Read part one here and part two here.
37) Pagani Utopia
The concept of utopia is fairly indefinable, and likely varies a lot from person to person. Certainly, it's not an idea that it’s easy to imagine actually existing in the real world. We’d have to imagine that barrelling along in an 852hp, V12-powered Italian supercar with a gated seven-speed manual gearbox to play with comes pretty close, though, so Utopia is as good a name as any for Pagani’s third ever model.
38) Pagani Zonda
As for Pagani’s first model, it was yet another car to be named after wind (no, not that kind—stop giggling at the back). This time, it’s a kind of dry, warm wind that occurs in the Andes, specifically in Argentina, where company founder Horacio Pagani originally hails from. Let’s not beat about the bush, though—Zonda could have been a totally made-up word, and it still would have looked right at home on the back of this spectacular car.
39) Plymouth Barracuda
If you’re going to name a car after a fish, you need to tread very carefully—after all, what sort of message would you be sending out if you rolled out a new model called the Trout? Or the Haddock? Or the Hammerjaw? Actually, that last one’s quite good; ignore that. For its legendary pony car, though, Plymouth thankfully went for one of the cooler fish—the sleek, fast and predatory Barracuda.
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40) Pontiac Firebird
Mythological creatures offer up a strong pool of names for carmakers hoping to add a dash of mystique and power to their models, and sure enough, the Pontiac Firebird, twin sibling to the Chevrolet Camaro, does just that. Its name is another term for the Phoenix, the creature from various global mythologies that burns itself to death before regenerating. Hopefully, your Firebird won’t attempt to do the same thing.
41) Pontiac Tempest LeMans GTO
Let’s break this one down, shall we? Tempest: A wild, unpredictable storm. Good start. LeMans: French city and home to the world's most famous endurance race, and also a high-end trim package for the Tempest. Even better. GTO: A term shamelessly borrowed from Ferrari, suggesting a link to motorsport, and the high-performance package for the Tempest LeMans that heralded the real beginning of the muscle car era in 1964. Pretty cool, we think you’ll agree.
42) Porsche Carrera GT
We’re so used to the Carrera name from a bajillion different iterations of Porsche 911 that it’s easy to forget that it’s simply the Spanish word for ‘race.’ So when Porsche called its wild V10 hypercar the Carrera GT, it was essentially saying it was a race grand tourer—actually a pretty good name, considering the motorsport howl of that glorious engine and the purity of its manual box combined with an interior as beautifully appointed as the finest luxury cars of the era.
43) Ram TRX
Does the name of Ram’s ludicrous supercharged desert racer deliberately call out Ford’s F-150 Raptor by evoking the biggest, baddest prehistoric killer lizard of them all? Officially, no—TRX was just a handy name that Dodge already had the rights to and sounded tough and off-roady. We can’t help thinking the marketing team had a dinosaur showdown for the ages on the mind, though, and sorry Ford—in the name department, at least, T-Rex beats Raptor.
44) Renault Fuego
Spanish, like Italian, is one of those languages that just sounds good, so it tends to pop up a lot in car names. See most Lamborghinis, basically every Seat and Cupra (obvs), the various Carrera Porsches, and the Mitsubishi Pajero (although don’t mention that one to a Spanish speaker). The Renault Fuego pulls it off, too—that’s just the Spanish word for ‘fire,’ but fuego has so much more dynamism and excitement to it. Shame you can’t say the same for the actual car.
45) Rolls-Royce Wraith
Rolls-Royce loves a supernatural name for its cars, which tends to suit them for the almost spookily smooth, quiet way they go about their business. Our favorite is Wraith, used twice by Rolls—once in the ’30s and again on its majestic two-door V12 coupe in the 2010s. In folklore terms, a wraith is utterly terrifying, a portent of death taking the form of a skeletal cloaked figure or a patch of darkness with glowing eyes. Ignore that, though, and just focus on the satisfying way ‘Rolls-Royce Wraith’ rolls off the tongue. Mmm.
46) Shelby Cobra
When Texan horsepower merchant Carroll Shelby first popped a huge Ford V8 into the petite British AC Ace roadster, it became apparent the car would need a new name, and as with so many other great cars, he turned to the animal kingdom for inspiration—specifically, to a particularly big, vicious snake that would do you some serious damage if you got on the wrong side of its fangs. Appropriate for a car as unhinged as the Cobra, then.
47) Skoda Roomster
We return to the Dacia Bigster School of Naming Cars, winding the clock back 20 years or so to the Skoda Roomster. For a car with an unerring focus on utility and practicality over literally anything else, Roomster almost feels like too jaunty a name, but without it, this would be the most strait-laced vehicle ever made, so just let it have its fun—it’s like that quiet person in the office letting loose after they’ve had their seventh drink at the Christmas party.
48) Subaru Outback
Fun fact: The first couple of generations of Outback were sold under the name Subaru Legacy Lancaster in the Japanese market. We’ve no idea why Subaru thought their local customers would prefer a car named after a medium-sized city in the northwest of England rather than the vast, untamed, searingly hot wilderness of Australia, but we’re glad it received the much cooler name of Outback everywhere else. Even if you’re far more likely to actually see one in Lancaster.
49) Suzuki Samurai
The little 4x4 released in Britain as the Suzuki SJ-series was sold under a baffling array of different names around the world, but by far the coolest was its American-market name, Suzuki Samurai. We’ve got cool letters like ‘Z’ and ‘K’ (although that applies to any Suzuki), we’ve got pleasing alliteration, and we’ve got a name shared with cool sword-wielding Japanese warriors. What’s not to like?
50) Toyota Century
As well as being the sole car to receive Japan’s only homegrown V12 engine, the Toyota Century is the transportation of choice for the country’s high-flying businesspeople and politicians. It needs a name, then, that suits its distinguished purpose. How about one that literally means A HUNDRED YEARS? It actually got the name because it arrived in 1967, 100 years after the birth of Sakichi Toyoda, founder of Toyota Industries, but it certainly lends the Century an extra air of grace and importance.
51) TVR Cerbera
Never has a name been more appropriate for a car. The TVR Cerbera’s moniker comes from Cerberus, the three-headed hound that guarded the underworld in Greek mythology, and presumably wouldn’t hesitate to bite the hand off anyone who tried to leave. You know what else wouldn’t hesitate to bite your hand off? A car that barely weighs a ton, sends up to 440hp to the rear wheels, and thinks the only driver aid you need is a brake pedal. The TVR Cerbera, in other words.
52) Triumph Stag
We mean this in the nicest possible way, but British wildlife is awful. Other parts of the world are roamed by huge, impressive, and sometimes vicious creatures, whereas the biggest thing you’re likely to encounter while out for a stroll in the UK countryside is a stag. They are, admittedly, an utterly majestic sight, and as king of the British mammals, it’s only right that it lent its name to one of the brawniest, meatiest British sports cars of all—the Triumph Stag.
53) Vauxhall Firenza
Naming it after an Italian place is a great way of jazzing up the appeal of a fairly everyday car—see also the Ford Capri, Cortina and Torino, the Opel Monza and the Kia Sorento. ‘Firenza,’ though—a slight butchering of Firenze, the Italian name for Florence—lends itself particularly nicely to car use. It’s one of those words that just sounds sporty and exotic—perfect for one of the coolest Vauxhalls of all, especially in HP ‘Droopsnoot’ form.
NOTE: This story first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
