What’s in a Name ?

ABARTH	Founder: Karl Abarth. 1949. Bologna, Italy.
AC	Founded in London in 1901. One of the oldest British automobile manufacturers. The AC initials were derived from the company’s original name of Auto Carriers Ltd.
ALFA	Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili. Founded in 1910 in Milan, Italy.
ALFA ROMEO	ALFA taken over by Nicola Romeo in 1915.
ALLARD	Founder: Sydney Allard – forerunners of AC. 1945. London.
ASTON MARTIN	Founders: Lionel Martin & Robert Bramford. 1913. From 1947, David Brown ran operations. Martins’ exploits at the Aston Clinton hill climb in Buckinghamshire helped name the company.
AUSTIN	Founder: Herbert Austin. 1905. He worked as an MP when he developed the 7hp car.
BENTLEY	Founder: Walter Owen Bentley. 1919. London. He originally produced worked on rotary aero engines.
BENZ	Founder: Karl/Carl Benz. Germany. Patented the motorcar in 1885.
BMW	Bayerische Motoren Werke. Founded in 1916 in Munich, Germany. BMW engines powered blue and white aircraft in WW1. Pilots saw these colours alternate through the propellor and the logo was born.
BUGATTI	Founder: Ettore Bugatti (Italian). 1909. Alsace, Germany. Originally a german company then settled in Moisheim, France.
CHRYSLER	Founder: Walter P. Chrysler – a former railway engineer in 1925, located in Michigan, USA.
COSWORTH	Mike Costin & Keith Duckworth founded the automotive engineering company in 1958.
DAIMLER	Founded by H.J. Lawson in London n 1896. The company bought the right to use the Gottlieb Daimler name.
DELOREAN	Founder: John DeLorean in 1975, located at Detroit, Michigan, USA. The company went into receivership in 1982.
DETOMASO	Founder: Alejandro De Tomaso in 1959, Modena, Italy.
DIESEL	Rudolf Diesel, Inventor of the diesel engine. First engine was built in 1893.
DODGE	Founders: John & Horace Dodge. The brothers started the company building vehicles in 1914 located in Detroit, Michigan, USA.
FARINA	Giovanni Battista Giuseppe ‘ Pinin’ Farina. Italian designer born in 1893 who designed many of the world’s most desirable cars. He formed the Carrozzeria Pininfarina car body design and construction company in 1930.
FERRARI	Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1939. The emblem is a black prancing horse with the initials SF, Scuderia Ferrari – the name of the works team Enzo ran before building cars to sell. The emblem came from the fabric shield from the burnt-out plane of Italy’s ace fighter pilot of the first World War – Francesco Barraca. Ferrari are based in Maranello, Italy.
FIAT	Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino. Founded in 1899 by Giovvani Agnelli. Based in Turin, Italy
FORD	Founded by Henry Ford in 1903. Based in Michigan, USA. invented the production line and made cars affordable to all. Henry Ford II (grandson) created Ford of Europe. Ford was also the first to produce the first moving production line.
GIUGIARO	Giorgetto Giugiaro, an italian design responsible for many post-war Italian cars, also designing some VW cars. the BMW M1, Maserati Bora and the Lotus Espirit S1. Later designing the Lamborghini Cala concept, Maserati Spyder and the 2005 Ferrari GG50 concept.
GM	General Motors. Founded in 1908 in Detroit, USA. Owns automotive companies Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick.
HONDA	Founder: Soichiro Honda. Originally found in 1946 in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.
IACOCCA	Lee Iacocca created the Ford Mustang before being fired by Henry Ford II Worked for Chrysler and became a famous businessman in the USA.
ISSIGONIS	Alexander Issigonis created the Mini launched in 1959. The Mini was originally known as the Morris Mini Minor and Austin Seven, then the Austin Mini and finally just Mini.
JAGUAR	Founder Sir William Lyons formed the company in 1945 having originally been called SS Cars.
JENSEN	Founders Richard and Allan Jensen (brothers) named the original company W J Smith & Sons Ltd. to Jensen Motors Limited in 1934.
HEALEY	Car designer, rally driver, Donald Mitchell Healey founded the Donald Healey Motor Company Ltd. in 1945.
KARMANN	Wilhelm Karmann, more known as Karmann formed his automotive company in 1901 in Germany. His services to other automobile manufacturers included design, production and assembly of components.
KIMBER	Cecil Kimber, a garage manager of Morris Garages who assembled sports cars from Morris parts which eventually led to the forming of the M.G. Car Company in 1928.
LAMBORGHINI	Founder Ferrucio Lamborghini who founded the company in 1963 to compete with Ferrari, used a raging bull emblem as he loved bullfighting so much.
LANCIA	Founder Vincenzo Lancia, a racing car driver, pioneered suspensions, body styles, steering and roadholding methods. He founded the Lancia company in 1906 in Turin, Italy.
LOTUS	Colin Chapman built his racing car in 1948. He formed Lotus Engineering Ltd. in 1952. His initials reside in the famous Lotus badge logo.
MASERATI	The company was originally established in 1914 in Bologna, Italy then moved to Modena. Formed by brothers Alfieri, Bindo, Carlo, Ettore & Ernesto.
MARCOS	Marcos Engineering was formed in 1959 by Jem Marsh and Frank Costin in North Wales.
MERCEDES	Formed in 1926, in Stuttgart, Germany, named after the daughter Mercedes Jellinek of Sales Director Emil Jellinek-Mercedes. The three pointed star denoted the cars, ships and planes the company built.
MORRIS	William Richard Morris founded Morris Motors Ltd. in 1919 and eventually purchased automobile companies Wolseley and Riley.
MICHELIN	Edouard Michelin and brother Andre formed the company in 1889. They patented the removable pneumatic tyre in 1891.
OLDSMOBILE	Company formed in 1897 by Ransom E. Olds. Produced the ‘ Curved Dash ‘ on the Model R – regarded as the world’s first mass production car on a (static) automotive assembly line. The company sold to GM in 1908.
PEUGEOT	Founded in 1810 and regarded as the oldest automotive company in the world. Emile Peugeot adopted a lion trademark in 1858 as a bearer of strength and speed. Lion emblem was used on saw blades produced by the company. The company originally started vehcile builds in the form of steam bicycles.
PONTIAC	The Pontiac Division of General Motors was formed in 1926. Originally a junior bran to the Oakland Motor Car Company, it became successful in its own right. Located in Pontiac, USA, it went on to build many more models under its own brand.
PORSCHE	Founded by Ferdinand Porsche, a driver, diplomat and engineer in 1931. Based in Stuggart, Germany, it has become a successful sports and luxury vehicle company.
RENAULT	Founded in 1899 by Louis Renault and brothers Marcel and Fernand.
ROLLS-ROYCE	Charles Stewart Rolls and Sir Henry Royce founded the company in 1904 in Manchester. They opened a new factory in Derby in 1908.
ROOTES	William and Reginald Rootes‘ local car dealership in the West End of London, turned into an International car company after taking over Commer, Hillman, Humber, Sunbeam, Singer and Talbot. Bought by Chrysler in 1967.
ROVER	Originally founded by John Kemp Stanley & William Sutton in 1878 building tricycles. The Rover name is derived from “bicycle” in many other languages. The Viking Longship badge was adopted in 1922 as optional radiator cap and the emblem fitted to cars in 1929. The name Rover then became known as “wanderer” in context with the Vikings.
SAAB	SAAB was originally founded in 1937 as an aircraft manufacturer in Sweden. From 1947 it started producing vehicles, with Saab Automobile created in 1990 as a seperate division. The mythical griffin logo was the crest of Skane (native name), the swedish area of Scania.
SKODA	The Skoda Works company was founded in 1859 as an arms manufacturer by Emil Skoda. The winged arrow with three feathers in a circle logo was created in 1923. The Skoda automobile manufacturer was founded in 1925. The logon was inspired by a native American servant of Emil. The SKODA text was added to this logo in 1936. In 1991, the blue colour changed to green
TESLA	Tesla Inc., an automotive and clean energy company originally named Tesla Motors was founded in Texas, USA in 2003 by Martin Eberhard & Marc Tarpenning. Elon Musk joined the company on 2004. The Tesla name is a reference to inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla who developed and AC induction motor.
TOYOTA	Kiichiro Toyoda founded the Toyota Motor Corporation in 1937. Originally Toyota Industries developed an engine in 1934 and its first passenger car in 1936. The vehicle company was then formed as a spin-off. The logo comprises of three ovals in the Toyota logo and are linked in a horizontally symmetrical layout – so it is recognisable both head-on and when seen in a rear-view mirror. The inner ovals symbolise the heart of the customer and the heart of the company, overlapping to represent a mutually beneficial relationship and trust between the two, as well as forming a ‘T’ shape for Toyota. The outer oval one signifies the world embracing Toyota.
TVR	A British manufacturer of sports cars, founded by Trevor Wilkinson in 1946 in Liverpool. The company name is taken from his forename.
VAUXHALL	Founded in 1857 by Alexander Wilson. Purchased by Andrew Belts Brown in 1863 who renamed the company to Vauxhall Iron Works. The company started manufacturing vehicles in 1903.
VOLVO	Volvo was established in 1927. The company name derives from the Latin: ” I roll”. The emblem consists of a circle with an arrow that represents iron which is also the symbol for masculinity and Mars, the God of War. This is fixed in place by a diagonal metal strip (stripe) across the grille.
WOLSELEY	Frederick Wolseley founded the company in 1901 in conjunction with Herbert Austin. In 1905, it was incorporated as The Wolseley Tool and Motor Company. Vickers Engineering was the parent owner.