5 Of The Most Badass Engine Names Of All Time

Aesthetics are a bit of a tricky business, especially when it comes to the automotive scene. The most obvious application of aesthetics to a car is in its name — as you want it to convey resilience, reliability, approachability, and so on. The name of a car is generally a well-rounded aspect because a car is meant to be something different to different people, whether a speed demon or a comfy family wagon. However, the components of a car vary from model to model.

For instance, the engine of a car is designed to do exactly one thing: make it go. Maybe it makes it go fast, maybe it makes it go economically, but the point is that it makes it go. If you’re trying to sell someone on a device that propels a massive hunk of metal at 70 mph, you need a name that conveys that force-of-nature feel. It’s this particular sensibility that has led to some of the coolest, fiercest engine names ever devised by man. These engines, developed as far back as the 1950s, staked their claim on the automotive world with names that commanded fear and respect.

Animals are a great starting point for cooking up cool names, particularly predator animals. If you wanted to convey that an engine is not only fast, but far faster and deadlier than you may expect, an excellent animal to choose would be the cunning cobra. Cobras make for a great motif on their own, but if you want to really drive the point home, you could also add a bit of mechanical spin to it, such as an equally powerful vehicle. Thus, we have the Ford Cobra Jet, a name that conjures an image of a massive mechanical beast flying at you with the dogged determination of a striking predator. Feel free to make a “Snakes on a Plane” reference if you’re into that.

The original 428 Cobra Jet engine was designed for exclusive use on the drag racing circuits in the late 1960s, taking Mustang to the winner’s circle in the 1968 NHRA Winternationals. While Ford doesn’t make Cobra Jet engines anymore, the name has instead been co-opted by Ford’s line of race-ready Mustang vehicles.

Naming your engines after animals that actually exist is a perfectly good practice, but if you’re looking to go the extra mile, you may need to dip into the realm of the imaginary. It’s one thing to draw inspiration from an animal people have seen before, but if they have to use their imagination, the sky’s the limit. Though, in the case of the Mopar Hellephant, you probably wouldn’t be looking up to the sky, but rather down to the fiery depths.

Originally concocted in 2018 as part of the 1968 Dodge Charger restomod project, the Hellephant is actually a fusion of two of Mopar’s existing engines. It started with the 707 Hellcat HEMI engine, which had become quite popular in the street racing scene at the time, then combined that with a massive second-generation HEMI engine that had been nicknamed the Elephant due to its sheer bulk. Merge the fiery pep of the Hellcat with the imposing stature of the Elephant, and you get the Hellephant, a 1,000 horsepower behemoth of an engine.

Let’s say animals aren’t quite doing it for you in terms of naming inspiration. Rather than any living creature, you want to instead draw ideas from the natural forces of the Earth, the all-powerful elements that govern our very existence. If elements are the name of the game, then there’s only two elements that can properly convey the pure concepts of speed and strength: wind and electricity. Do you know where you can find a lot of wind and lightning? In the midst of a hurricane, of course. “Hurricane” on its own is a pretty good name for an engine, but just to really drive the point home, Willys decided to slap a quantifier on there. Thus, the Super Hurricane stormed the proverbial heavens.

Originally appearing in the early 1950s, the Super Hurricane engine saw its use primarily in large utility vehicles produced by Willys. It was a six-cylinder, 226 cubic inch storm of an engine, great for powering hefty Jeep vehicles. The Super Hurricane replaced the previous Willys utility engine, the regular Hurricane, before it was itself replaced by the Willys Tornado in 1962. Talk about being committed to a theme.

In the 1960s, one of Oldsmobile’s highlight vehicles was the compact Jetfire, not to be confused with Optimus Prime’s partner of the same name from “Transformers.” The Jetfire already had a pretty excellent name to go with its sleek and striking body, evoking the image of fiery streams bursting forth from a rocket booster. It was all part of a concentrated effort to make you want to hop in and have some fun with it. That wasn’t all the Jetfire had going for it, though — under the hood was its powerful engine, itself equipped with an excellent name with a similar vibe to the car itself. This engine was called the Turbo Rocket, which was not only a cool name in general, but indicative of its capabilities.

The Jetfire Turbo Rocket was actually one of the very first instances of a turbocharged engine, a scene that was only just emerging in commercial cars in the 1960s, though the concept itself is as old as the 1900s. The engine was first tested on Oldsmobile’s previous vehicle at the time, the Cutlass coupe, but the engine really hit its stride of popularity when paired with the fiery Jetfire.

Putting aside animals and elemental forces, another good source of naming potential is in authority figures. After all, if you’re making an engine that’s supposed to convey an image of indomitability and lasting strength, it would make sense to name it after someone whom everyone is meant to look up to and respect. For General Motors in the 1970s, the authority figure of choice was a duke, but in order to get across just how reliable its new engine would be, GM added a little metal to the mix. Thus, we have the Iron Duke, a name with a little nobility to go with its muscle.

Interestingly, despite its exceptionally cool name, the Iron Duke actually wasn’t a very good engine. The Iron Duke was meant to be a low-tech engine, focusing more on reliable fuel mileage than sporty performance, which was admittedly a growing concern for the era. Unfortunately, despite being very hearty engines, the Iron Dukes simply weren’t much fun to drive with. Consider that a life lesson: a cool name doesn’t automatically make for a good product.