Manufacturer trivia.

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These are some explanations for auto manufacturer names. I didn't know some of these so I figured maybe somebody else didn't know, too.

  • Alfa Romeo: Societa Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili,or The Lombardy Automobile Manufacturing Company. The ALFA part of the name originated from the first letters of the original name of the group. Romeo came from the business man who later took over.
  • Audi: In 1910 founder August Horch translated his surname (the German word for "hark!") into Latin to get around a dispute about company names (with the company he had founded in 1899 that still bore his name after he had left it).
  • Buick: David Dunbar Buick
  • Cadillac: Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, a French adventurer and explorer who founded Detroit in 1701 as a military post and trading center. The Henry Ford Motor Co. (Henry Ford's original company) had been left high and dry with Henry Ford walking out on his financial backers, Henry Leland was trying to sell his new motor design (rejected by Oldsmobile), the board at Henry Ford Motor Co. accepted the motor and started Cadillac Motor Co.
  • Chevrolet: Louis and Arthur Chevrolet - William Durant got them from a French Racing Team.
  • Chrysler: Walter P. Chrysler
  • Citroen: Andre Citroen
  • Corvette: Some type of small fast battleship.
  • Datsun: DAT was building a second-generation car called Son-of-Dat, or Datson (the DAT stood for initials of the founders, Den, Aoyama and Takeuchi). The car's name was changed to Datsun in 1932 to tie in with the Rising Sun of Imperial Japan.
  • Dodge: John and Horace Dodge - The Dodge Brothers
  • FIAT: Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino, or The Italian Automobile Manufacturers of Turin.
  • Holden: 1856 - Begins as J.A Holden & Co, saddlery business, Adelaide, South Australia.
  • Honda: Soichiro Honda
  • MG: Morris Garages
  • Mitsubishi: Japanese for 'three diamonds'. It originally came from the Yamanouchi Family Crest that looked like 3 leaves arranged in the same way as the diamonds. In 1870 it changed to 3 diamonds only slimmer than the current ones and had a dot in the centre of them. In 1873 the dot was lost but remained slim. In 1914 they fattened to what we have today And also rumoured to be the directions in which the company would spread.
  • Monaro: Aboriginal word - high plateau.
  • Nissan: The Company was jointly established on December 26, 1933, as Jidosha Seizo Co., Ltd. (President: Yoshisuke Aikawa), by Nihon Sangyo Co. and Tobata Imono Co., to manufacture and sell Datsun cars and parts. On June 1 1934, Nihon Sangyo (Nissan) became the Company's sole owner and changed the Company's name to Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. The circle in the background is red. This red, the blue of the middle bar, and the white of the overlaying letters are Nissan's official corporate colours. The red circle symbolises the rising sun and sincerity, and the blue represents the colour of the sky. The concept behind the mark is the proverb "Sincerity brings success."
  • Oldsmobile: Ransom E. Olds - Early American Auto Maker
  • Pontiac: Town in Michigan where Oakland Motor Company (became a part of GM) was located - Pontiac was Oakland's "companion make" of the late 1920s but was so successful it replaced Oakland completely.
  • Peugeot: Armond Peugeot
  • Porsche: Ferdinand Porsche - designed the VW "Beetle", first Porsches ran the VW air-cooled flat four. His son Ferri Porsche actually designed the first Porsche while his father Ferdinand was in jail in France.
  • Renault: Louis Renault
  • SAAB: Svenska Aeroplan A. B. or The Swedish Airplane Corporation. Builds Cars, Trucks (Scania) and Aeroplanes.
  • Toyota: Hirochiro Toyoda
 
I always thought that Audi was "Auto Union Deutchsland (Ingolstadt)". However, I have absolutely no evidence to stand by that hypothesis.

You forgot dear Henry.
 
Originally posted by GilesGuthrie
I always thought that Audi was "Auto Union Deutchsland (Ingolstadt)". However, I have absolutely no evidence to stand by that hypothesis.
Click to expand...

Actually, that's what I was just going to say. Auto Union campaigned race cars against Mercedes in the '30s in the early days of Gran Prix racing, and those cars carried the Audi 4 rings logo. Auto Union was founded by August Horch, however. Horch went on to make trucks and halftracks for the Wehrmacht.

autounion2.jpg
 
milefile is correct. Audi (Literally "Listen!") is the direct Latin translation of Horch's surname - the Horch company was taken out of his control.

And you forgot Alois Ruf :lol:


Here we go.. From my "bible":

"His first company was called A. Horch & Cie. It was formed in 1899 and immediately commenced production [...] By 1907... he was experiencing difficulty in retaining control of his company and responded by leaving and forming a rival concern. He was prevented from using his own name and so adopted the Latin translation of his surname, Horch - i.e. Audi.
[...]
In 1932, four motor manufacturers in Saxony - Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer - amalgamated to become Auto Union.
[...]
In 1958 Mercedes-Benz took over financial control of Auto Union. In 1964 Volkswagen obtained the majority of the Auto Union shares, and eventually the name was dropped in favour of Audi."
 
TVR - Named after it's founder, Trevor Wilkinson

Aston Martin - Lionel Martin & Aston Clinton Hill Climb
Early last century a car maker by the name of Martin used to race his cars in the hill climb events up Aston Hill; thus the name of Aston Martin was derived
 
For Mazda, let's start at the beginning:
Toyo Kogyo, Mazda's backing name from 1920-1976 or so, meant "Tokyo Industry", and they started as Toyo Cork Co.
Mazda is the Japanese God of Light. Also, "Mazda" was used on a series of GE lightbulbs for that fact.

And some of the cars:
Cosmo means "Universe"(pretty obvious).
RX is ofcourse Rotary eXperimental.
R360 stood for several things, including the new circular Mazda emblem that came out with the car, and the car's 360CC engine.
Renesis has 2 meanings: Rotary Engine geNESIS, or, Rotary Engine for the New age with Exhaust ports on the Side housings and Intake ports on the Side housings.

Hope that helps the list.

Ohh, and Toyo in anything usually means Tokyo.
 
Originally posted by milefile
These are some explanations for auto manufacturer names. I didn't know some of these so I figured maybe somebody else didn't know, too.

  • Mitsubishi: Japanese for 'three diamonds'. It originally came from the Yamanouchi Family Crest that looked like 3 leaves arranged in the same way as the diamonds. In 1870 it changed to 3 diamonds only slimmer than the current ones and had a dot in the centre of them. In 1873 the dot was lost but remained slim. In 1914 they fattened to what we have today And also rumoured to be the directions in which the company would spread.
Click to expand...


  • From what i heard, the three diamonds represent Mistubishi's history as a ship builder. The diamonds are meant to be a propeller
 
Oh, the propellor reminds me:

Bayerische Moteren-Werke = BMW

And Mercedes was named after Herr Daimler's niece.
 
Originally posted by miniMADness
From what i heard, the three diamonds represent Mistubishi's history as a ship builder. The diamonds are meant to be a propeller
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Ships? I thought they built airplanes, not ships.


///M-Spec
 
The Ford Mustang was originally to be named after the plane with the same name, but when word of the car hit the public, people misunderstood it for a horse. The name stuck.
 
Audi: Is latin for "hear", The badges linked rings symbolise the four companies of the 1932 Auto-Union consortium: Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer. The Audi name and logo were revived in 1965 after a 20-year break courtosey of a war started by one A Hitler. Amazingly the Olypics havent sued for a breach of copyright...

Mitsubishi: The history goes as far back as 1870, when the Japanese gaint first manufactuered ships - well before it began putting cars together in 1919. The three diamonds represent a ships propellers.

M-Spec, It was BMW that built planes, The logo is meant to be what a pilot would see if he was flying a plane

Taken from the Australian mag "SPEED"

:)
 
Originally posted by miniMADness
Audi: Is latin for "hear"
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It's an imperative. Audere is "to hear", Audi is "listen!".
 
I thought BMW built plane engines. Not the planes themselves, I could be wrong though. Funny, my friends dad is a plane mechanic and also owns a BMW 325, along with his buddy who also works as a plane mechanic.:odd:
 
but seriously, toyota is spelled with a T because it uses one less mark when written in hiragana than "toyoda". added up, the number of marks used was somehow goodluck.
 
Two less marks. "Da" is an elongated crucifix, with two roughly horizontal lines to it's right, and a " above and to the right of them. "Ta" has no ".
 
Here's something I typed up quickly.

And those 2 horizontal lines differenciate from 2 similar letters that have similar sounds. They're called "tenten" or whatever.
 

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Pontiac: Town in Michigan where Oakland Motor Company (became a part of GM) was located - Pontiac was Oakland's "companion make" of the late 1920s but was so successful it replaced Oakland completely.
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Thats the town I grew up in now I only live about 10 miles from it. I used to live right across from the Pontiac plant and by Pontiac GM Truck and Bus plant.
 
jesus christ. how dare I state something that has to do with japanese from past past memory thinking nobody would notice if it was incorrect, .....at GTP.
 
Originally posted by cm108kph
Subaru: named after some Japanese constellation, hence the stars on the emblem.
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And is a division of Fuji Heavy Industries.

Cosworth is an amalgamation of its founders' names, Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth.
 
Originally posted by Party for GT4
Has anyone mentioned marcos yet?

Mike Costin and someone else linked together.
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Jem Marsh & Frank Costin
 
Originally posted by miniMADness
Mitsubishi: The history goes as far back as 1870, when the Japanese gaint first manufactuered ships - well before it began putting cars together in 1919. The three diamonds represent a ships propellers.
Click to expand...

I didn't know they built ships.. that's interesting. I know for sure they built the Zero fighter plane during WWII.


Originally posted by miniMADness
M-Spec, It was BMW that built planes, The logo is meant to be what a pilot would see if he was flying a plane

:)
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No, they never built planes. They built plane engines. They built numerous civilan aviation engines through out the 1920s and 30s and set many speed and altitude records. During WWII, the Focke-Wulf FW 190 fighter was powered by a radial BMW engine.


///M-Spec
 
Originally posted by advanR
jesus christ. how dare I state something that has to do with japanese from past past memory thinking nobody would notice if it was incorrect, .....at GTP.
Click to expand...

If you're not sure of something, don't post it. Simple as.
 

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