8 Cars with Great Nicknames

Matt Tierney

The stronger your feelings for someone, the higher the probability that you call them something other than their real name. This is also true, especially so, for pets. The principle holds for objects as well, and certain vehicles, with their rich histories and distinct personas, are obvious candidates.

Our staff got talking around the digital watercooler and stumbled into a discussion of our favorite nicknames for various classics (and one oddball). If you only looked at the list of names, you’d think we just hit refresh on a random word generator, but for the most part, there’s a story behind the nickname given to each vehicle below.

Sometimes, the nickname is a reference to a valiant feat. Perhaps someone, once upon a time, came up with a memorable answer to “You know what that car reminds me of?” and the whole world picked up the word and ran with it. Whatever the case, we hope you enjoy our selections, and we encourage you to add your own candidates in the comments—preferably, with an explanation of how that vehicle got that name.

Pizza Butt

2001 Corbin Sparrow EV electric motorcycle
eBay/wmcs11

I’ll always have a soft spot for odd, obscure, and sometimes ugly cars. It doesn’t get much more odd or obscure or ugly or funny than the Corbin Sparrow EV and its “pizza butt” body style, designed for use by Domino’s. — Andrew Newton

Tin Lizzy

Courtesy El Pomar Foundation Archives

The greatest nicknames come from brave or interesting feats, which is why my nomination for interesting nicknames goes to “Tin Lizzie.” The moniker has been stuck to Model T Fords for over a century at this point and came after Noel Bullock entered a ragged, stripped down ‘T in the 1922 Pikes Peak Hill Climb. That car was called “Old Liz,” but the tin can appearance caused people to shift the name to Tin Lizzie. The rest is history. — Kyle Smith

Clown Shoe

2001 BMW Z3M Coupe clownshoe S54 manual
BMW | yourfriendsyd

As a Z3 dork, I’d be remiss if I neglected the Clown Shoe, aka M Coupe (and its lesser-known Z3 Coupe sibling). The Clown Shoe a goofy-looking car with a goofy name but a serious-business straight-six engine. BMW’s board approved the project on the condition that engineers retain as much of the existing Z3 roadster hardware as possible, which resulted in the car’s oddball roofline and cartoonish width. You either love it or hate it, but that’s part of the car’s appeal. For better or worse it looks like nothing else on the road. — Eric Weiner

Cobra Killer 

bill thomas cheetah rear three-quarter
Brandan Gillogly

My pick is the Bill Thomas Cheetah, Cobra Killer for short. But because I take pictures and can’t really put words together to save my life, I’ll let Aaron Robinson, who wrote about the car in 2023, spit it:

Cheetahs are certainly a weird and wild footnote of 1960s racing Americana. Anaheim, California, Corvette racer Bill Thomas created the tube-framed racing machine with backing from Chevrolet as a street and racing answer to the Ford-powered Shelby Cobra. However, in 1964 the FIA sports car homologation rules were changed from 100 cars to 1000 and General Motors, also facing congressional scrutiny over vehicle safety following the 1964 publishing of Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed, lost interest and yanked the cord on the program. The Cheetah was left high and dry.

Cameron Neveu

Turbo Brick

Volvo ad 740 turbo wagon lamborghini trailer
Volvo

If you’ve heard the phrase “Turbo Brick” used around Volvos, you’ll immediately get the reference. Purists will say this nickname only applies to the square-as-could-be 240s, but even the more aerodynamically-inclined 740, 960, 850, and early V/S70 are still pretty much slab-sided rectangles. This covers the turbo versions of most Volvos from the late ’70s till around 2000, and I’d say it fits about as well as any nickname could. — Eddy Eckart

Iron Pig

1977 Land Cruiser 55 front three-quarter
Toyota

I’ve always liked the Toyota Land Cruiser FJ55’s “Iron Pig” moniker. Not counting the rare FJ45, which was based on the stubby FJ40, the 50-series was the first true Land Cruiser wagon Toyota made. They are handsome, go-anywhere trucks with a distinctive front end, which is where the nickname comes from: some people see a pig’s face in the round headlights and compact grille. I don’t, but as nicknames go, Iron Pig is a great one. — Stefan Lombard

Goat

1966 Pontiac GTO front three-quarter
Matt Tierney

I think Pontiac’s GTO deserves a spot on this list, since it had a couple. Goat is the one I remember, though—supposedly just an affectionate play on its letters, as G.O.A.T. wasn’t yet the acronym it is today. As a kid, I thought it sounded tough, but I never quite understood it, as the ones I saw at car shows were often adorned not with goats but stuffed tigers, a reference to the ad campaign for the car. — Eddy Eckart

Catfish

Mecum

The refreshed fourth-gen Camaro was nicknamed “Catfish” because the new fascia, styled with a hint of 1970–73 Camaro, did sort of look like the bottom-feeding fish. — Brandan Gillogly

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Comments

    We were told our 1973 Sunshine Yellow VW was born out of an unholy matrimony between a garbage dumpster and a shipping container. We call her Daffy but who can forget her original name. “The Thing”!

    “Iron Pigs” are midget race cars gang-produced by Roscoe “Pappy” Hough. It would be all right, I guess, to tow one behind a Land Cruiser (he and his batch of drivers used to lug them around on a commercial car carrier), but nobody gets to call a car that without bringing up Pappy.

    The Mopar slant six engine was known as the Leaning Tower of Power. It even has an icon: /6. These engines were still running long after the car body was gone.

    Glad someone besides me remembers the old slant sixes. My father had two 1964 Valiants – one with a 225 slant six with a hyperpack installed and one with a 273 4 speed. Both were what we called sleepers and both very equal in performance. Would definitely like to still have the hyper pack car still due to its rarity.

    Seems like any 70s or 80s wagon with the fake wood paneling is now the Wagon Queen Family Truckster or just family truckster.

    Best nickname? . . . LEMOMS, the name of my ‘65 Pontiac LeMans. She got her name in about 1987 when I was complaining to my youngest son that I was tired of being surrounded by men, stating my husband, my two sons, our dog and our cat were all men. I looked out the window to my car sitting in the drive and said, “ Even my car is a LeMans, I’m going to get a vanity plate and call her LEMOMS”! My son said, “Hey that’s pretty good Mom!” My rant ended and my beautiful ‘65 Pontiac had her new name. Her plates read LEMOMS, everyone in our car club calls her that, she even has written a couple of articles for our newsletter.

    Can’t wait to be seen in a car called clown shoes. Foot odor and all too, eh? How about the Chevy Blue Aire? Mercury Vomit? Oldsmobile Gutless? Used to have names for a lot of cars but they aren’t rated ‘G’. Came up with new awful names when the labor time guide didn’t pay squat to fix them.

    Dale, after the GTO had been around CA for a year or so, we heard ‘Goat’ a lot. OC, even GOT doesn’t spell ‘Goat’, so… Here’s one: I drove a ’65 Pontiac Tempest Custom 2-dr HT, 326/stick, and it was known at ‘The Tampax’ hoho.

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