Spider

Spider (pronounced spahy-der)

(1) Any predatory silk-producing arachnid of the order Araneae, having four pairs of legs and a rounded un-segmented body consisting of abdomen and cephalothorax, most of which spin webs that serve as nests and as traps for prey.

(2) In non technical use, any of various other arachnids resembling or suggesting these.

(3) A cast-iron frying pan with three legs or feet once common in open-hearth cookery (now rare and applied more loosely; still used by chefs).

(4) A trivet or tripod, as for supporting a pot or pan on a hearth.

(5) In digital technology. digitally to survey websites, following and cataloging their links in order to index web pages for a search engine.

(6) In engineering, a skeleton or frame with radiating arms or members, often connected by crosspieces, such as a casting forming the hub and spokes to which the rim of a fly wheel or large gear is bolted; the body of a piston head; a frame for strengthening a core or mould for a casting.

(7) In agriculture, an instrument used with a cultivator to pulverize soil.

(8) Any implement, tool or other device which is some (even if vague) was resembles or is suggestive of a spider (sometimes as spider-like or spideresque).

(9) In nautical use, a metal frame fitted at the base of a mast to which halyards are tied when not in use.

(10) A drink made by mixing ice-cream and a soda (a fizzy drink such as lemonade) (mostly Australia & New Zealand).

(11) An alcoholic drink made with brandy and lemonade or ginger beer (mostly Australia & New Zealand and probably extinct although it still appears in some anthologies of cocktails).

(12) In slang, a person spindly in appearance (dated); also a popular nickname for those with the surname Webb.

(13) In slang, a man who persistently approaches or accosts a woman in a public social setting, particularly in a bar (also as bar spider).

(14) In snooker & billiards, a stick with a convex arch-shaped notched head used to support the cue when the cue ball is out of reach at normal extension; a bridge.

(15) In bicycle design, the part of a crank to which the chain-rings are attached.

(16) In drug slang, one of the many terms for heroin (an allusion to the web-like patterns on the arms of addicts into which the needle is poked).

(17) In music, part of a resonator instrument that transmits string vibrations from the bridge to a resonator cone at multiple points.

(18) In fly fishing, a soft-hackle fly (mostly southern England).

(19) In the sport of darts, the network of wires separating the areas of a dartboard.

(20) In mathematics, a type of graph or tree.

(21) In passenger transport, a early type of light phaeton (obsolete) and latterly a descriptor for a roadster (also as spyder).

(22) In photography and film-making, a support for a camera tripod, preventing it from sliding.

1380s: From the Middle English spydyr, spydyr & spither (the forms from mid-century were spiþre, spiþur & spiþer), from the Old English spīþra & spīthra (spider), from the Proto-West Germanic spinþrijō, from the Proto-Germanic spinnaną & spin-thon (“to spin”).  The Old English forms were akin to spinnan (to spin) and cognate with the Danish spinder (literally “spinner”) and the German Spinne and (mostly) displaced attercop (spider, unpleasant person) which was relegated to a dialectal term.  The root of the European form was the primitive Indo-European spen & pen (to draw, stretch, spin) + the formative or agential -thro.  The connection with the root is more transparent in other Germanic cognates such as the Middle Low German, Middle Dutch, Middle High German & German spinne and the Dutch spin (spider).  The loss of -n- before spirants is familiar in Old English (such as goose or tooth).  Spider is a noun, spidery and spideresque are adjectives, spidering is a verb and spidered is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is spiders.

Lindsay Lohan with Spiderman and spideresque offspring, Harper’s Bazaar photo shoot, Los Angeles, 2007.

Despite the ancient lineage, in the Old & Middle English there were more common words used when speaking of arachnids including lobbe (or loppe as Geoffrey Chaucer (circa 1344-1400) would have it), atorcoppe (the Middle English attercop translates literally as “poison-head”), and (from the Latin aranea), renge.  Middle English also had araine (spider) which was picked up, via the Old French from the Latin word with the same spelling and, more poetically, in the Old English there was gangewifre (a weaver as he goes).  In literature, the spider was often a figure of cunning, skill, and industry as well as venomous predation.  In the seventeenth century, the spider figuratively represented venomousness and thread-spinning but also sensitivity to vibrations and the habit of solitary lurking, waiting for prey to fall into the web; quintessentially, the spider was an independent character.  The two-pack game of solitaire (patience) called spider dates from 1890 (still available in software), the choice of name thought owed to the resemblance of the layout of the decks in the original form of the game.  In zoology, the spider crab was first identified in 1710 (an applied to various species) while the spider monkey, so called for its long limbs, dates from is from 1764.  The noun spider-web in the 1640s replaced the more cumbersome spider's web from a century-odd earlier and the adjective spidery (long and thin) was first noted in 1823.

The Exorcist’s “spider walk” scene.

Based on the William Peter Blatty (1928-2017) novel The Exorcist (1971), the film version (1973) was directed by William Friedkin (1935-2023) and that it did not win the Best Picture Academy Award is a mystery explained only by the prejudices held at the time by those members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who cast ballots for The Sting (1973) a well-made but formulaic piece and hardly the a landmark like The Exorcist.  The “spider walk” scene was long the subject of speculation.  Not included in the original theatrical release, the director for years claimed it had never been shot and it was only when copies of the takes were found in the archives he admitted it had been done but that it couldn’t be used because the technology didn’t at the time exist to edit out the wires attached to a rail above which made the performance possible.  Subsequently it was revealed the scene had been shot without use of the harness designed for the purpose because it was performed by an experienced stunt double with gymnastic training.  Apparently the director didn’t include it because he thought it appeared too early and disrupted the sequence which is interesting because structurally, The Exorcist is far from perfect.  The spider walk scene was included in the “director’s cut” editions released the next century.

Little Miss Muffet in Hell.

The 1550s noun tuffet (little tuft) was from the Old French touffel (the diminutive suffix -et replacing the French -el) which was a diminutive of touffe.  In English the word is obsolete except for the use in the nursery rhyme Little Miss Muffet which seems to have first appeared in print in 1805 although it (and variations) may have been circulating much earlier.

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey;
There came a big spider,
Who sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

Etymologists believe Little Miss Muffet’s tuffet was a grassy hillock or a small knoll in the ground (a variant spelling of an obsolete meaning of tuft).  The latter-day use to refer to a hassock or footstool is an example of how (usually obscure) words can acquire meanings if erroneous definitions are often repeated and come to serve some purpose.  Tuffet for example became a favorite of antique dealers who are apt to call both footstools and low seats “tuffets”, a handy practice perhaps when provenance is doubtful.

Spider Phaeton, circa 1875, US.

There are cars called spider and spyder although, unlike many other natural or engineered creations which in some way resemble arachnids, these cars are almost always small roadsters which in appearance don’t look anything like their eight-legged namesakes.  The origin of the name lies in the horse & buggy era when a spider phaeton was a lightweight horse-drawn carriage intended for short-distance journeys and the design was intended to impress so there was often little protection from the elements beyond perhaps something to shade ladies from the sun.  Unlike some true “convertible” or “cabriolet” carriages, there were no side windows and the spider name was gained from the “spider”, a small single seat or bench for the use of a groom or footman, the name based on the spindly supports which called to mind an arachnid’s legs.  Quite where this style of coachwork was first seen isn’t known but they were certainly in use on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1860s and it’s not impossible the invention was both simultaneous and independent although there are sources which insist it was first seen in the ante-bellum US.  Historians of early transportation note also the similarity of the small seat with the "jump seat" and the later "rumble" or dicky (also as dickie or dickey) seats.

1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Spider Monza.

As engines (steam, electric and predominately internal combustion) made possible horseless carriages, in the earliest days the body-styles were carried over as were the designations which is why berlinas, cabriolets and phaetons appeared in the catalogues of the early automotive coach-builders.  However, the spider nomenclature seems to have for decades been forgotten, because although the ancillary seats still existed, the terms “dicky”, “rumble” and “jump” came to be preferred, each with its own etymological tale.  The revival of the name had to await the interwar years, Alfa Romeo in 1931 introducing the 8C, powered by 2.3, 2.6 & 2.9 litre stright-8s, the line continuing until 1939.  Many were touring cars but the Spider version was a sports car built for road and track, and 8C 2300 Spiders won the 1931 & 1932 Targa Florio road-race in Sicily and it was victory in the 1931 Italian Grand Prix which the factory honored with the "Monza", the GP car a shortened, lightweight version of the Spider.

1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder, one of the few times the factory preferred Spyder to Spider.  To date, Ferrari's only Spyders have bee the 250 GT California (1957–1963), the 365 California (1966) and the 365 GTS/4 (Daytona, 1971–1973).  Other than those, its been Spiders or Cabriolets all the way.

Encouraged by the image Alfa-Romeo gained from the illustrious 8C Spiders, a few other cars emerged from Europe in the 1930s but it was in the post-war years the name became really fashionable, the economic boom and the availability of chassis suitable to carry the imagination of carrozzerias meant there was a concurrence of supply and demand for stylish roadsters, many of which carried the magic of the spider name.  Seemingly more glamorous still must have been “Spyder” because it was in the 1950s that roadsters called Spyder began to appear.  Quite why the “y” sometimes was preferred to the “i” has over the years attracted comment and speculation but the reason for the adoption remain obscure.  The idea it was to avoid legal action from Alfa-Romeo was soon discounted because, spider being a historic generic from coach-building (like sedan, limousine, cabriolet etc), it couldn’t be trade-marked or otherwise protected and Alfa-Romeo seems anyway never to have tried.  There was however a quasi-legal status granted to the spelling “spider” because in 1924, the (the apparently now forgotten) Milan-based National Federation of Body makers declared that was how it should be written, the speculation being that Il Duce (Benito Mussolini, 1883-1945; Duce (Leader) & Prime-Minister of Italy 1922-1943) wanted to make everything as Italian as possible and, there being no "y" in the alphabet, spider it was.  Of whether such matters much occupied the fascist mind, there seems no documentation and it does seem dubious; X, Y, W, J not appearing in the Italian alphabet either although many words in the languages include them.

1964 Chevrolet Corvair Monza Spyder Coupe.  Although it looks frumpy compared with the most accomplished re-styling of 1965, the original Corvair (1990-1965) was a modernist take on the US design language of the late 1950s and was restrained compared with some of what came off the drawing boards in the era.

In 1962 Chevrolet chose “Spyder” as the name for the high-performance version of the rear-engined Corvair, introduced in 1960 as a compact car with an emphasis on economy of operation with no pretentions of sportiness (although drivers would soon discover the sometimes quirky handling characteristics could make the things feel rather like certain racing cars).  Adopting the name for the turbocharged Spyder made sense because GM (General Motors) had from the state positioned the Corvair as a more “European” type of car although the irony was it made its debut at a time when across the Atlantic many manufacturers were for their next generation of mass-market machines pondering a switch from RE-RWD (rear engine-rear wheel drive) to FE-FWD (front engine, front wheel drive).  In the way Detroit was rather loose in the handling of nomenclature, the “Spider” package was available for the Monza versions both as a coupe and convertible; notably, it made the Corvair only the second passenger vehicle in series production to have been fitted with a turbo-charger, Oldsmobile F-85 Turbo Jetfire having been released a few months earlier.  The Oldsmobile venture was brief because the early implementation of the technology demanded rather more of drivers than US buyers had become accustomed to giving and anyway, despite the specification (turbocharged, all aluminium, 215 cubic inch (3.5 litre) V8) sounding tempting, on the road it was less than exciting and GM soon abandoned the engine (whether with forced aspiration or not).  The corporation came to regret that decision because the light, compact V8 would have proved a useful augmentation to their ranges in the troubled decades to follow.  As it was, in 1965 it sold the rights and tooling to Rover and the V8 would until 2006 provide stellar service to the UK industry.  Chevrolet in 1965 retired the “Spyder” name from the Corvair and replaced it with “Corsa”.

1965 Chevrolet Corvair Corsa Coupe (left) and 1967 Chevrolet Corvair 500 Sport Sedan (right).  The almost Italianesque lines of the second generation Corvair (1965-1967) were as fine as anything from Detroit in the 1960s but the damage to the car's reputation was done.  The four-door version was notable for being the only compact four-door hardtop the industry produced and uniquely, there was no companion model with a B-pillar. 

As an evocative name for a car, the Latin corsa (from the Ancient Greek κόρση (kórsē) (variously (1) in building, the uprights on the gate of a temple, (2) in anatomy the sides of the forehead (ie the temples) or (3) the hair on the temples)) wasn't encouraging as a noun because it meant “the outer strip in the molding about a door (a girder)”.  However, the Latin adjective corsa could (in the feminine) be used to mean “a Corsican” or “of or relating to Corsica” and that obviously was very European.  To emphasise that, “Corsa” exists in a number of Romance languages including Asturian, Catalan, French, Galician, Italian, Latin, Portuguese & Spanish.  There is nothing to suggest there was in the mid-1960s and market resistance to the name “Spyder”, the switch to “Corsa” made just to create the aura of “newness” at the time so important.  In 1965 that was a quality especially important for the second generation Corvair, the reputation of which (rightly) had suffered after the publication of Ralph Nader’s (b 1934) Unsafe at Any Speed (1965) which was a devastating critique on the safety standards of US-made automobiles, the dubiously implemented swing-axles on the very early Corvairs the emblematic case study.  Ironically, as well as being one of the loveliest designs of the era, the revised Corvair greatly was improved but by them the damage was terminal and the project doomed, the model lingering until 1969 only because GM didn’t wish it thought Nader had claimed a scalp.   

Beyond the Corvair, the exotic "spyder with a y" wasn't unknown in US commerce, the MWC (Motor Wheel Corporation (1920-1996)) of Lansing Michigan using the spelling for one of their "jellybean style" wheels, produced in the early 1970s using the then popular technique of combining a styled aluminun center with a chromed steel rim.  MWC's wheels were highly regarded for quality and the Spyder was produced for use with disc or drum brakes.  Note little Miss Muffet's strategically positioned tip of the tongue, right.

MWC may not have wanted customers to associate its products with the then recently cancelled Corvair but may have been encouraged by FoMoCo (Ford Motor Company) which as early as 1958 had borrowed the French spelling Galaxie for the top-trim option for its then full-sized Fairlane, the company in 1966 adding the 7 Litre option to the range.  Even then liters were not unknown in US English (especially among scientists and engineers) but they tended not to use the French spelling (although Pontiac used it to emphasize the distinctly "European" flavor of its short-lived (1966-1969) OHC (overhead camshaft) straight-six).  FoMoCo's marketing staff wouldn’t have deluded themselves by imagining use of “litre” would suggest to buyers there was anything remotely “French” about the Galaxie's biggest engine option (by 1966, French cars certainly weren’t built with 7 litre V8 engines) but it avoided a linguistic clash with Galaxie and anyway such things were then anyway part of the zeitgeist of commerce.  Then as now, New York City was no more representative of life in the US than were things south of the Mason-Dixon Line but cars were named for the whole country and just as wild creatures (cougar, mustang, barracuda etc) suited some segments, “Galaxie” in 1958 had been chosen because, post-Sputnik, it was the dawn of the “space age” with rockets and satellites suddenly part of the cultural milieu.  So it was a deliberate exercise in branding and not a linguistic accident, just as litre appealed because more than any other European nation, France was thought redolent with connotations of modernity and sophistication, making "Galaxie 7 Litre" a happy combination.

1971 Ford LTD Convertible with MWC's Spyder wheels.  The proliferation of smaller ranges (the pony cars and intermediates) meant the demise of the "sporty" versions of the full-size lines; among the Fords, the last big block V8 / 4-speed manual transmission combo was built in 1969 and the last LTD convertible would appear in 1972. 

A 1971 LTD is an improbable resting place for a set of MWC Spyders which presumably enjoyed an earlier life on another vehicle or perhaps several, certainly they were never a FoMoCo factory option.  The LTD began in 1965 as just another option for the Galaxie; it was a "luxury package" (ie letting the Galaxie fulfil the role for which in 1939 Mercury had been created).  Although in the 1930s & 1940s there had been various "Deluxe" & "Super Deluxe" Fords, it was when the Edsel venture played out over two and a bit seasons (1958-1960) that the real intra-corporate cannibalization began with Ford in the 1960s increasingly trespassing on what in marketing theory should have been Mercury's fenced-off turf.  Even when Mercury stumbled on its one bona fide hit (the 1967 Cougar), it wasn't long before there was a Ford emulating it and, to add insult to injury, at a lower cost.  Mercury did well to last until 2011 when FoMoCo grasped the excuse of the GFC (global financial crisis, 2008-2012) to shutter the brand.

The alpha-numeric juxtaposition also simplified the administration of the badgework because in 1966 & 1967, FoMoCo actually offered two very different versions of their 7 litre FE V8, the 427 (a famously powerful & robust beast with a stellar reputation on the circuits which was expensive, noisy, prone to being cantankerous and an oil burner) or the 428 (mild-mannered, smooth, quiet, cheap to build and offering prodigious low-speed torque), the choice at the dealership just a tick on the box for those with the cash of credit rating to afford the 427.  The market spoke, the sales breakdown between the 427/428 in 1966/1967 being 11035/38 and 1056/12.  So the 427 was retired from the full-sized line for 1968, a run 350-odd of a curious version with hydraulic valve lifters (intended originally for the Mustang) used in the Mercury Cougar, coupled exclusively to an automatic gearbox; for the 1968 Cougars, Ford decided there were just 427s & 428s and didn't bother with litres or liters.  Strangely, by then, the corporation would have had an excuse to stick with the French because in 1968 FoMoCo had three different 7 litre V8s in the showrooms, the 427 & 428 from the FE family and the 429 from the 385 series.  Fortunately, another 7 litre (the 430 from the MEL family) had been retired in 1966 after being enlarged to 462 cubic inches (7.5 litres).            

1955 Lancia Aurelia B24S Spider.

In Italy, the naming trend really took off in 1954 when Lancia introduced the B24 Aurelia Spider and soon Ferrari and other from Italy would follow although spyders would appear too, (including some from Ferrari & Lancia), and General Motors (GM), noted scavengers of European nomenclature (GTO, Grand Prix etc) shamelessly tacked Spyder onto the doomed Corvair, even for versions with a fixed roof.  North of the Brenner Pass, spyder has found favour, used by Porsche, Audi and BMW while in the Far-East, companies like Toyota and Mitsubishi, arch-imitators in style and perfectionists in execution have rolled out their own spyders.  Alfa-Romeo and Fiat however have stuck to spider, Lancia and Ferrari too seeming to have forsaken their youthful indiscretions and only using the original.

1967 Alfa Romeo 1600 Spider Duetto.

Although in continuous production between 1966-1993, it was only during the first three years the bodywork featured the memorable Osso di Seppia (Round-tail, literally "cuttle fish") coachwork.  After 1970, the Spider gained a Kamm-tail which increased luggage capacity and apparently also conferred some aerodynamic advantage but purists have always coveted the cigar-shaped original, despite it violating a few rules in the design handbook.  The Duetto name was the winning entry in a competition Alfa Romeo in 1965 conducted and in those days that meant running advertisements in newspapers (which people actually paid for and read) to which readers responded by cutting out and filling in the coupon, writing in their suggestion, putting it in an envelope on which they wrote the address, buying and affixing a stamp and putting envelope in mailbox.  Then, entering a competition took effort and commitment.  The company's directors liked "Duetto" because it summed up the romantic essence of a machine definitely built for a couple but unfortunately, for some legal reason relating to an existing trademark, it couldn't officially be used but for decades, among the cognoscenti,  the little roadsters have always been called Duettos.  To keep the tiresome lawyers at bay, when released at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1966, the car was released as the Spider 1600.

1980 (left) and 1978 (right) Lancia Beta Zagato Spiders.

Whatever its dynamic qualities, the Lancia Beta (1972–1984) tends to be remembered only for its extraordinary predilection for rusting, vying with the early Alfa Romeo Alfasuds (1971-1989) for the title of “most susceptible”.  The coupé (1973-1984) and shooting brake (1975-1984 and named HPE (High-performance Estate)) appear less affected by body-rot but the tainted reputation has meant these models have never attained the desirability of earlier Lancias like the exquisite Fulvia (1963-1976).  Tellingly, although convertibles tend in the collector market to attract a premium, not even the Beta Zagato Spider enjoys much of a following despite almost 10,000 having been produced in an era when new convertibles were becoming a rarity.  The Zagato Spider was more of a targa than a true convertible but was a clever design with both a removable targa-top atop the front seats and a folding rear-section, al la the early Porsche “soft window” Targas of the late 1960s.  The coach-building and design house Zagato has operated in Italy since 1919 and although there have been some nice creations, the operation has often been associated with the angular and the quirky, some designs simply weird.  Despite that, more than a century on, Zagato remains while others responsible for many sensuous shapes have come and gone. 

Robert the Bruce, colored engraving by an unknown artist (1797).

Robert I (Robert the Bruce, 1274–1329; King of Scots 1306-1329) was crowned King of Scots in 1306 and led Scotland to victory in the First War of Scottish Independence against the English.  Earlier though, he’d had his defeats and his spirits were said to be at a low ebb when after one disastrous battle, he was forced to take refuge in a cave.  Sitting in the cold, dark space, he noticed a small spider attempting to weave a web and time and time again, the little creature failed.  However, each time the spider fell, it climbed back up to try again until finally, the silk took hold and the web was spun.  From this, Robert was inspired to return to the fight and was victorious in the Battle of Bannockburn (1314), a triumph which turned the tide of the war and ultimately, in 1328. the independence of Scotland was won.

Bruce and the spider, by Bernard Barton (1784-1849)

FOR Scotland's and for freedom's right
The Bruce his part has played;--
In five successive fields of fight
Been conquered and dismayed:
Once more against the English host
His band he led, and once more lost
The meed for which he fought;
And now from battle, faint and worn,
The homeless fugitive, forlorn,
A hut's lone shelter sought.
 
And cheerless was that resting-place
For him who claimed a throne;--
His canopy, devoid of grace,
The rude, rough beams alone;
The heather couch his only bed--
Yet well I ween had slumber fled
From couch of eider down!
Through darksome night till dawn of day,
Absorbed in wakeful thought he lay
Of Scotland and her crown.
 
The sun rose brightly, and its gleam
Fell on that hapless bed,
And tinged with light each shapeless beam
Which roofed the lowly shed;
When, looking up with wistful eye,
The Bruce beheld a spider try
His filmy thread to fling
From beam to beam of that rude cot--
And well the insect's toilsome lot
Taught Scotland's future king.
 
Six times the gossamery thread
The wary spider threw;--
In vain the filmy line was sped,
For powerless or untrue
Each aim appeared, and back recoiled
The patient insect, six times foiled,
And yet unconquered still;
And soon the Bruce, with eager eye,
Saw him prepare once more to try
His courage, strength, and skill.
One effort more, his seventh and last!--
The hero hailed the sign!--
And on the wished-for beam hung fast
That slender silken line!
Slight as it was, his spirit caught
The more than omen; for his thought
The lesson well could trace,
Which even "he who runs may read,"
That Perseverance gains its meed,
And Patience wins the race.

Solecism

Solecism (pronounced sol-uh-siz-uhm or soh-luh-siz-uhm)

(1) In language, a non-standard or ungrammatical usage.

(2) A breach of good manners or etiquette.

(3) Any error, impropriety, absurdity or inconsistency.

1570-1580: From the Latin soloecismus, from the Greek soloikismos, from soloikos (speaking incorrectly), the construct being Sólo(i) + -ic (from the Middle English -ik, from the Old French -ique, from the Latin -icus, from the primitive Indo-European -kos, formed with the i-stem suffix -i- and the adjectival suffix –kos.  The Ancient Greek form was -ικός (-ikós), the Sanskrit श (śa), क (ka) and the Old Church Slavonic -ъкъ (-ŭkŭ); doublet of –y; on noun stems, it carried the meaning “characteristic of, like, typical, pertaining to” and on adjectival stems, it acted emphatically) + -ism (ultimately from either the Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós), a suffix that forms abstract nouns of action, state, condition, doctrine; from stem of verbs in -ίζειν (-ízein) (from which English gained -ize), or from the related suffix Ancient Greek -ισμα (-isma), which more specifically expressed a finished act or thing done).  Solecism & solecist are nouns, solecistic & solecistical are adjectives and solecistically is an adverb; the noun plural is solecisms.

A solecism in sandals & socks, the look proscribed almost universally.

The meaning “gross grammatical error” or "any absurdity or incongruity" dates from the 1570s, a borrowing directly from the sixteenth century Middle French solécisme, from the Latin soloecismus (mistake in speaking or writing), which gained the word from the Greek soloikismos (to speak (Greek) incorrectly), from soloikos (an ungrammatical utterance), the literal translation of which was "speaking like the people of Sóloi, an Athenian colony in Cilicia (Mezitli in the modern-day Republic of Türkiye); there, the dialect spoken was a corrupt form of Attic Greek which Athenians condemned as barbarous.  The English, perhaps predictably, later extended the meaning to matters of etiquette, thus the sense of “awkward or rude in manners” and, by the late twentieth century, sins against fashion and good taste.

A solecism in blusher: Lindsay Lohan in court, Los Angeles October 2011.

The zombie-like look presumably wasn't intentional and it attracted some comment from professional make-up techs.  Speculation about how this happened ranged from the blusher being applied (1) in less than ideal lighting conditions, (2) in a car with only the rear-vision mirror available and (3) with bare fingers because a brush couldn't be found.  The consensus was the goal was a contoured blush look which, if applied with some delicacy, can accentuate the cheekbones but this was heavy handed and ended up as a smear across the cheeks.

Nicolás Maduro (b 1962; President of Venezuela 2013-2026, left) meeting with Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei (1939-2026; Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran 1989-2026, right), the pair watched over by the official portrait of the Islamic Republic’s ever-unsmiling founder, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1900-1989; Supreme Leader, Islamic Republic of Iran, 1979-1989).  Ayatollah Khamenei seemed in 1989 an improbable choice as Supreme Leader because others were better credentialed but though cautious and uncharismatic, he was for almost four decades a great survivor in a troubled region but finally was killed by the sheer weight of US firepower and the effectiveness of its intelligence gathering (at least some of which is assumed to have come from within the Iranian regime).  What the death of the Supreme Leader reminded everyone was that bunkers have their limits so, just as recent events will have strengthened the ayatollahs' view that possession of an IND ( independent nuclear deterrent) is both wise and Godly, they'll also want deeper holes dug and more concrete poured.

The socks & sandals combo is not not solecistical if on the Supreme Leader's feet.  It’s true that for men the pairing of sandals with socks is probably more than a mere solecism and constitutes an actual crime against fashion but when one is (1) a grand ayatollah and (2) Supreme Leader, one sets the rules.  As a general principle, the Supreme Leader cannot make a fashion mistake because what the Supreme Leader does is the fashion.  Even if challenged (on a basis presumably not theological), the Supreme Leader could have cited the precedent of Grand Ayatollah Khomeini having been photographed with his feet in socks and sandals.  It's quite agreeable to live in a theocracy if one is the ruling theocrat.

The Supreme Leader meets three wise men of the Hamas.

In the Middle East, everything is of course political and that includes clothing.  Best known (and most contentious) is what is demanded of women (which can range from a minimalist (verging on symbolic) hijab to an enveloping burka) but also of interest are the feet, shoes being objects of great significance because what is done with them can be vested with political and social messaging.  This was in 2024 illustrated when the Supreme Leader met with Ismail Haniyeh (1962-2024; third chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau 2017-2024) and two members of his entourage; on a number of sites what attracted most interest was not the substantive matters discussed but the shoeless feet of the Hamas apparatchiks.  In the ensuing debate what was pondered was whether this was merely Iranian protocols being followed or whether any disrespect had been created or intended.  One theory was the Supreme Leader was wearing “indoor” sandals with his socks while the Hamas operatives, travelling only with “outdoor” shoes, removed them in deference to local practice.  The alternative conjecture was the threesome were compelled by their hosts to appear in socks in an attempt to “undermine their dignity” and diminish their status as leaders of the Palestinian resistance, the rationale for that argument being the Islamic Republic of Iran is regime of the Shia tradition (specifically the Twelver Shi'ism branch) of Islam while the Hamas substantially was Sunni.  The consensus was it was less a conspiracy than an unexceptional example of the custom of removing shoes when entering indoor spaces, customary in homes and places of prayer and widespread also in many Islamic countries.  After the event concluded, IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency) reported that during the meeting the Supreme Leader had observed Iran: “…will not hesitate to support the Palestinian cause and the oppressed and resistant people of Gaza, praising the exemplary resilience of the Palestinian resistance forces and the people of Gaza.  The exemplary patience and steadfastness of the people of Gaza and the resistance forces during these six months, resulting from their strong faith, have prevented the Zionist enemy from achieving any of its strategic objectives in the Gaza war.”  Clearly, the “shoe incident” had not weakened Persian-Palestinian solidarity.

A young lady in Birkenstocks and socks.

Although it has long been an orthodoxy that for men not ayatollahs, wearing sandals over sock is a solecism, that rule does not apply to attractive young women (upon whom a different sub-set of rules is imposed) and for them, the fashionistas have declared the combo is now normcore (used in the attributive sense of describing a look which should be thought unremarkable).  There are still those who for any purpose reject the embrace of socks & sandals but, done well, matched with an over-sized blazer, Vogue calls the look “deconstructed business casual”.

Superbird

Superbird (pronounced soo-per-burd)

(1) A single-season (1970) version of the Plymouth Road Runner with certain aerodynamic enhancements, built to fulfil homologation requirements for use in competition.

(2) A one-off Falcon XA GT built by Ford Australia for the motor show circuit in 1973.

(3) A series of 700-odd XA Falcon Hardtops (RPO77) built by Ford Australia in 1973.

1969: The construct was super + bird.  The Middle English super was a re-purposing of the prefix super-, from the Latin super, from the Proto-Italic super, from the primitive Indo-European upér (over, above) and cognate with the Ancient Greek ὑπέρ (hupér).  In this context, it was used as an adjective suggesting “excellent quality, better than usual; wonderful; awesome, excellent etc.  Bird was from the Middle English bird & brid, from the Old English bridd (chick, fledgling, chicken).  The origin was a term used of birds that could not fly (chicks, fledglings, chickens) as opposed to the Old English fugol (from which English gained the modern “fowl”) which was the general term for “flying birds”.  From the earlt to mid-fourteenth century, “bird” increasingly supplanted “fowl” as the most common term.  Superbird is a noun; the noun plural is Superbirds and an initial capital is appropriate for all (standard) uses because Superbird is a product name.  If used as hoc for some other purposes, it should probably be without the initial capital.

Of super- and supra-

The super- prefix was a learned borrowing of the Latin super-, the prefix an adaptation of super, from the Proto-Italic super, from the primitive Indo-European upér (over, above) and cognate with the Ancient Greek ὑπέρ (hupér).  It was used to create forms conveying variously (1) an enhanced sense of inclusiveness, (2) beyond, over or upon (the latter notable in anatomy where the a super-something indicates it's "located above"), (3) greater than (in quantity), (4) exceptionally or unusually large, (5) superior in title or status (sometimes clipped to "super"), (6) of greater power or potency, (7) intensely, extremely or exceptional and (8) of supersymmetry (in physics).  The standard antonym was “sub” and the synonyms are listed usually as “on-, en-, epi-, supra-, sur-, ultra- and hyper-” but both “ultra” and “hyper-” have in some applications been used to suggest a quality beyond that implied by the “super-” prefix.  In English, there are more than a thousand words formed with the super- prefix.  The supra- prefix was a learned borrowing from the Latin suprā-, the prefix an adaptation of the preposition suprā, from the Old Latin suprād & superā, from the Proto-Italic superād and cognate with the Umbrian subra.  It was used originally to create forms conveying variously (1) above, over, beyond, (2) greater than; transcending and (3) above, over, on top (in anatomy thus directly synonymous with super) but in modern use supra- tends to be differentiated in that while it can still be used to suggest “an enhanced quality or quantity”, it’s now more common for it to denote physical position or placement in spatial terms.

Superbirds of the northern & southern hemispheres

1969 Dodge Daytona (red) & 1970 Plymouth Road Runner Superbird (blue).

The Plymouth Superbird was a "homologation special" built only for the 1970 model year.  By the mid-1950s, various race categories sanctioned by NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) had become popular with both competitors and audiences, something which induced the manufacturers, more or less openly, to provide resources to the teams running their products.  This had started modestly enough with the supply of parts and technical assistance but so tied up with prestige did success become that some created competition departments and, officially and not, ran teams or provided so much financial support that effectively they functioned as factory operations.  NASCAR had begun as a "stock" car series in the literal sense that the first cars used were "showroom stock" with only minimal modifications but that didn't last long, cheating soon rife and in the interests of spectacle (ie higher speeds and thus more crashes), certain "performance enhancements" were permitted although the rules were always intended to maintain the original spirit of using cars which were "close" to those sold from the showroom floor.

Lindsay Lohan's artwork for her cover of Anything (originally on the album The High Road (2006) by JoJo (stage name of Joanna Levesque (b 1990)).

Despite NASCAR's efforts, the cheating didn't stop although the teams became more adept in its practice and one model produced by Chrysler's Dodge division typified the way manufactures worked within the homologation rules to game the system.  The rules (having to build and sell a minimum number of a certain model in that specification) had been intended to restrict the use of cars to “volume production” models available to the general public but in 1956 Dodge did a special run of what it called the D-500 (an allusion to the number which had to built to be “legal” under NASCAR regulations).  Finding a loophole in the interpretation of the word “option” the D-500 appeared in the showrooms with a V8 rated at a then impressive 260 HP (horsepower).  Distinguished by crossed-flag “500” emblems on the hood (bonnet) and trunk (boot) lid, the model was Dodge’s high-performance offering for the season and had things been left at that, it wouldn't have been in any way exceptional.

Lindsay Lohan, as a superbird: generative AI (artificial intelligence) rendering by Stable Diffusion.

The trickery however lay in the option list, knowledgeable buyers able to "tick the box" for the D-500-1 (or DASH-1) option, which made one's D-500 close to race-ready and, to ensure eligibility in NASCAR’s various competitions, it could be ordered as a two-door sedan, hardtop or convertible.  In its default configuration with dual four-barrel carburetors, the D-500-1's 315 cubic inch (5.2 litre) V8 thought to produce around 285 HP but more significant was the inclusion of heavy-duty suspension and braking components, more valuable on the circuits than additional power.  It was a successful endeavour which both triggered an "arms race" between the manufacturers and intensified the ongoing battle with the NASCAR regulators who did not wish to see their series transformed into something contested by specialized racing cars which bore only a superficial resemblance to the “showroom stock”.  Well before the 2020s, it was obvious NASCAR had surrendered to the inevitable but more than a decade, the battle raged.

Evening (The Fall of Day) (1869–1870), charcoal, crayon), oil & graphite on canvas by English-born US artist William Rimmer (1816–1879), Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Massachusetts.

That someone ran a Stable Diffusion prompt to depict Lindsay Lohan with wings is in the long tradition of winged humans, something in the imagination at least since the tale of Ικαρος (Icarus) was told in the mythology of Antiquity.  In the best-known version, Icarus was the son of Daedalus and one of Minos' slaves called Naucrate and it was when Daedalus explained to Ariadne how Theseus could find a way to escape the Labyrinth, so enraged was Minos he imprisoned Daedalus and his son in the structure.  Undeterred, Daedalus took fallen feathers and fashioned wings for them both, applying wax to fix them to their shoulders; a cautious parent, Daedalus warned Icarus to fly neither too close to the ground nor too near the sun.  Icarus however was headstrong and, finding the power of flight intoxicating, soared higher and higher until he was so close to the sun the heat melted the wax, disintegrating his wings; no longer a superbird, he fell into the sea around the island of Samos and drowned.  As a tribute, the sun god Helios called the body of water the Ικάριο Πέλαγος (Ikario Pelagos) (Icarian Sea), the name still used of the stretches of the Aegean between the Cyclades and Asia Minor (the modern-day Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (Republic of Türkiye, still often referred to as Turkey)).  Other versions from Antiquity have him drowning in nautical accidents but generally his name is used as a cautionary tale about the consequences of not heeding the advice of those who know better although, curiously, there’s also the odd reference to him having invented woodwork and carpentry.  In Rimmer’s evocative drawing, the model has always been presumed to be the doomed Icarus but the artist may also have had in mind the fallen angel Lucifer, the imagery of a prideful descent perhaps influenced by John Milton’s (1608–1674) Paradise Lost (1667) or Dante Alighieri’s (circa 1265–1321) Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy (circa 1310-1321)).

LP (long playing) album label for Led Zeppelin’s Presence (1976), issued by Atlantic Recording Corporation on the Swansong label.

The English graphic art production house Hipgnosis (best known for album covers which were (in the pre-CD (compact disc) era) for a quarter century-odd a vibrant part of the pop-art world) used Rimmer’s Evening as a model for the logo of Swan Song Records, set up in 1974 by the English band Led Zeppelin (1968-1974) after the expiration of their distribution contract with Atlantic Records (which anyway handled the distribution of Swan Song’s products).  The idea was to combine the imagery of Rimmer with the wings of a white swan and the notion of “songs”.  At the time, the popular music business substantially was controlled by the major labels and Swan Song was one of a number of (usually short-lived) labels created in an attempt to give musicians who could not secure a recording contract a way of having their output reach audiences.  Although the label remains active for the purposes of re-issuing older material, after the surviving members of Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980, there were only spasmodic releases until in 1983 it was announced active operations would cease and no new contracts would be executed.

1970 Plymouth Superbird (left) and 1969 Dodge Daytona (right). Despite the obvious conceptual and visual similarities, it's when two are seen in close proximity (especially in profile) that the differences become more obvious, the Superbird's nose-cone less pointed, the rear wing higher with a rake more acute.  

By 1969, NASCAR's regulators had fine-tuned their rules restricting engine power and, further to "equalize" things, had mandated minimum weights.  Scope for innovation was thus limited so manufacturers turned to the then less policed field of aerodynamics, ushering what came to be known as the "aero-cars" and it was an era when the discipline had become suddenly fashionable, wings and spoilers sprouting on the cars used in Formula One and the Can-Am (the wonderful series for (Group 7) unlimited displacement sports cars) although initially, Chrysler's approach had been a modest "tweaking" rather than a radical alteration of the lines.  When the aerodynamics of the sleek-looking 1968 Charger proved to be unexpectedly inefficient, Dodge for 1969 modified the most suspect areas at the front and rear, "smoothing out" the air-flow and labelling the result the "Charger 500" in a nod to the NASCAR homologation rules which demanded for eligibility the production of 500 mechanically identical cars.  However, unlike the quite subtle modifications which proved so successful for Ford’s Torino Talladega and Mercury’s Cyclone Spoiler, what was done to created the 500 did not resolve the issues so production ceased after 392 were built.  Dodge solved the problem of the missing 108 needed for homologation purposes by subsequently introducing a different "Charger 500" which was just a trim level and nothing to do with homologation but, honor apparently satisfied on both sides, NASCAR turned to the telescope the same blind eye chosen when it became clear Ford with the Talladega and Cyclone Spoiler had also "bent the rules" a bit.

The rear wings (like the nosecone, the units on the Daytona and Superbird were not interchangeable) genuinely were there for the aerodynamic advantage they conferred but there were possibilities for repurposing.  Most of the photographs (left) of “washing hanging out to dry” from a wing were staged for comic effect but, between events, racing drivers really would use the structure as a place to air sweaty race overalls while for photographers, amateurs and professionals alike, the wings also proved an irresistible prop which could be adorned with decorative young ladies.  Had OnlyFans existed in the era, it can be guaranteed some content providers would have been juxtaposed against a Superbird’s wing.

Not discouraged by the 500's aerodynamic recalcitrance, Dodge recruited engineers from Chrysler's aerospace & missile division (which was being shuttered because Richard Nixon's (1913-1994; US VPOTUS 1953-1961 & POTUS 1969-1974) détente era had arrived and the US & Soviet Union were beginning their arms-reduction programmes) and quickly created the Daytona, adding to the 500 a protruding nosecone and high wing at the rear.  As successful on the track as the scale-models had been in the wind-tunnel, this time the required 500 really were built (a reported 503 leaving the line).  Not best-pleased, NASCAR responded by again moving the goalposts, requiring manufacturers to build one example of each vehicle for at least half their registered dealers (exclusive or shared) so, there at the time being a reported 3832 franchised Plymouth dealers in the US, duly the company built a reported 1935 Road Runner Superbirds (although NASCAR apparently stopped counting once they'd verified the existence of the 1920 which satisfied their rules).  It was an exercise probably more expensive for Plymouth than Dodge because it's believed neither division made any profit on their "homologation cars" and some claim each was invoiced to dealers at a loss.  Now more unhappy than ever, NASCAR lawyered-up and drafted rules which included restricting the aero cars to an engine displacement of 5.0 litre (305 cubic inch) while permitting the rest of the field to run the full 7.0 litres (427 cubic inch); this rendered the aero-cars uncompetitive and their brief, shining moment ended.

Blondes have more fun: Emelia Hartford (b 1993) and her 1970 Plymouth Superbird at the Goodyear San Angelo Proving Grounds.  Before her restoration efforts, it had for 30 years sat neglected.

The estimable Emelia Hartford both builds and races cars and in 2025 she took a fully-restored NASCAR race Superbird to the high-speed test track at Goodyear’s San Angelo Proving Grounds facility in Texas.  Although in 1970 the boffins at Chrysler had studied their slide-rules and calculated that, in NASCAR-spec, a Superbird could not, even under ideal conditions, achieve 220 mph (354 km/h), it was an age of empiricists and nobody would be convinced until the rubber hit the road.  The numbers really did come from slide-rules and pencil & paper because, although engineers were by then using computers (they took up entire rooms), for many calculations, the old ways produced results more quickly.  Ms Hartford has a presence on YouTube and among her viewers must be some of Goodyear’s staff because somewhere in the corporate memory was jogged the recollection of the day, all those years ago, when a NASCAR Superbird had not quite hit the 220 mph mark.  Goodyear thus extended Ms Hartford an invitation to the proving grounds to see if it really was possible; it transpired the slide-rule operators had, more than a half century earlier, been right, the restored Superbird achieving 211 mph (340 km/h).

1969 Ford Torino Sportsroof (left), 1969 Ford Torino Talladega (centre) and 1970 Ford Torino Sportsroof (left).  What Ford did for its aero cars was much less dramatic than what Chrysler's missile engineers concocted but the modifications proved remarkable effective.  The 1970 Torino (the design language of which Ford Australia adopted for the Falcon Hardtop (1972-1978)), although it look sleek and the racing teams were promised “specific efficiencies”, proved less slippery than the Talladega so team managers for some time continued to use the older platform.

Given more power than they had when run in NASCAR spec, the aero cars could go faster but Ford’s experiments had proved what their calculations had suggested: above 190 mph, it would take an additional 50 HP to achieve an additional 3 mph (5 km/h) but an even greater increase would be realized simply by slightly altering the shape of the nose, lowering the leading edge by about an inch (25mm).  Under the rules, it was impossible to gain 50 HP but the rhinoplasty, although at a glance imperceptible to the untrained eye, successfully delivered the improved performance of the Talladega and Cyclone Spoiler.  The point was emphasised when in 1971 one of the Daytonas just rendered unlawful by NASCAR was taken to the Bonneville Salt Flats where it was used to set 28 USAC (United States Auto Club) & FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, the International Automobile Federation) world speed records.  Although modified to produce more power and fitted with low-drag tyres and a very tall (ie numerically low) final drive ratio, even under Bonneville’s ideal conditions, the top speeds recorded were 216.465 mph (348.367) over a flying mile and 217.368 (349.820) over a flying kilometre.  Ms Hartford's 211 mph run was thus both impressive and in line with expectations but more may have been possible because, as the NASCAR teams discovered, fitting simple "smooth" fibreglass covers atop the A-pillars delivered a precious 1 mph (1.6 km/h).

The graphic for the original Road Runner (1968, left) and the version used for the Superbird (1970, right).  The image was used under licence from Warner Brothers, as was the distinctive "meep-meep" tone of the horn (the horn button on the steering wheel actually read "beep beep"), the engineering apparently as simple as replacing the aluminium strands in the mechanism with copper windings.  The fee for the cartoon character was US$50,000 with the rights to the "beep-beep" invoiced at a further US$10,000; both proved sound investments.  

Discounted Superbird, 1970.  When new, the seriously weird looking machines often lingered on lots and deals had to be done; nobody could have anticipated what they'd become a half-century on.

So extreme in appearance were the cars (at certain angles, distinctly they were ungainly) they proved at the time sometimes hard to sell and as well as being heavily discounted, some were converted back to the standard Road Runner specification by dealers anxious to get them out of the showroom (a generation on, some Volkswagen dealers resorted to the same approach after US buyers proved less attracted to the Harlequin Golfs than Europeans had been to the Harlekin Polos).  Views changed over time and they're now much sought by collectors, the record known price paid for a Superbird being US$1,650,000 for one of the 135 fitted with the 426 Street Hemi.  Despite the Superbirds having been produced in some four times the quantity of Daytonas, as collectables, they're treated as interchangeable with the determinates of price (all else being equal) being (1) engine specification (the Hemi-powered models the most desirable followed by the 6-BBL Plymouths (there were no Six-Pack Daytonas built) and then the 4 barrel 440s), (2) transmission (those with a manual gearbox attracting a premium) and (3) the usual combination of mileage, condition and originality.  Mapped on to that equation is the variable of who happens to be at an auction on any given day, something unpredictable.  That was demonstrated in August 2024 when a highly optioned Daytona in the most desirable configuration achieved US$3.36 million at Mecum’s auction in Monterey, California.

1969 Plymouth Road Runner advertisement.

The US$3.36 million achieved generated headlines on sites where such things are discussed, but what attracted the interest of amateur sociologists was the same Daytona had in May 2022 sold for US$1.3 million when offered by Mecum in an auction at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.  The US$1.3 million was at the time the highest price then paid for a Hemi Daytona (of the 503 built, only 70 were fitted with the Hemi and of those, only 22 had the four-speed manual) and the increase in value by some 250% was obviously the result of something other than the inflation rate.  The consensus was that although the internet had made just about all markets inherently global, local factors can still influence both the buyer profile and their behaviour, especially in the hothouse environment of a live auction.  Those who frequent California’s central coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco include a demographic not typically found in the mid-west and among other distinguishing characteristics there are more rich folk, able to spend US$3.36 million on a half-century old car they’ll probably never drive between purchase and a return to the auction circuit.  That’s how the collector market works, the cars now essentially the same sort of commodity as certain paintings; it's not that cars are art (although New York's MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) has a few on permanent exhibit including an early Jaguar E-Type (XKE, 1961-1974)) but the market structures and dynamics are more similar than they are different.

1970 Plymouth Hemi Superbird in TorRed over Black vinyl.  Between 2022-2025, its realized value fell by some US$1.2 million.

Still, it's a volatile market and some who “overpaid” by buying in a “peak market” have booked considerable losses when compelled to sell at a time when demand proved less buoyant.  Although the aero-cars are among the more collectable Mopars, they remain a traded commodity and about such things, all that can be guaranteed about their value is: “it will fluctuate”.  In 2025, a Hemi Superbird sold at auction for US$418,000 which, given its condition and specification, was at the lower end of expectations but in 2022, the same machine had gone over the block for US$1.65 million.  The loss booked was thus US$1.2 million-odd or around 75%, neither of those numbers encouraging for collectors and immediately, the conspiracy theorists began offering explanations involving the interplay of tax deductions, charitable donations and such.  There are of course cases where losses even greater in magnitude can be imagined; the early 1 Gb USB sticks sold for US$199.00 and were an immaculate, unused example still in its original blister pack to be offered for sale in 2026, the nominal loss would be greater than 75%.  Still, “vintage” USB sticks are not (yet) a collectable and most who buy Superbirds don’t expect to suffer depreciation.

The Buick Skylark Grand Sport which in 1965 didn't become a Superbird.

Plymouth paid Warner Brothers US$50,000 to licence the trademarked image of the bird but “Superbird” was free to use which must have been pleasing, the avian reference an allusion to the big wing at the rear.  Curiously, had Buick a half-decade earlier decided to pursue what seems in retrospect a “sales department thought bubble”, Plymouth would have had to come up with something else because in 1965 Buick did run a one-off advertisement for their new Skylark GS (Grand Sport, the marque’s well-manicured toe in the muscle car water) with the copy headed “Superbird”.  It may seem strange Buick had been tempted by the muscle car business because, by the time the rungs of Alfred P Sloan’s (1875–1966; president of General Motors (GM) 1923-1937 and Chairman of the Board 1937-1946) "Sloan ladder" were in the 1940 finalized, Buick was second only to Cadillac in the five-step GM (General Motors) corporate hierarchy with Chevrolet at the bottom, followed by Pontiac and Oldsmobile.  However, the unexpected success the year earlier of Pontiac’s GTO had proved an irresistible temptation: there were profits to be made.  As it was, Cadillac was the only GM division in the era not to sell a muscle car.

1936 Buick Century.

Debatably, the Buick Century was the "first muscle car" and although in the mid 1930s some fanciful names appeared, it's unlikely anyone within GM would have thought of "Road Runner" or "Superbird", "Century" (denoting the 100 mph (160 km/h) speed all were able to achieve) thought both distinctive and informative.  The definition of “muscle car” is by some contested with the only consensus seemingly that none accept it can encompass FWD (front-wheel-drive), despite Cadillac in 1970 rating the Eldorado's 500 cubic inch (8.2 litre) V8 at at stellar 400 HP which was 25 more than Ford claimed for the Boss 429 Mustang which used a slightly detuned racing engine.  Ford of course had reasons to under-rate the stated output of the Boss 429 but it remains an amusing comparison.  The definition most prefer is: “a big engine from a big, heavy car installed in a smaller, lighter car” and although in 1936 the improvement in the economy remained patchy (and would soon falter), Buick rang in the changes, re-naming its entire line.  The new Century was a revised revised version of the model 60, created by replacing the 233 cubic inch (3.8 litre) straight eight with the 320 cubic inch (5.2 litre) unit from the longer, heavier Roadmaster.  Putting big engines into small cars was nothing new and during the interwar years some had taken the idea to extremes, using huge aero-engines, but those tended to be one-offs for racing or LSR (land speed record) attempts.  In Europe, (slightly) larger engines were sometimes substituted and British manufacturers often put six cylinder power-plants where once there had been a four but their quest was usually for smoothness and refinement rather than outright speed and the Century was really the first time a major manufacturer had used the concept in series production.  Many now acknowledge the Century as the LCA (last common ancestor) of the muscle cars which in the 1960s came to define the genre.

1970 Buick GSX 455 Stage 1.  It was available only in two colors and of the 678 built, 491 were Saturn Yellow and 197 Apollo White, the names topical because the Apollo moon missions of the era missions were launched using Saturn V rockets.

The model which in 1965 Buick seemingly flirted with promoting as the “Superbird” was the Skylark Grand Sport, built on the corporate intermediate A-Body shared with Chevrolet, Pontiac & Oldsmobile.  In its first season the Grand Sport was an option rather than a model and it used the 401 cubic inch (6.6 litre) Buick “Nailhead” V8 which technically violated GM’s corporate edict placing a 400 cubic inch displacement limit on engines in intermediates but this was “worked around” by “rounding down” to 400 for purposes of documentation and for that there was a (sort of) precedent; earlier Pontiac’s 336 cubic inch (5.5 litre) V8 contravened another GM rule and PMD (Pontiac Motor Division) solved that problem by claiming the capacity was really 326 (5.3) with the GM board again turning a blind eye for as long as it took for the foundry to organize the downsizing.  The Grand Sport option proved a success and for 1967 the package was elevated to a model as the GS 400, Buick’s new big-block engine a genuine 400 cid (there were also small-block Skylark GSs appropriately labelled GS 340 and later GS 350) and on the sales charts it continued to perform well, but, being a Buick, its appearance was more restrained than the muscle cars from the competition (including those from other GM divisions) so it tended to be overshadowed.  In 1968, that began to changed when the “Stage 1” option was introduced as a dealer-installed option.  What this did was increase power and torque, optimizing the delivery of both for quarter-mile (402 m) sprints down drag strips and as a proof-of-concept exercise (in terms of market demand), it worked and in 1969 the Stage 1 package appeared on the factory’s official option list.  When tested, it performed (on the drag strip) so well it was obvious the official output numbers were under-stated but things really clicked the next year when Buick enlarged the V8 to 455 cubic inches (7.5 litre), delivering 510 lb⋅ft (691 Nm) of torque, the highest rating in the industry.  It's often claimed Detroit wouldn't top this until the second generation Dodge Viper (ZB I, 2003-2006) debuted with its V10 enlarged to 506 cubic inches (8.3 litres) but the early 472 (1968) & 500 (1970) cubic inch (7.7 & 8.2 litre) Cadillac V8s were rated respectively at 525 lb⋅ft (712 Nm) & 550 lb⋅ft (746 Nm).

1970 Buick GSX brochure.

Buick in 1970 made available the GSX “Performance and Handling Package” which added a hefty US$1,100 to the GS 455’s base price US$3,098, a factor in it attracting only 678 buyers, 400 of whom ordered the “Stage 1” option.  In this context, use of the word “stage” was unusual but, like the color choices, that too was an allusion to the space program, the big Saturn V rockets divided into “stages”.  Although Buick buyers had for years overwhelmingly purchased cars with automatic transmission, the GSX was a Buick of a different flavor and this was reflected 199 of them being sold with the optional four-manual; clearly the GSX was attracting the much sought “conquest buyers” (ie those who usually purchased another brand).  Presumably, whether or not “conquests” most buyers presumably were content because the straight-line performance was impressive; while the GSX didn't possess the ability of genuine race-bred engines like the Chrysler Street Hemi, Ford Boss 429 or the most lusty of the big-block Chevrolets effortlessly to top 140 mph (225 km/h), on the drag strip, the combination of the prodigious low-speed torque and relatively light weight meant it could be a match for just about anything.  The use of “Stage 1” of course implied there would be at least a “Stage 2” (a la Pontiac’s Ram Air II, III etc) but the world was changing and only a handful of "Stage 2" components were assembled and shipped to dealers.  While both the GSX and Stage 1 would live until 1972, 1970 would be peak Buick muscle.

1967 Dodge Coronet R/T advertisement.

Another footnote to the tale is that in 1967, months before Plymouth released the Road Runner, Dodge (Plymouth’s corporate stable-mate) published an advertisement for the Coronet R/T (Road/Track) which must have been ticked off by the legal department because cleverly it included the words “road” and “runner” arranged in such as way a viewer would read them as “Road Runner” without them appearing in a form which might have attracted a C&D (cease & desist letter) from Warner Brothers.  Obviously, the tie-in with Road/Track was the idea of a machine suited both to street and competition use and the agency must have congratulated themselves but the satisfaction would have been brief because within hours of the advertisement appearing in magazines on newsstands, Chrysler’s corporate marketing division instructed Dodge to “pull the campaign”.  By then, Plymouth’s plans for the surprise release in a few months of the appropriately licensed “Road Runner” were well advanced and they didn’t want any thunder stolen.  The Dodge advertisement remained a one-off but the division must have wished they’d thought of using “Road Runner” themselves because the Super Bee (their later take on the Road Runner's "stripped down, low cost" concept) only ever sold a quarter of the volume of Plymouth’s original; it pays to be first but a flaky name like “Super Bee” can’t have helped.  Subsequently, the names Road Runner & Roadrunner (the latter which, without the initial capital, is the taxonomic term for the bird (genus Geococcyx and known also as chaparral birds or chaparral cocks) Warner Brothers' Wile E. Coyote could never quite catch) have been used for products as varied as a Leyland truck, sports teams, computer hardware & software and a number of publications.

Don't mess with popular and respected birds.

However, just because Chrysler’s lawyers dotted the i's and crossed the t's with Warner Brothers didn’t mean their involvement with the Plymouth Road Runner was done.  Shortly after the Road Runner was released late in 1967, the corporate office became aware “...certain Chrysler-Plymouth Division dealers in the Southwest [were] using live Roadrunner birds in local sales promotions and offering cash rewards for the capture of live specimens.”  That would at the time have seemed to dealers just a clever marketing gimmick but consulted, the legal department determined it was “...against Federal Law to hunt, capture kill, sell or offer to purchase a nonautomotive Roadrunner.”  Further to clarify, it was added Roadrunners were “…none-game birds classified as national resources and protected by Federal and International law.”  Who knew?  In the C&D letter Chrysler-Plymouth's public relations manager circulated to all dealers, the cultural significance was also mentioned, the Roadrunner described as a “...popular and respected bird... particularly in New Mexico where it is honored as the state's official bird.”  Accordingly, the corporate directive banned “...any future use of live Roadrunners in promotional activities.”

1970 Plymouth Road Runner with a Warner Brothers' interpretation of the genus Geococcyx in fibreglass.

So using live examples of the “popular and respected bird” was out but the marketing department wasn’t deterred and for promotional purposes later arranged production in fibreglass of large representations of the cartoon bird, designed to emerge, grinning and wide-eyed through the hood (bonnet) scoop which Chrysler called the “air-grabber” because it did what it said on the tin: funnelled desirable cold air straight to the induction system.  While "air grabber" might seem a bit brutish, it was that sort of car and in 1970 Plymouth briefly had called a variant of the idea the "Incredible Quivering Exposed Cold Air Grabber" but that improbable moniker didn't last much beyond an appearance in an early brochure (I.Q.E.C.A.G. one of history's less mnemonic initializms) and the hardware has only ever been known as the "shaker".  Being advertising, the large fibreglass birds owed much to the Warner Brothers depiction of the creature and little to how evolution had produced genus Geococcyx.  Some of the fibreglass promotional props survived to be exhibited protruding through a Road Runners air-grabber and die-cast models of the ensemble (car plus “popular and respected bird”) sometimes are available.

Australia's Ford Falcon Superbirds

1973 Ford XA Falcon GT Superbird, built for the show circuit and first shown at the Melbourne Motor Show in March 1973. 

Based on the then-current XA Falcon GT Hardtop, Ford Australia’s original Superbird was a one-off created for display at the 1973 Sydney and Melbourne Motor Shows, the purpose of the thing to distract attention from Holden’s new, four-door HQ Monaro model, a range added after the previous year’s limited production SS had generated sufficient sales for the “proof-of-concept” to be judged a success.  Such tactics are not unusual in commerce and Ford was responding to the Holden’s earlier release of the SS being timed deliberately to steal the thunder expected to be generated by the debut of the Falcon Hardtop.  Despite the SS in 1972 being so successful a second batch was needed to meet demand, for some reason GMH (General Motors Holden's) decided that when added as a regular-production model, it would use the "Monaro GTS" name which, since 1968, had been used exclusively of two-door hardtop coupés.  So, despite Chevrolet in the US having for a decade built an enviable "brand recognition" for the SS badge and the success of its own SS in 1972, Holden opted not to take advantage of the new model inheriting the aura and instead diluted the value of the Monaro brand.  Even at the time it seemed a strange choice and tellingly, within a few years, after production of the Monaro coupés ended, the four door models were renamed simply "GTS".       

1973 Ford XA Falcon GT Superbird with model in ankle-length, sleeveless floral sheath maxi dress.  The model was Jill Goodall (b 1952) who in the 1970s appeared on the covers of Australian fashion magazines and in television & print advertising.  She worked also as an actor, including a role as a “harem girl” in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

Although it featured a new wool fabric (described in the press-kit as a "rough-blend") for the upholstery and a power-steering system with the rim-effort increased from 4 to 8 lbs (1.8 to 3.6 kg), mechanically, the Superbird show car was something of a “parts-bin special” in that it differed from a standard GT Hardtop mostly in the use of some of the components orphaned when the run of 250-odd (Phase 4) Falcon GTHOs in 1972 was cancelled after a Sydney tabloid newspaper had stirred a moral panic with one of their typically squalid and untruthful stories about the “160 mph [258 km/h] supercars” which soon would be sold to males aged 17-25 (always a suspect demographic in the eyes of a tabloid editor).  Apparently, it was a “slow news day” so the story got moved from the sports section at the back to the front page where the headline spooked the politicians who demanded manufacturers not proceed with the limited-production specials which existed only to satisfy the homologation rules for competition.  Resisting for only a few days, the manufacturers complied and within a week the nation’s regulatory body for motor sport announced the end of “series-production” racing; subsequently, the "production" cars used on the track would no longer need to be so closely related to those available in showrooms.

Ms Goodall with 1973 Ford XA Falcon GT Superbird.  The XA Hardtop's styling motifs were borrowed from the second generation Ford (US) Torino (1970-1971), a machine which, like the 1968 Dodge Charger, looked slippery but, when used at speed on the ovals, was found to induce rather more drag than had been hoped.  Although one German race-driver noted some "chassis flex" in the pillarless coupé, the Australian car's aerodynamics proved sound and the cars were stable on the circuits.  Contemporary tests of the road cars noted the XA GT Hardtop's top speed being some 8 mph (13 km/h) higher than an identically configured sedan, the gain attributed to (1) the reduced frontal area (the hardtop's roofline 2 inches (50 mm) than the sedan) and (2) the efficiency of the air flow over and around the rear section.  

The Falcon GT Superbird displayed at the motor shows in 1973 was a harbinger in that it proved something a “trial run” for future ventures in which parts intended solely for racing would be added to a sufficient number of vehicles sold (almost surreptitiously) to the public to homologate them for use on the circuits.  In that sense, the mechanical specification of the Superbird previewed some of what would later in the year be supplied (with a surprising amount of car-to-car variability) in RPO83 (regular production option 83) including many of the settings and parts intended for the 1972 GTHO (the genuine homologation model which would have been produced in a batch of 300-odd) such the suspension rates, a 780 cfm (cubic feet per minute) carburetor, the 15” x 7” aluminium wheels, a 36 (imperial) gallon (164 litre) fuel tank and various bits and pieces designed for greater durability under extreme (ie race track) conditions.  Cognizant of the effect the tabloid press has on politicians, none of the special runs in the immediate aftermath of the 1972 moral panic included anything which much increased performance.  However, while the details of the mechanical specification delighted the nerds, it was the large orange Superbird logo on the flanks which attracted most comment, the press-kit handed to journalists mentioning the "unique black shadows" which "highlighted its appearance".  However, although nicely done, the black shadows professionally were hand-painted and not included in the full-sized decal which became available from Ford dealers in white (part-number XA-19C 600), black (XA-19C 600 B) & orange (XA-19C 600 C) at Aus$59 which may sound reasonable but the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) reports that in the March quarter, 1973, average MFTWE (male full-time weekly earnings) were Aus$102.50.  Demand for the decal in any color was subdued and it was not long available.

Toned down: 1973 Ford Falcon 500 Hardtop with RPO77 (Superbird option pack) in Polar White with Cosmic Blue accents over white vinyl.

Most who saw the Superbird probably didn’t much dwell on the mechanical intricacies, taken more by the stylized falcon which extended three-quarters the length of the car.  It was the graphic which no doubt generated publicity in a way the specification sheet never could and as an "adhesive transparancy" it could be ordered from Ford dealers but so low was the take-up rate it was decided instead to capitalize on the success of the show car by releasing a production Superbird (RPO77) with the graphic's length scaled down to a mere 18 inches (450 mm), applied to the rear quarters with an even smaller version on the glovebox lid.  In keeping with that restraint, RPO77 included only “dress-up” items and a 302 cubic inch (4.9 litre) V8 in the same mild-mannered state of tune as the versions sold to bank managers and such.  It was a much more modest machine than the Melbourne Motor Show car with its high-compression 351 (5.8) V8 so although not quite a "budgerigar in a birdcage next to a hunting falcon", the messages conveyed by the respective avian graphics were in accord with the hardware.

1973 Ford XA Falcon Superbird in the Lime Glaze & Jewell Green combo over black vinyl.  The other available color combinations were Polar white / Cosmic Blue and Yellow Fire / Walnut Glow.

Still, as a package which offered a bundle of options at an substantial discount (nominally about 11%), RPO77's cost breakdown attracted buyers and did succeed in stimulating interest in the two-door Hardtop, sales of which had proved sluggish after the initial spike in 1972.  It seems of the 750 planned, some 700 were built and that all but 200 were fitted with an automatic transmission was an indication of the target market.  In Australia, the surviving Superbirds are now advertised for six figure (Aus$) sums while the surviving three Phase 4 GTHOs (the fourth was destroyed in a rally which sounds and improbable but it was said to have been competitive, only the sheer weight of the thing meaning the tyre's sidewalls were subject to frequent failure) command over a million.

A (sort of) Superbird at speed.

Murray Carter (b 1931), Falcon RPO83 XA GT Hardtop (modified to resemble the then current XB GT, a common practice in the era), Oran Park round of the 1975 ATCC (Australian Touring Car Championship) 27 April, 1975.  The “Superbird” finished third in the race and second in the 1975 championship.  There was much production-line standardization between the XA-XB-XC Hardtops (more so than the sedans and station wagons which used different rear doors) so the visual updating wasn't difficult and the car would later receive XC panels before being stripped of anything useful and scrapped, race teams then an unsentimental crew.

Although RPO77 was purely an “appearance package”, the Superbird was a footnote in the homologation of the hardtop body for racing, Ford using the specification sheet provided to state motor vehicle registration authorities in their submission to CAMS (Confederation of Australian Motorsport, then the national regulatory body for the sport).  The advantages in citing the Superbird as a base were (1) being built between March-May, 1973 the structure benefited from the changes to the rails and braces which didn’t appear on the earlier cars and (2) at 2910 lb (1320 KG), it was up to 210 lb (95 KG) lighter (depending on configuration) than the Falcon GT Hardtops which were basis of the vehicles actually used in racing.  Whether CAMS was deceived or was just anxious to accommodate isn’t clear but the certification was granted with the designation “Superbird” appearing in their published documentation.  That’s why it was common in press reports at the time for the racing RPO83 XA Hardtops to be referred to as “Superbirds” even though not one was based on a RPO77 Falcon.  Despite all that, the race cars were on occasions seen with “Superbird” emblazoned in bold type.  

The motor show Superbird (unused image from a publicity photo session, Melbourne, 1973).  Built in August 1972, the Superbird was re-painted in "Pearl Silver" and road-registered (LHA 614) in Victoria.  It was restored to its original "Wild Violet" before being sold (without the graphic).

As a nerdy footnote, the 302 V8 used in the RPO77 Superbirds was exclusive to Australia in being based on the Cleveland (335) engine which in the US was the basis only for 351 and 400 (6.6) versions.  The rationale for the Australians developing their unique "302 Cleveland" was one of production-line standardization, the local operation having never produced the Windsor line of V8s which by 1969 provided the US market with both 302 & 351 versions.  According to the convention in use at the time, the Australian engines could have been dubbed "302 Geelong" & "351 Geelong" (Geelong the city where the Ford foundry was located) but that was never adopted and both tend to be called "Australian Clevelands".  Creating the 302 Cleveland wasn't challenging or expensive and both the Australian engines were (with detail differences between them) a single-configuration compromise optimized for use on the street, eschewing use of the components which delivered improved top-end power (as fitted to some of the US engines) which worked well at high speed but was not ideal for street use where a progressive curve of low and mid-range torque is the most desired characteristic.

For the Superbird photo-shoot, as well as the floral maxi, Ms Goodall also donned some dresses with a shorter cut.  She had studied graphic design in Melbourne and after retiring from modelling, worked as a studio manager and photographer.  Now based in Germany and known professionally as Jill Seer, she has exhibited her work in European galleries.

What the Australian engineers did for their 351 was was combine the large (61-64 cm³) combustion chambers from the US "4V" heads (ie "4 venturi" indicating their use with a four barrel carburetor) with the smaller "2V" intake ports, the arrangement producing a good quench and air/fuel swirl through the ports, enhancing the low-to-mid range torque output.  The short-stroke Australian 302 was different in that it used a 56.4–59.4 cm³ combustion chamber in conjunction with the high-swirl, small ports.  That combination ("closed" combustion chamber & small ports) turned out to be a "sweet-spot" for street use which has made the Australian 302 heads a popular item for those in the US modifying 351s, the swap made possible by the shared bore and bolt pattern.  While in "heavy duty" use the Cleveland (335) suffered from fundamental flaws (excessive weight and limited lubrication channels), the canted-valve heads were right from day one, the reason why the 1969 Boss 302 (which put efficient Cleveland heads on the lighter, well-oiled Windsor block) was so highly regarded.  Although its sounds oxymoronic, Ford Australia really did market its 302 as "an economy V8" but that phrase needs to be read as something comparative rather than absolute, both the 302 & 351 even then regarded as "thirsty".