Leckstein wrote:
>
> At 10:29 AM 2/11/97 -0800, nolan penney wrote:
> >>I have been following the thread on LBC and other vehicle names. There
> >>seems to be a feeling that a lot of LBC names don't exactly have a macho
> >>connotation.
> >
> >Absolutely! Spitfire, named after some clapped out airplane. Jaguar.
> Jaguar? WHo on
> >earth would want a car named after a kitty cat?
> >
> I think the Swallow Sidecar Co. had a problem with the name SS during the
> war. (SS was not super sport like in the U.S., the German meaning was felt
> in Britain) so they changed their name to Jaguar. Remember when Kimber and
> company were burning up the world with MG sports cars, Jaguar was making
> side cars for cycles. But you all know that after reading MG history, and
> watching Inside the Octagon
>
> Mike
I hope the references to the names "Spitfire" as a "clapped out
airplane" (sic), and the "Jaguar" as a "kitty cat" were meant to be
funny, and not born out of abysmal ignorance. Had it not been for
Spitfires (one of which I am pleased to say, I have flown), and 600
brave men, I would not be sitting here typing this, there probably
wouldn't be any LBCs, and this list would probably be discussing der
Volkes "Focke" or perhaps der Mercedes "Wulfe". A Jaguar is one of the
fastest, if not the fastest animals living, an attribute,(speed), shared
by the Spitfire in 1940. (A Spitfire is the only known aircraft to have
engaged a V2 rocket in armed combat. (See Raymond Baxter's
autobiography. He was a Battle of Britain pilot, and became the BBC's
motoring correspondent after the war finished, and did a lot of rallying
in MGs, to say nothing of an entry into both the Mille Miglia and the
Monte Carlo Rally.)) It seems to me both the names are entirely
appropriate, as possibly,was (is) the name Mustang, ( a horse a lot
slower than a Jaguar) both of which I have driven and flown.
Geoff Love, The English Connection.
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