{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1", "title": "Cars With Snake Names", "home_page_url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/", "feed_url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/feed.json", "description": "The Ophidiary is a complete, deeply serious and entirely unserious field guide to every automobile that carries a serpent in its marque or model — Cobra, Viper, Mangusta, Orochi, Wyvern, Biscione — with etymology, provenance and liturgy for each.", "language": "en-GB", "authors": [ { "name": "The Keeper of the Ophidiary", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/colophon/" } ], "items": [ { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/shelby-cobra/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/shelby-cobra/", "title": "Shelby Cobra", "summary": "The word that arrived before the car did", "content_text": "The word that arrived before the car did\n\nA Texan with a bad heart put an American engine into an English roadster and then, according to the only witness, dreamt its name at three in the morning and wrote it on the pad beside his bed.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/shelby-cobra.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "elapid", "american", "british", "v8", "roadster", "front-engine", "production", "foundational" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/shelby-cobra-super-snake/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/shelby-cobra-super-snake/", "title": "Shelby 427 Cobra Super Snake", "summary": "Two built. One of them ate its owner.", "content_text": "Two built. One of them ate its owner.\n\nShelby took the most frightening car he had ever sold, bolted two superchargers to it, and built exactly two. He kept one. The other one is the reason this entry has a warning at the bottom.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/shelby-cobra-super-snake.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "elapid", "american", "v8", "roadster", "supercharged", "ultra-rare" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/shelby-cobra-daytona-coupe/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/shelby-cobra-daytona-coupe/", "title": "Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe", "summary": "The snake that grew a shell to go faster in a straight line", "content_text": "The snake that grew a shell to go faster in a straight line\n\nSix were built to solve one problem: an open Cobra could out-accelerate a Ferrari and could not out-run one down the Mulsanne. Peter Brock put a roof on the serpent and America won a world championship.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/shelby-cobra-daytona-coupe.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "elapid", "american", "v8", "coupe", "racing", "ultra-rare", "aerodynamics" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ford-shelby-cobra-concept/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ford-shelby-cobra-concept/", "title": "Ford Shelby Cobra Concept", "summary": "A resurrection performed at a motor show, then quietly abandoned", "content_text": "A resurrection performed at a motor show, then quietly abandoned\n\nFord built a running aluminium Cobra with a 6.4-litre V10, showed it in Detroit in 2004 to an audience that made a noise like a congregation, and then never built another one.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/ford-shelby-cobra-concept.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "elapid", "american", "v10", "roadster", "concept" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/dodge-viper/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/dodge-viper/", "title": "Dodge Viper", "summary": "Ten cylinders, no apology, side pipes that burned the calf of every passenger", "content_text": "Ten cylinders, no apology, side pipes that burned the calf of every passenger\n\nIn 1989 Chrysler showed a red concept roadster with a V10 out of a truck. In 1992 it sold that car, essentially unaltered, to the public — without traction control, without exterior door handles, and without any real conviction that the public would survive it.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/dodge-viper.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "viperid", "american", "v10", "roadster", "coupe", "front-mid-engine", "production", "foundational" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/mitsuoka-orochi/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/mitsuoka-orochi/", "title": "Mitsuoka Orochi", "summary": "Named for an eight-headed serpent that had to be made drunk before it could be killed", "content_text": "Named for an eight-headed serpent that had to be made drunk before it could be killed\n\nA small Japanese coachbuilder named its supercar after the eight-headed, eight-tailed serpent of the Kojiki — a creature so large that moss and trees grew on its back — and then built it a face that the internet has never forgiven.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/mitsuoka-orochi.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "mythic", "japanese", "v6", "coupe", "mid-engine", "production", "rare" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/dodge-viper-gts-r/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/dodge-viper-gts-r/", "title": "Dodge Viper GTS-R", "summary": "The snake that went to France and made a noise nobody had permission for", "content_text": "The snake that went to France and made a noise nobody had permission for\n\nA blue-and-white American V10 with a hood the size of a dining table won its class at Le Mans three years running and then won the Rolex 24 at Daytona outright, which no one at Chrysler had entirely planned for.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/dodge-viper-gts-r.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "viperid", "american", "v10", "racing", "coupe" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ford-mustang-svt-cobra/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ford-mustang-svt-cobra/", "title": "Ford Mustang SVT Cobra", "summary": "A horse wearing a snake, which nobody has ever satisfactorily explained", "content_text": "A horse wearing a snake, which nobody has ever satisfactorily explained\n\nFor eleven years Ford sold a car whose bonnet said Mustang and whose flanks said Cobra, an act of zoological confusion so complete that it has become invisible through repetition.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/ford-mustang-svt-cobra.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "elapid", "american", "v8", "coupe", "supercharged", "production" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/vauxhall-wyvern/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/vauxhall-wyvern/", "title": "Vauxhall Wyvern", "summary": "A two-legged winged serpent, sold to families in postwar Luton", "content_text": "A two-legged winged serpent, sold to families in postwar Luton\n\nVauxhall's badge is a griffin. Vauxhall named a car after a wyvern. For nine years the company sold one mythical beast while wearing another, to a nation that was rationing sugar.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/vauxhall-wyvern.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "mythic", "british", "four-cylinder", "saloon", "production", "heraldic" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/shelby-gt500-super-snake/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/shelby-gt500-super-snake/", "title": "Shelby GT500 Super Snake", "summary": "One was built. Shelby wanted fifty. The price made it a species of one.", "content_text": "One was built. Shelby wanted fifty. The price made it a species of one.\n\nBuilt to destroy tyres for Goodyear in the Texas heat, the 1967 GT500 Super Snake was meant to be the first of fifty. It cost too much. Exactly one exists.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/shelby-gt500-super-snake.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "elapid", "american", "v8", "coupe", "ultra-rare" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ford-cobra-jet/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ford-cobra-jet/", "title": "Ford 428 Cobra Jet", "summary": "Not a car. An engine that became a promise.", "content_text": "Not a car. An engine that became a promise.\n\nThe Cobra Jet is the only entry in this book that has no bodywork of its own. It is a cylinder head philosophy that Ford has been re-issuing for nearly sixty years.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/ford-cobra-jet.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "elapid", "american", "v8", "engine", "drag-racing" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ford-mustang-cobra-r/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ford-mustang-cobra-r/", "title": "Ford Mustang Cobra R", "summary": "Sold without a radio, without air conditioning, and without a back seat, to people who had to prove they could use it", "content_text": "Sold without a radio, without air conditioning, and without a back seat, to people who had to prove they could use it\n\nThree times, Ford built a Mustang with the sound deadening removed, the rear seat deleted and the stereo left out of the parts list, and required buyers to hold a competition licence.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/ford-mustang-cobra-r.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "elapid", "american", "v8", "coupe", "homologation", "rare" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ram-srt-10/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ram-srt-10/", "title": "Dodge Ram SRT-10", "summary": "A snake that can tow", "content_text": "A snake that can tow\n\nSomeone at Dodge asked what would happen if you put the Viper V10 into a full-size pickup. Nobody in the room said no, and for three model years the fastest production truck in the world had a snake's heart and a bed you could put gravel in.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/ram-srt-10.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "viperid", "american", "v10", "truck", "production" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ford-falcon-xc-cobra/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ford-falcon-xc-cobra/", "title": "Ford Falcon XC Cobra", "summary": "A falcon and a cobra on the same car, in a country with more venomous snakes than any other", "content_text": "A falcon and a cobra on the same car, in a country with more venomous snakes than any other\n\nFour hundred were built to clear a stock of leftover hardtop bodies. Ford Australia painted them white with blue stripes, numbered them on the dashboard, and called them Cobras — in a country that has no cobras and does not need any.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/ford-falcon-xc-cobra.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "elapid", "australian", "v8", "coupe", "homologation", "rare" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/dodge-copperhead-concept/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/dodge-copperhead-concept/", "title": "Dodge Copperhead Concept", "summary": "The Viper's smaller, cheaper, more survivable cousin, killed in committee", "content_text": "The Viper's smaller, cheaper, more survivable cousin, killed in committee\n\nDodge showed a low orange roadster in 1997 with a modest V6, the idea being a Viper you could survive owning. It was beautiful. It was sensible. It was therefore never built.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/dodge-copperhead-concept.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "viperid", "american", "v6", "roadster", "concept" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ford-torino-cobra/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ford-torino-cobra/", "title": "Ford Torino Cobra", "summary": "A large flat car with a snake on it and no intention of turning", "content_text": "A large flat car with a snake on it and no intention of turning\n\nFord applied the Cobra name to its mid-size Torino, fitted the 428 Cobra Jet as standard, and sold the result to people who wanted the snake but also wanted a boot.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/ford-torino-cobra.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "elapid", "american", "v8", "coupe", "production", "muscle" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/dodge-sidewinder-concept/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/dodge-sidewinder-concept/", "title": "Dodge Sidewinder Concept", "summary": "A pickup with a Viper engine, named for a snake that moves diagonally on purpose", "content_text": "A pickup with a Viper engine, named for a snake that moves diagonally on purpose\n\nSeven years before the Ram SRT-10 made it real, Dodge built a concept pickup with the Viper V10 in it and gave it the name of the only snake that has solved the problem of walking on sand.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/dodge-sidewinder-concept.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "viperid", "american", "v10", "truck", "concept" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ford-mustang-cobra-ii/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ford-mustang-cobra-ii/", "title": "Ford Mustang Cobra II", "summary": "A snake made almost entirely of stickers", "content_text": "A snake made almost entirely of stickers\n\nIn the depths of the American malaise era, Ford sold a Mustang with racing stripes, a bonnet scoop that led nowhere, a rear spoiler, a cobra badge, and approximately 139 horsepower.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/ford-mustang-cobra-ii.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "elapid", "american", "v8", "coupe", "production", "mimicry" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ford-fairlane-cobra/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ford-fairlane-cobra/", "title": "Ford Fairlane 500 Cobra", "summary": "The cheapest way to buy a snake in 1969", "content_text": "The cheapest way to buy a snake in 1969\n\nFord took its plainest mid-size body, installed the 428 Cobra Jet, deleted almost every comfort, and undercut everyone. Rubber floor mats. Bench seat. Enormous engine.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/ford-fairlane-cobra.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "elapid", "american", "v8", "production", "muscle" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/hennessey-venom-gt/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/hennessey-venom-gt/", "title": "Hennessey Venom GT", "summary": "A Texan twin-turbo V8 wearing a Lotus like a stolen skin", "content_text": "A Texan twin-turbo V8 wearing a Lotus like a stolen skin\n\nTake a Lotus Exige, lengthen it, remove its engine, insert seven litres of twin-turbocharged American V8, and give the result a name that refers not to a snake but to what a snake leaves behind in you.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/hennessey-venom-gt.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "venom", "american", "v8", "coupe", "mid-engine", "turbocharged", "ultra-rare" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/hennessey-venom-f5/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/hennessey-venom-f5/", "title": "Hennessey Venom F5", "summary": "Named twice for things that cannot be survived", "content_text": "Named twice for things that cannot be survived\n\nThe F5 refers to the top of the old Fujita tornado scale — winds above 261 miles per hour, damage described in the literature as \"incredible\". The engine is called Fury. Nothing about this car is understated and nothing about it is meant to be.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/hennessey-venom-f5.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "venom", "american", "v8", "coupe", "mid-engine", "turbocharged", "ultra-rare" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/alfa-romeo-biscione/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/alfa-romeo-biscione/", "title": "Alfa Romeo — the Biscione", "summary": "A serpent with a human being in its mouth, on the nose of every car the company has ever built", "content_text": "A serpent with a human being in its mouth, on the nose of every car the company has ever built\n\nSince 1910 every Alfa Romeo has carried, on its grille, a crowned serpent from which a human figure is emerging. Whether the figure is being eaten or being born has never been settled, and the company has been careful not to settle it.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/alfa-romeo-biscione.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "heraldic", "italian", "marque", "badge", "foundational" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/tvr-chimaera/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/tvr-chimaera/", "title": "TVR Chimaera", "summary": "Lion at the front, goat in the middle, serpent at the back — which is the end you have to watch", "content_text": "Lion at the front, goat in the middle, serpent at the back — which is the end you have to watch\n\nHomer describes the Chimera as lion in front, goat in the middle and serpent behind. TVR built a Rover V8 roadster with no traction control, no anti-lock brakes and no roll cage, and named it after the one mythological animal whose danger comes from the tail.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/tvr-chimaera.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "mythic", "british", "v8", "roadster", "production", "heraldic" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ssangyong-twin-dragons/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ssangyong-twin-dragons/", "title": "SsangYong — Twin Dragons", "summary": "The company was literally called two dragons and nobody in Europe ever noticed", "content_text": "The company was literally called two dragons and nobody in Europe ever noticed\n\n쌍용 means \"twin dragons\". For thirty-five years a company named after a pair of mythological serpents sold diesel estate cars in Britain, and the British called it \"Sanyong\" and thought about something else.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/ssangyong-twin-dragons.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "heraldic", "korean", "marque", "mythic", "badge" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/dacia-draco/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/dacia-draco/", "title": "Dacia — the Draco", "summary": "Named after a kingdom whose battle standard was a serpent that screamed in the wind", "content_text": "Named after a kingdom whose battle standard was a serpent that screamed in the wind\n\nThe Dacians carried into battle a wolf-headed windsock with a long fabric serpent's body that howled as the cavalry advanced. Two thousand years later Romania named a car company after them, and it sells the cheapest estate car in Europe.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/dacia-draco.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "heraldic", "romanian", "marque", "historical", "mythic" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/gilbern-welsh-dragon/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/gilbern-welsh-dragon/", "title": "Gilbern — the Welsh Dragon", "summary": "The only cars ever series-produced in Wales, from a country whose flag is a dragon", "content_text": "The only cars ever series-produced in Wales, from a country whose flag is a dragon\n\nWales has produced exactly one series car manufacturer. Wales also has, uniquely among nations, a dragon on its flag. Gilbern built glass-fibre coupés in Llantwit Fardre for fourteen years and then stopped, and the dragon went back to being purely decorative.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/gilbern-welsh-dragon.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "heraldic", "welsh", "british", "marque", "mythic", "rare" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/de-tomaso-mangusta/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/de-tomaso-mangusta/", "title": "De Tomaso Mangusta", "summary": "The mongoose. Named, allegedly, as an insult, and shaped like an apology for it.", "content_text": "The mongoose. Named, allegedly, as an insult, and shaped like an apology for it.\n\nMangusta is Italian for mongoose: the small, fast, faintly rabid carnivore famous for one thing, which is killing cobras. Alejandro de Tomaso built four hundred and one of them, and the reason for the name is the best story in this book.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/de-tomaso-mangusta.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "adversary", "italian", "v8", "coupe", "mid-engine", "production", "foundational", "rare" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/snake-and-mongoose/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/snake-and-mongoose/", "title": "The Snake and the Mongoose", "summary": "Two drag racers invented a rivalry, sold it to a toy company, and changed how sport is funded", "content_text": "Two drag racers invented a rivalry, sold it to a toy company, and changed how sport is funded\n\nDon Prudhomme was called the Snake. Tom McEwen called himself the Mongoose specifically so there would be someone for the Snake to fight. Then McEwen took the idea to Mattel, and drag racing was never underfunded again.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/snake-and-mongoose.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "adversary", "american", "drag-racing", "racing", "cultural" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/plymouth-road-runner/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/plymouth-road-runner/", "title": "Plymouth Road Runner", "summary": "Named after a cartoon, which was named after a bird, which genuinely does kill rattlesnakes", "content_text": "Named after a cartoon, which was named after a bird, which genuinely does kill rattlesnakes\n\nChrysler paid Warner Bros. fifty thousand dollars for the name and ten thousand more for a horn that said beep beep. The actual bird runs down rattlesnakes, beats them against rocks, and eats them.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/plymouth-road-runner.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "adversary", "american", "v8", "coupe", "production", "muscle" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/apollo-intensa-emozione/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/apollo-intensa-emozione/", "title": "Apollo Intensa Emozione", "summary": "Named for the god who killed the Python and then took its oracle for himself", "content_text": "Named for the god who killed the Python and then took its oracle for himself\n\nApollo's first recorded act on reaching Delphi was to kill the serpent that lived there. He then established his oracle on the spot and named its priestess after the animal he had just destroyed.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/apollo-intensa-emozione.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "adversary", "german", "italian", "v12", "coupe", "mythic", "ultra-rare" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/aspark-owl/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/aspark-owl/", "title": "Aspark Owl", "summary": "Silent, nocturnal, and arrives without a sound — which is precisely the problem for a snake", "content_text": "Silent, nocturnal, and arrives without a sound — which is precisely the problem for a snake\n\nAn electric hypercar from Osaka with four motors, roughly two thousand horsepower, and a name belonging to the one predator a snake genuinely cannot hear coming.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/aspark-owl.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "adversary", "japanese", "electric", "coupe", "ultra-rare" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ssc-tuatara/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/ssc-tuatara/", "title": "SSC Tuatara", "summary": "The last survivor of a lineage that split from the snakes a quarter of a billion years ago", "content_text": "The last survivor of a lineage that split from the snakes a quarter of a billion years ago\n\nThe tuatara is not a lizard. It is the only surviving member of Rhynchocephalia, an entire order that split from the squamates — the lizards and snakes — around 250 million years ago. Everything else in its family is a fossil.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/ssc-tuatara.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "apocrypha", "american", "v8", "coupe", "turbocharged", "honorary", "ultra-rare" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/chevrolet-corvette-stingray/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/chevrolet-corvette-stingray/", "title": "Chevrolet Corvette Stingray", "summary": "A cartilaginous fish with a venomous barb. Venomous — but not a snake, and not even close.", "content_text": "A cartilaginous fish with a venomous barb. Venomous — but not a snake, and not even close.\n\nThe most commonly misfiled car in this entire subject. It is venomous, which fools people. It is a fish, which settles it.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/chevrolet-corvette-stingray.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "apocrypha", "american", "v8", "coupe", "production" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/wiesmann-gecko/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/wiesmann-gecko/", "title": "Wiesmann — the Gecko", "summary": "The closest miss in the entire book. A genuine cousin, refused at the door on a technicality.", "content_text": "The closest miss in the entire book. A genuine cousin, refused at the door on a technicality.\n\nWiesmann puts a gecko on every car it builds, because a gecko sticks to things. Geckos are squamates. Snakes are squamates. This is the nearest thing to family that Book VI contains, and it still does not qualify.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/wiesmann-gecko.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "apocrypha", "german", "roadster", "badge", "squamate" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/de-tomaso-pantera/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/de-tomaso-pantera/", "title": "De Tomaso Pantera", "summary": "The mongoose gave up and became a cat", "content_text": "The mongoose gave up and became a cat\n\nHaving named one car after the cobra's natural predator, Alejandro de Tomaso named the next one after a big cat and sold it through Lincoln-Mercury dealerships in America for twenty-two years.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/de-tomaso-pantera.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "apocrypha", "italian", "v8", "coupe", "mid-engine", "production" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/gardner-serpollet/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/gardner-serpollet/", "title": "Gardner-Serpollet", "summary": "The most snake-sounding name in automotive history means wild thyme", "content_text": "The most snake-sounding name in automotive history means wild thyme\n\nLéon Serpollet built the finest steam cars in the world and set a land speed record at Nice in 1902 in a machine shaped like an egg. His name contains a serpent to every English ear and to no French one.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/gardner-serpollet.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "apocrypha", "french", "steam", "historical", "etymology" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/plymouth-barracuda/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/plymouth-barracuda/", "title": "Plymouth Barracuda", "summary": "Beat the Mustang to market by two weeks and has been losing the argument ever since", "content_text": "Beat the Mustang to market by two weeks and has been losing the argument ever since\n\nLaunched in April 1964, sixteen days before the Ford Mustang, and comprehensively out-sold by it for a decade. A fast, toothy, ambush-oriented fish — which is at least behaviourally correct.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/plymouth-barracuda.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "apocrypha", "american", "v8", "coupe", "production", "muscle" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/abarth-scorpion/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/abarth-scorpion/", "title": "Abarth — the Scorpion", "summary": "Venomous, arachnid, and chosen because of a birthday", "content_text": "Venomous, arachnid, and chosen because of a birthday\n\nCarlo Abarth was born in mid-November and was therefore, by the reckoning of newspaper astrology, a Scorpio. He put the animal on the badge and it has been there ever since.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/abarth-scorpion.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "apocrypha", "italian", "marque", "badge" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/hudson-hornet/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/hudson-hornet/", "title": "Hudson Hornet", "summary": "Venomous, arthropod, and the best-handling American car of its decade", "content_text": "Venomous, arthropod, and the best-handling American car of its decade\n\nHudson dropped its floor pan below the frame rails, called the result step-down construction, produced the lowest centre of gravity in America, and dominated stock car racing with a straight-six. Then named it after a wasp.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/hudson-hornet.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "apocrypha", "american", "straight-six", "saloon", "production", "racing" ] }, { "id": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/bolwell-nagari/", "url": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/entry/bolwell-nagari/", "title": "Bolwell Nagari", "summary": "It sounds exactly like the Sanskrit for serpent. It is not the Sanskrit for serpent.", "content_text": "It sounds exactly like the Sanskrit for serpent. It is not the Sanskrit for serpent.\n\nBolwell, an Australian glass-fibre specialist, named its Ford V8 sports car Nagari. Every reader of Indian mythology stops dead at that word. The resemblance to nāga is entirely accidental.", "image": "https://carswithsnakenames.engroveaudio.com/og/bolwell-nagari.png", "date_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2026-07-30T00:00:00Z", "tags": [ "apocrypha", "australian", "v8", "coupe", "etymology", "rare" ] } ] }