1
The Maestro, positioned between the smaller Metro and the larger Montego, reflects British Leyland's naming policy of the 1980s, likely derives from the Italian word for 'master' and the name of a northwesterly Adriatic wind.
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2
Zephyr, a gentle westward wind, finds its roots in Greek mythology, personified by deities like Zephyrus. This name also graced Ford's British car models from 1950 to 1972.
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3
In 1991, GMC introduced the Syclone, based on the Sonoma pickup, with a turbo V6 and all-wheel drive. The name "Syclone" humorously hints at a cyclone, a powerful rotating air mass with strong winds.
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4
The Camira, part of the GM J platform, was less popular. It had international counterparts like the Vauxhall Cavalier and Opel Ascona. Its name, shared with an Ipswich suburb, stems from an Aboriginal term, possibly meaning "wind" or "windy."
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5
The Diablo, a mid-engined V12 supercar, replaced the Countach in 1990. It shares its name with a hot Californian wind and means "devil" in Spanish.
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6
In 1936, Ford's affordable luxury car, the Zephyr, boasted a V12 engine but had early reliability issues due to its unique exhaust design. It humorously earned a reputation for emitting smoke at stoplights.
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7
In the 20th century, Maserati named six cars after winds. The Bora, a mid-engined sports car from the 1970s, shares its name with a wind in the Adriatic Sea, originating in the northeastern mountains.
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8
Mercury's muscle car, initially the Comet Cyclone, had five generations produced from 1964 to 1971, with a performance package extension for the second-gen Mercury Montego. The most famous was the Spoiler II, part of the Aero Warriors for NASCAR.
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9
Maserati didn't mind other automakers using wind names for their cars, like Nissan's Mistral, a compact SUV sold in Europe as the Nissan Terrano II and the Ford Maverick. In Japan, it was known as the Mistral but wasn't manufactured there.
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10
The Zonda supercar, unveiled at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show, was named after the Argentine "zonda" wind, a type of warm and dry foehn wind typically found on the leeward side of mountains, like the Andes.
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11
The Pontiac Tempest, a name inspired by atmospheric events involving wind, was a compact car introduced in 1961. Later generations were larger and sometimes equipped with powerful V8 engines. The final Tempest was a front-wheel-drive compact car of the 1980s and 1990s..
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