Filed under: Frankfurt Auto Show, Coupes, Etc., Supercars
Did Lamborghini "blow" it with the Reventón?
Click on the above photo for more hi-res pics of the Blown Tire Reventón
As many commenters have noted, the Spanish name of the million-euro Lambo, Reventón, is a bit of a surprise. The accent over the 'o' changes the stress, but it apparently doesn't change the meaning of the word in Spanish: blown tire. As one reader wrote, not exactly the right name for a car you plan on driving at 300 KPH. Yes, Reventón was the name of a bull that killed a toreador, like Murcielago was the name of a 19th century bull. But "murcielago" also means "bat" in Spanish, and "espada," also Spanish, means "sword."
In fact, Spanish seems to be the language that comes up most frequently in these delicately-named situations. Nissan made a car called the Moco, which means "snot." Chevrolet made the Nova, which, of course, means "no go." Mitsubishi still sells an SUV called -- not in Spain -- the Pajero, which means "wanker" in the, uh, more literal sense. Then there was the Mazda Laputa, which we can't get into on a family web site. Same goes for the Lexus LF-A, which caused one wide-eyed Spaniard we know to say "They need to change that name."
As other commenters have noted, none of this is really going to matter with a million-euro car that only 20 people will get to buy. But the debate is still fun: if there were a car called "blown tire" in your language -- even if it was named after a championship-winning something-or-other -- would you want it?
Thanks to everyone who brought this to our attention in the comments!
_opt_thumbnail.jpg)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
TheCleaner 10:11AM (9/12/2007)
so why was there controversy with the LF-A, the LF is L-finesse right... sooo...
Reply
AlexP 10:14AM (9/12/2007)
Lambo always blows it.
Reply
Zlimness 10:16AM (9/12/2007)
You're bound to run into some trouble somewhere around the world when naming a car. Any swede here that remember the Honda Fitta? "Fitta" is a common slang for "Vagina" in swedish. The newspapers had a field-day coming up with slogans for that car I tell you. It was renamed Honda Jazz after that.
Reply
Phoebe 10:20AM (9/12/2007)
Call me crazy, but maybe they should just use Italian names for their cars?
Reply
georgejetson 10:33AM (9/12/2007)
Lambos from the Miura onward have (mostly) been named after famous bulls, or with other names taken from bullfighting. (Countach is the famous exception). Bullfighting is a Spanish sport, which means Spanish names.
Phoebe 11:28AM (9/12/2007)
I realize this, georgejetson, but there's nothing wrong with a little change, especially after this faux pas. ;-)
Lucas 10:24AM (9/12/2007)
How could they not know this?
Reply
500 2:14PM (9/12/2007)
Maybe I'm wrong, but I really don't think Lamborghini or any other high-end carmaker needs to worry about Mexican slang. After all, how many Mexicans will be able to afford it?
500 2:15PM (9/12/2007)
Maybe I'm wrong, but I really don't think Lamborghini or any other high-end carmaker needs to worry about Mexican slang. After all, how many Mexicans will be able to afford it?
Lucas 2:17PM (9/12/2007)
The richest man in the world, a MEXICAN?
Ryan 3:18AM (9/13/2007)
hey good job lucas.... the one mexican that has allll the other mexican's money can buy this car. ooh ooh and i bet that money is insanely clean too!! did u realize that he doubled 30billion dollars in 6 months?!?!
im with 500, who freakin cares! if the car looks that freaking good the can name it fanny bandit and itll still be an amazing car! aaaand, its a different language, soooo how about we call it a reventon and not a blown tire(which isnt even a literal translation, so this argument barely works) since thats its name... and not blown tire
Lucas 4:00AM (9/13/2007)
I really don't care... abut rich Mexicans or this car. Just making a point.
Lucas.
PS, it's ugly and over priced.
PPS, There are no Mexicans in Mexico
Andrew 1:03AM (9/14/2007)
The richest man in the world was only born in Mexico both his parents were lebanese. Mexico has nothing to do with bullfighting or the spanish language other than they adopted it from Spain.
Reventon in spanish means explosion - it just happens to be slang for flat tire -
And finally Ferruccio Lamborghini had a spanish friend that told him stories of legendary bullfights - that is the reason for the bull (another reason was that Ferruccio was a taurus) and all of the lambo names connection to bullfighting - its part of lamborghini history
REVENTON is a fitting name to this lamborghini - it continues the connection with bullfighting and its an explosion of design and engineering.
riggs 10:25AM (9/12/2007)
or use latin since italian spanish and french are derived from it :\ also most of the names mentioned werent supposed to be from spanish.
Reply
Robert 10:28AM (9/12/2007)
At least Mazda is in safe waters, naming their cars with nothing but numbers. Wait a minute. This just in ... apparently "6" means "anus" somewhere in southern Uganda.
Reply
Ryan 3:20AM (9/13/2007)
haha i like u, u make me laugh. cant really go wrong with putting a number after ur name in order to name ur cars. high five my soon to be mazda3.
ANdy 12:37PM (9/13/2007)
naming your car with a number can be bad. 4 in chinese apparently sounds the same as the chinese word 'die' and 14 'sure die'. You're unlikely to see a Mazda4, at least in China.
Wally 10:31AM (9/12/2007)
I don't know about the other ones but the "Nova" legend is just that, an urban legend. Never happened - Sounds funny though.
http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp
Reply
anthro101 1:43PM (9/12/2007)
Thanks Wally, I came in here to point that out exactly, you have to love Snopes.
Like it says, "nova" and "no va" are two seperate things all together. Nova means exactly the same thing in Spanish as it does in English and as Snopes points out the emphasis on the vowel is different and therefore even sound different. ova isn't even an English word, it is a Latin word meaning new, Spanish being a language derived from Latin and therefore for someone who speaks Spanish the word "nova" is more easily understood and associated with it's correct meaning. No Spanish speaker would ever associate Nova which is one word, with the two word phrase "no va" is two, get it right people.
In fact my grandfather in Mexico owned a Nova for a long time, he owned a couple actually. It's just not associated that way.
Looks like someone other than Lamborghini didn't do their research either. I'm surprised that the whole "nova" "no va" thing keeps popping up, I've come across it in a few articles, granted they weren't in automotive magazines, so I'm even more surprised I saw it here at AutoBlog.
anthro101 1:45PM (9/12/2007)
Please excuse all my errors in that last post =)