that the 'Hillman Imp' was actually a Chevron group 6 car (B21? B23?) with a Cosworth FVC motor and some plastic Imp-like bodywork. I think it even had a wing, we they claimed was actually the upward-opening rear window of the Imp - and thus 'legal'!

Can you imagine anyone doing that to a 2-litre Chevron nowadays?!

[2F-001]

That's spooky, really... I was reminiscing about that meeting with my father only last night. I think the big 6 Hour race the following day was the one where Ickx and Mass's pole sitting 935 (somewhat pre-Moby Dick, so I'm I'm not quite on thread!) failed somewhere around the first half-lap and the drivers pushed it all the way from Becketts, down the Club straight (all the way across the middle of the circuit) back to pits and then got going many laps behind and tried to overhaul as much of the fields as they could.

(Actually, it's not spooky at all, is it? - it's me that made these associations all on my own!).

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by 2F-001
Baby Bertha was at the Goodwood Fos this year too, with Gerry ''giving it large'' in his entertaining style of old.

It should, perhaps, be admitted that the 'Hillman Imp' was actually a Chevron group 6 car (B21? B23?) with a Cosworth FVC motor and some plastic Imp-like bodywork. I think it even had a wing, we they claimed was actually the upward-opening rear window of the Imp - and thus 'legal'!

Can you imagine anyone doing that to a 2-litre Chevron nowadays?!

Dubious saloon aerodynamics remind me of Ginger Marshall (no relation to
Gerry, AFAIK)'s rather special lightweight Mini Traveller - dowforce buckled
the roof in and created a more aerodynamic roof profile than a "saloon" mini
would have.;)

(And while we're on that theme - who was it that used to race a Ford
Thames van?)

pete

[Ian McKean]

The Bentley was "Old No 7" (that of SCH Davis).

The Freikaiserwagen was called "Porsche" by the Frys.

[Lotus23]

I finally got 'round to reading the earlier discussion of this subject, something I confess I should've done much earlier! Mike Argetsinger, thanks for your detailed input there, esp re: Poison Lil. (I am now spared the curse of 0300 wakefulness trying to remember whose it was!)

[mickj]

If I remember correctly the "Chocolate Drop" Chevron formed the basis of Jonathon Buncombes "Hillman Imp" which was called "The Chimp".

[David McKinney]

The original 'Poison Lil' was a sprint car built by Clyde Adams for Art Sparks and Paul Weirick in the early 30s and driven with great success on Californina tracks by Kelly Petillo and others.
The name was revived by George Weaver after the war for some or all his Maseratis

[deangelis86]

Here's a couple of more popular ones:

1986 Brabham BT55 'Flat Fish' or 'Kipper'
1988 Ligier 'The Coke-Bottle'