Automotive Name Game

Lately the automotive manufacturers seem to think that old names of cars should be revived. Some are putting their old car names on EV’s, some on SUV’s, and some are considering making entire brands out of them. No matter which way it happens to go, an automotive enthusiast is going to have something to say about it. The general public is going to have something to say about it too. Those two opinions might not be aligned.

The most recent, and potentially the most pivotal in terms of future unaffordable super/exotic/hyper cars, is that Lamborghini is reviving the Countach name. The Countach came out in 1974 as a wedge shaped, futuristic, made for speed vehicle. It was incredibly polarizing. By the end of its run in 1990 it grew to be an absolutely iconic, obnoxious, and completely impractical vehicle. But that was the point. Contrary to what most modern supercar owners do today, which is daily drive their quarter of a million dollar or more cars, the 1990 Countach was a loud 12 cylinder, painful cockpit, with brandishing looks that would gobble up miles on weekends in short bursts then be put away for 99.9% of the week, or more.

With styling, performance, and function all vital to understanding of what we know of as a specifically named vehicle, the Countach has a lot to live up to. It makes me wonder why they brought it back? Lamborghini has had no trouble coming up with names for vehicles. In my opinion, there was no need to bring back the Countach name. Ford has already shown how when you murky the water, you cause confusion. The Mustang Mach E and the Bronco Sport are prime examples.

I thought Lamborghini was smarter than that. A poster car of so many is now being brought back to life, but with a modern twist. If this is a production vehicle, which is unclear yet at the time of writing, it will really change the game for what these exclusive manufacturers might do. Granted, a lot of them already still have their legacy name plates or have brought back vehicles similar to them, without the old names. But the EV transformation could easily usher in a new Mercedes 300 SL (probably with slight change to EL), Ferrari F40 (probably to E40), Aston Martin DB5, even a McLaren F1. If you think I’m wrong or crazy, I get it, but I didn’t think the Countach would come back, yet here we are.

Consumers crazed with nostalgia are feeding the manufacturers with ideas that they want old cars. While that is true, we don’t actually want old car names. We want the idea of what old cars with iconic names have become. We want the limited edition, exclusive, fast, loud, and glorious looking vehicles that we grew up fantasizing about as kids. If the companies want to play games to see what works, fine, but to me a name is important. I’ll play. But, they should know, my bar is high.

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Weighing In

After watching the Netflix documentary Formula 1 Drive To Survive, I became a casual fan of Esteban Ocon. Wanting to learn more about him, I did some Googling and found out that he isn’t in a car for the 2019 season, and that he is apparently going to “transform” himself to try to get a ride for next year. This had me perplexed, so I kept digging.

The reported issue is that Esteban needs to work on his physical attributes, specifically his weight, in order to better his chances of achieving a full-time driver position. According to the 2019 Formula 1 rules package, the car with the driver must weigh in at 740kg, or roughly 1,631 pounds. Then, separately, the car must weigh in at 660kg  (1,455 lbs) allowing a driver to weigh anywhere up to 80kg (176 lbs). Any less than 80kg and the teams can put in ballast weight to bring the car to full combined mass.
*Moving forward height and weight will be in inches and pounds.

Esteban is the tallest driver in Formula 1 at 6’1″ and weighs in at 145 lbs. According to BMI charts, that is underweight. While it is safe to consider Formula 1 drivers to be some of the most physically fit athletes in the world, defining personal physical health and safety has to be left respectively up to the individual. The fact that Esteban might have to cut more weight (he has already done so before the 2017 season) in order to compete against the other drivers, might be a hard thing for fans to watch.

I can relate to Esteban. I am 6’4″ and currently 233 lbs. Three years ago, I weighed in at 180 lbs, and personally, felt I was at a physical peak. Yet, many people thought I looked too thin and not healthy. Surprisingly, for my height and weight at the time, I was smack in the middle of a healthy zone according to BMI charts. Now, at 233 lbs, my BMI is considered overweight and my body reminds me often that physical tasks are not as easy as they once were. Yet, people tell me I look healthy and I don’t look overweight.

Everyone is different and physical fitness is something that only each individual person can determine, but the scientific generalities are a good start though to get everyone in sync with how to determine and define physical fitness. I support BMI charts and eating healthy and exercising. Hopefully, those general tools can be interpreted and understood better by all, in order to understand each person’s best physical fitness.