252 replies to this topic

[Vicuna]

For my 500th post, I thought I'd ask those of us that don't run their actual names to explain to the rest of the group the reason9s) why we're chosen the name we have.

I guess Ensign14 is obvious but I'd still love to hear him him explain why (again if it's already been covered).

So Catalina (I can guess), Vitesse2, the Unions etc etc etc let us all know why you've chosen the name you have.

Twinny we've met and had his name explained (has TNF ever had anyone get some many posts in such a short space of time??) and I reckon Lanciaman is a giveaway but please - if you don'[t use your real name - let us all know why you've picked the name you have.

And if anyone is interested, I'll explain why I'm a Vicuna!!

[Pedro 917]

Mine's obvious too...

My real name is Luc Ghys and I'm living in Belgium. I'm a hardcore Rodriguez fan since 1968 (I was 13 then). Motor Sport readers must have seen the article on my deerstalker in the June 2004 issue.

[2F-001]

I don't think mine is too obscure either, but some members might not be so familiar with one of my all-time favourite cars - Chaparral 2F.

So far as I can determine, the plastic-chassied 2F-001 began life as the second Chaparral 2, and had about 10 wins in USRCC-type races in '64 and '65, followed by a brief interlude as a 2D (a coupe) in World Championship endurace races in '66, before being rebuilt again as a 2F for '67, clocking up fastest laps at Daytona, Sebring and Spa and going well in the Targa and at Le Mans before winning the BOAC 500 at Brands.

I believe this is the car that has now been restored in a "2A" roadster spec - (seen at Goodwood in recent times).

(Am I right in thinking that the "2A" designation is a retrospective thing?)

Tony Pashley.

[Lec CRP1]

Mine is probably obvious, too.

I never met David Purley. I never saw him race. I was nine years old when he died. But some things can be transmitted loudly across the generation gap. The Williamson thing, the Becketts crash thing, but most of all, Purley managed to annoy Niki Lauda to the point of being speechless. Has anyone else come close to acheiving this much?

[Vicuna]

Originally posted by Pedro 917


Motor Sport readers must have seen the article on my deerstalker in the June 2004 issue.

Yup - loved it.

[275 GTB-4]

Vicuna...look that up in your Funk and Wagnells!!!

275 GTB-4, It is simple, I met Pedro and Dickie + others once because the fella for which I was working on cars for (more humble Minis and 1100s) ...imported Ferraris....but really, privacy is an important thing these days.....so many many malicious people out there with other agendas.....be careful Atlas people.

[fines]

Just for the record because my nick isn't motorsport related and to save you the bother of wrecking your brain to find out its meaning Alas, I don't even know it myself! I've been called "fines" by every man and his dog for the best part of two decades by now. Sure felt strange when even my brother addressed me thus, but there you go...


__________________
This is Michael
Here comes Michael

Phillip Boa & the Voodooclub at the Ex-Haus Sommerbühne in Trier, July 30 - thank goodness some things never change!

[2F-001]

Do you pronounce it "fines" (as in 'monetary penalties') or "finesse"? I always imagined it was a pun or joke of some kind...

[conjohn]

Like fines (or 'feenes' as Ray Bell uses to call him) my moniker isn't at all related to motorsport.

It's origin involves a classic Swedish 60s comedy show, and a (former) colleague of mine of Scottish decent....

The 60s show was called 'Mosebacke Monarki' and one of the parodies they did was a spoof of an American Western (starring Rigmor Mortis). One of the actors, a well known character actor called Sten Ardenstam, was billed as Stone Arden ('sten' is swedish for 'stone'). I liked the idea of 'Hollywoodizing' the names, and wondered what I might be called in Tinsel Town. Something short probably (I will never be a basketball player, let's leave it at that...), so Con John maybe...

Spool forward quite some years, and now the Scottish decented colleague enters. When I started at the Volvo Trucks IT department, the way of allocating memo addresses (a mainframe variant of email) was to take the department number and add the initials at the end. However, there already was one with the initials CJ (our Scottish friend), so I was allowed to, TEMPORARILY, use another memo name, and I chose 'conjohn'. And, as always, nothing is as permanent as the temporary, so I got to keep it for a long time, and it stuck in people's mind, so since then I have used it whenever I needed a user name... (but at Volvo it was lost when we migrated to Outlook....)

Oh, and my real name is Conny Johanson....

[ensign14]

Originally posted by Vicuna
I guess Ensign14 is obvious but I'd still love to hear him him explain why (again if it's already been covered).

Simply that when I first got into F1 the team based closest to me was Ensign and they had the number 14. Plus it was an email address no-one had got. Some blatant parochialism and a love of the underdog, I might have gone for BRM had there not already been a BRG. Don't fancy putting my real name cos I'm paranoid. Plus I'm not famous so who cares?

Originally posted by Vicuna
And if anyone is interested, I'll explain why I'm a Vicuna!!

Isn't it some sort of llama? But not native to New Zealand...

[Vicuna]

This is getting good...

[fines]

Originally posted by 2F-001
Do you pronounce it "fines" (as in 'monetary penalties') or "finesse"? I always imagined it was a pun or joke of some kind...

"Finesse", of course!

Actually, it IS probably a pun of some kind on my family name, but I have never figured it out. IIRC, it started after a trip to Spain with a few friends, but I have failed so far to find out if there is in fact a proper Spanish word "fines". Maybe one of our esteemed Spanish forumers can enlighten me?


__________________
I'm hip about time, man.
But I just gotta go!

[jj2728]

pretty straightforward actually, jj for my sons' initals and 2728 for the ferrari numbers from the early to mid/late 80s.....

[Vitesse2]

I was asked this in Paddock Club a while ago.

Being "Vitesse" is sort of a homage to Rodney Walkerley of The Motor, who used the monicker "Grande Vitesse" for his journalism. I was "Vitesse" on another racing BB before I found Atlas, but when I got here I discovered that someone had already beaten me to the name. So I became "Vitesse2" ....

Everywhere else I'm just "Vitesse".

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

My real family name is of German heritage despite my ancestors being in Canada for almost two hundred years. For a net name, I thought that I'd come up with a handle that could readily be traced back to that German heritage. And if the German community doesn't like it...tough!

[HEROS]

Hello to all,

When I joined the Nostalgia Forum, I wanted to take a pen name and
then I simply used my really name.

I am thus Jean-Bernard Héros and I'm living in France. On this matter, allow
me to apologize if my English is not still very good.

[Rob G]

My user name is a combination of a complete lack of creativity on my part and not having any nicknames growing up. :

[D-Type]

Mine is simple really. I first became interested in motor racing in the mid fifties when Vanwalls were winning grands prix. But Vanwall was already taken.
At the same time, D-Type Jaguars were winning Le Mans and the local champion in Kenya, where I grew up, raced a D-Type. It also vaguely reflects my initials, at least my christian name

Heros, your English is infinitely superieur que my French!


Duncan Rollo

[LittleChris]

Several people named Chris in my social group and I'm the shortest of them hence .......

[lanciaman]

I was responsible for creating many Fiat and Lancia adverts in the US in the 70s and though matters went south for Fiat North America, I had a wonderful time- company cars, track days, attending races as part of the job. The Italians were lovely to work with and I later transmogrified this experience into the same for Pirelli. Still have a soft spot for Lancias though I only have a 124 Spider in the shed.

Tom Butters, from Green Acres somewhere near Indianapolis

[Option1]

Mine was born of frustration really.

I was trying to register on a chat site and my usual nick was taken as were many, many variations of it. Each time I tried the site kept coming back with "Try another option." So I did.

Neil

[VAR1016]

My name is Paul de Raymond Leclercq. I have been a Lancia enthusiast for years and have owned Fulvias since 1982.

All Lancia special developments were given Variante numbers; Variante 1016 (usually abbreviated to VAR 1016) was the 1600 Fulvia homologation special. 600 of these were allegedly produced in 1969. I have never seen one apart from Sandro Munari's "No 14" Monte Carlo winner, although another enthusiast in Scandinavia has sent some pictures of one to me.

I am a Ferrari supporter in F1 pending Lancia's return...

Forza Lancia!

PdeRL

[rdrcr]

I think I addressed this in one of the old introduction threads, but here it is again....

When I first got involved with racing back in '88, my enthusiasms carried over into many areas - namely, a personalized license plate for the trailer. That plate has been on a couple different ones since and when it came time to pick a nic, it was the first thing that popped into my head.

Though if I had thought a bit more about it, I would have just used my real name...

<<<<< BTW - it's short for road-racer.

[David Beard]

I post here under my real name, but some of you may have wondered what the DABgp logo is all about. When I first connected to the internet with AOL in about 1997 I was asked what I wanted for a screen name, so I tried my initials: DAB. This was taken, so on the spur of the moment I added gp to reflect my motor racing interest. I then became addicted to the rather awful AOL F1 message board. I became a bit well known as DABgp so it sort of stuck, and I made my silly web site DABgp.com.

I still post occasionally on AOL message boards..but I reckon a short screen name attracts more spam than a long one, so I took on another. If any of you are on AOL and venture onto any of their Message Boards you will see someone calling himself TheChapmanStrut....

[Frank de Jong]

Concerning the internet I'm just as paranoid as any others but since I have a website with my name in it it does not really make sense to use an alias. I won't post my holidays here nor will I post the secret places I keep my keys. And my name is quite common as well, try a google search - most days, I'm on page 2
My logo is a dutch comic cat called Heinz who has quite an absurd sense of humour.

[Frank S]

"Frank S", chosen because "Frank" was in use, because "Sheffield" takes more keystrokes than is necessary for differentiation in most venues. Pretty dull.

Many years ago, when passwords were first invented, my favorite and most-deserved nickname fell to youthful (heh!) thoughtlessness. I still use it in countless encounters with that kind of barrier, so I don't dare spell it out here.

As an old psych major and joyful interpreter of everything, I like to know what people see as background to their choices about preparing the faces to meet the faces that we meet. There is magick in a name. So I usually asked.

Many online personalities invest a lot of thought and energy, and eventually identity, in their nick- or screen-names, and are eager to explain. Others (BadCog? WTF is that?) say, "If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand if I told you", which is tantamount to "I dunno, either", my view.

Here are a few of those (and available sound-alikes) I have used over my career as a spook:

MovingFinger
Fugitive
SturmUndDrang
JensAureoles
NotMyJob
GregorS
FLICKER

--
Frank S

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

the rubaiyat - omar khayyam - 11th century

[David Birchall]

Actually my real name is Lady Gwynevere Radishot-Jones!!

[D-Type]

To quote awell known TNF member's long-lost Japanese friend Masahiko Yamaguchi: "How many l's in borrocks?"

[WDH74]

It's just my initials (the WDH bit) and my model year (74). Y'all prolly know my first name is William (since I sign messages William or the abbrevieated "Wm." my grandfather used to use), and "William" is what I use at other forums. I couldn't find any variations of William that I liked that weren't in use here, and the WDH thing was the first one I came up with. Sadly, I've since come up with several that I'd have liked to used, but won't since I'm at least sorta known by my current handle.

-William Wm. WDH74

[Vicuna]

So have you hit the big '3-0' yet Wm?

[WDH74]

That landmark is fast approaching, Vicuna, just days away in fact. My Dad once joked, when his MG needed another repair "It's a thirty year old car. See how many things are wrong with you when you're thirty!". Fortunately, nothing's wrong, and even if it was I still wouldn't have to book myself in at a shop specializing in WDH repair and wait a month for parts to be sent to Schenectady for remachining!

-William (Anxiously awaiting the Thirty Year Twitch)

[Jack-the-Lad]

Well, my name really is Jack (given name, not a nickname for John) and I have the impression that Jack-the-Lad is a colloquialism for something of a rogue, scoundrel, etc. If otherwise, I invite correction by those who know!

If I knew how to add an avatar it would be my bulldog, Amos.

[Lotus23]

This is fascinating!

A long time ago, on a planet (website) far away, I used "Pines46": first race I ever attended was at the Pines Speedway in Groveland, Mass in the summer of 1946.

When I joined TNF, I decided "Lotus23" had a bit more panache. Owned/raced one (chassis #23-S-28) with some degree of success back when I wore a younger man's driving suit.

My brother and I have called each other "Fred" for nearly fifty years now. Neither of us is sure just how that started. But it certainly confuses outsiders!

I'm "Honey" to my wife, "Dad" to my son, "Daddy" to my daughter, and "Joel" to everyone else.

[Vicuna]

And Lotus 23 to us.

Excellant.

Keep 'em coming...

[Muzza]

My name is Sal Chiappetta, and Muzza is a nickname back from my high school days that really stuck on. I am grateful for that, as I've been called much worse things in my life.

I was given this nickname because... well, it is a stupid story, but I will tell you anyway. Once we threw a party and people were debating what to order for something that felt like forever. I got tired of waiting for an agreement, went to a nearby public telephone (no cell phones then) and ordered 40 large cheese pizze.

The delivery guy needed an assistant to bring such a huge order to the party, and he called me "Seu Mussarela" when he arrived. "Seu Mussarela" is the equivalent to "Mr. Mozzarella" in Brazilian Portuguese; my friends adapted it to Muzza and... bingo.

My avatar is a GIF image of my helmet.

[Mike Argetsinger]

I just always admired his driving.

[Zippity]

So far as I can determine, the plastic-chassied 2F-001 began life as the second Chaparral 2, and had about 10 wins in USRCC-type races in '64 and '65, followed by a brief interlude as a 2D (a coupe) in World Championship endurace races in '66, before being rebuilt again as a 2F for '67, clocking up fastest laps at Daytona, Sebring and Spa and going well in the Targa and at Le Mans before winning the BOAC 500 at Brands.

According to Richard Falconer's "Chaparral" (Complete History of Jin Hall's Chaparral Race cars 1961-1970) the 2F only ever had one win - July 30, 1966 (Chassis #2F001) BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch.

The 2F certainly never raced in 1964 or 1965.

Have I misunderstood your comment?

Although I am a die-hard McLaren CanAm fan, the 2F was the most beautiful of all the "big bangers"

[brooster51]

Originally posted by Zippity


According to Richard Falconer's "Chaparral" (Complete History of Jin Hall's Chaparral Race cars 1961-1970) the 2F only ever had one win - July 30, 1966 (Chassis #2F001) BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch.

The 2F certainly never raced in 1964 or 1965.

Have I misunderstood your comment?

Although I am a die-hard McLaren CanAm fan, the 2F was the most beautiful of all the "big bangers"

2F-001 is right. I can't remember the source or the exact details, but there were only two or three plastic chassis that went through a number of major rebuilds into higher versions. 2F-001 was originally 2A-001, was rebuilt as 2D-001, then to it's 2F-001 life, and was rebuilt as 2A-001 again for the museum.

Brooster is my nickname, a cousin couldn't say Bruce, and I was born in 51. Not 'orribly creative. But it's all the rain we get in Washington State.

[Even Darker]

My name comes from the intersection of two of my interests NASCAR and slot cars.

There is a community of modellers specialising in NASCAR models. Within that community the term "The dark side" has come into use for those of us who are interested in building models of historic NASCAR race cars. I have to get into an even tighter little hole and try and make mine run on a slot car track and use 1/32 scale while most of the parts, decals and body kits are 1/24 or 1/25. Hence Even Darker.

Don't run away with the idea that I'm some master modeller though. The front end of the production line runs OK, acquiring body kits or donor cars for fresh projects at the rate of 2 or 3 a month. At the other end though, I'm lucky if 1 completed car a year makes it out. This is chiefly because since my first childhood all my modelling skills seem to have deserted me. So most modelling sessions seem to end with me stamping off in a temper, as I can't produce the standard of results I expect. Perhaps with more practice I'll improve, but at the moment it's usually 6 months before I've calmed down enough to have another go!

My other nicknames came from my wife's family who have them for everyone. I was originally known as Mash after an incident before we were married. My wife believes anyone under about 25 stone is undernourished and needs feeding up. So when I visited for a meal at Christmas, she put about seven pounds of mashed potato on my plate. As I was brought up never to leave food on my plate and was terrified of upsetting my prospective in-laws in any way, I struggled through the entire mountain of food, taking about a week to recover (exaggerate? me?)

These days I'm known as Schofield, but nobody is quite sure why!

[angst]

Angst because that is what drives me too much of the time. I've always been angry about things, just things in general, and was always lead to believe that as I got older this would change. It hasn't, if anything I get even angrier at even more things. At some point in the future I will have to change it to GrumpyOldMan, but not yet ;) .

I chose it for my first ever interaction on the web. On another forum there was a poll asking for the worst F1 driver ever, and somebody had put Regazzoni. So once again with my blood boiling another chapter of my life began. People pronouncing upon things while knowing so little about that upon which they pronounce is something that annoys me. I won't go intio a list of things that do, I have to be at work on Monday. I cannot think of anybody on TNF who annoys me, which says something I think of the quality of individuals here. Thanks to all of you for educating, entertaining and informing me and even helping my blood pressure to remain at a reasonable level.

[fines]

Originally posted by David Birchall
Actually my real name is Lady Gwynevere Radishot-Jones!!

Originally posted by Mike Argetsinger
I just always admired his driving.

[fines]

Originally posted by WDH74
That landmark is fast approaching, Vicuna, just days away in fact. My Dad once joked, when his MG needed another repair "It's a thirty year old car. See how many things are wrong with you when you're thirty!". Fortunately, nothing's wrong, and even if it was I still wouldn't have to book myself in at a shop specializing in WDH repair and wait a month for parts to be sent to Schenectady for remachining!

-William (Anxiously awaiting the Thirty Year Twitch)

Oh William, that's really nothing to worry about! I remember when I turned 30, I was at the absolut height of my life: the same day, a local TV station aired a tape of my first play that had been rapturously received on the few occasions that it was staged; I had a long-running streak of luck in whatever I chose to do, winning even the silliest competition you can think of; I had a beautiful and witty girlfriend who adored me the same way I adored her, and I was on my way to a fabulous carneval party - life couldn't possibly be sweeter!

Less than a week later my life was in shreds, though... :

[Buford]

I don't use my real name on the Internet because I am in the "adult entertainment business." My handle came from Buford Dam in Georgia.

[lanciaman]

Originally posted by Buford
I don't use my real name on the Internet because I am in the "adult entertainment business."

Politics is nothng for you to be ashamed of, Buford. I am told there are some reasonably reputable people occasionally to be found in politics.

[Racer.Demon]

The websites I run, 8W and 6th Gear, used to be hosted at a domain called www.racer.demon.nl, so I simply cut off the two least meaningful parts to become racer.demon.

The name is no use to me now, as the domain name vanished since the move to forix.com, but my Atlas/FORIX subscription is already using the same nickname, so I'll just have to stick with it.

BTW, @ lanciaman!

[Magee]

Originally posted by David Birchall
Actually my real name is Lady Gwynevere Radishot-Jones!!

Please note that Lady Radishot-Jones wears men's clothes.

[Vicuna]

Originally posted by Buford
My handle came from Buford Dam in Georgia.

By why that dam?

[Buford]

Originally posted by lanciaman


Politics is nothng for you to be ashamed of, Buford. I am told there are some reasonably reputable people occasionally to be found in politics.

No - not that kind of adult entertainment. The kind people actually like!

[ffiloseta]

Originally posted by fines
...Maybe one of our esteemed Spanish forumers can enlighten me?

Finés = Finnish.

[Mac Lark]

Originally posted by ensign14




Isn't it some sort of llama? But not native to New Zealand...

I don't think I've ever seen a vicuna in the Auckland zoo.

Certainly not a native of NZ - Peru or Bolivia perhaps. Aren't they a small alpaca, that in turn are a small llama?