Stiletto

Stiletto (pronounced sti-let-oh)

(1) A small, slender knife or dagger-like weapon intended for stabbing; usually thick in proportion to its width.

(2) An archaic name for the rapier.

(3) A pointed instrument for making eyelet holes in needlework; a sharply pointed tool used to make holes in leather; also called an awl.

(4) A very high heel on a woman's shoe, tapering to a very narrow tip, also called the spike heel or stiletto heel.

(5) A beard trimmed to a pointed form.

(6) A style used in the fashioning of decorative fingernails.

1605–1615: From the Italian stiletto, a doublet of stylet, the construct being stil(o) (dagger or needle (from the Latin stilus (stake, pens))) + -etto (-ette) and from the Latin stilus came also stelo, an inherited doublet.  The etto- suffix was used to forms nouns from nouns, denoting a diminutive.  It was from the Late Latin -ittum, accusative singular of –ittus, and was the alterative suffix used to form melioratives, diminutives, and hypocoristics and existed variously in English & French as -et, in Italian as Italian -etto and in Portuguese & Spanish as -ito.  With an animate noun, -etto references as male, the coordinate female suffix being -etta, which is also used with inanimate nouns ending in -a.  It should not be confused with the homophonous suffix -eto.  Stilus was from the primitive Indo-European (s)teyg- (related to instīgō & instigare) and was cognate with the Ancient Greek στίζω (stízō) (to mark with a pointed instrument) and the Proto-Germanic stikaną (to stick, to stab).  Despite the similarity, there’s no relationship with the Ancient Greek στῦλος (stûlos) (a pillar).

Lindsay Lohan in Christian Louboutin Madame Butterfly black bow platform booties with six-inch (150 mm) stiletto heel.

A quasi-technical adoption in law-enforcement and judicial reports were the verb-forms stilettoed & stilettoing, referring to a stabbing or killing with a stiletto-like blade.  It was a popular description used by police when documenting the stabbing by wives of husbands or boyfriends with scissors or kitchen knives; use faded in the mid-twentieth century.  The idea of a long, slender beard trimmed into a pointed form being "a stiletto" popular in the sixteenth & seventeenth centuries but all such forms seem now to be referred to either as "a goatee" or "a Van Dyke".  The adjectival use can also sometimes need to be understood in the context of the phrase or sentence: "a stilettoed foot" can be either "the foot of someone wearing a shoe with a stiletto heel" or "a foot which has been stabbed with a long, thin blade.  Stiletto & stilettoing are nouns & verbs, stilettoed is a verb & adjective and stilettolike (also stiletto-like) is an adjective; the noun plural is either stilettos or stilettoes.

Of blades and heels

The stiletto design for small bladed weapons pre-dates not only modern metallurgy but antiquity itself.  The essence, a short, relatively thick blade, was technologically deterministic rather than aesthetic, most metals of the time not being as sturdy as those which came later.  Daggers were for millennia an essential weapon for personal protection but, particularly after developments in ballistics; they tended to evolve more for formal or ceremonial purposes.

The Schutzstaffel (SS) dagger model M1933 (often abbreviated to M33).

The M1933 was the standard issue to all SS members, the hilt either silver or nickel-plate while the grip was black wood.  Produced in large numbers, collectors are most attracted to the low-volume variations such as those without the manufacturer’s trade-mark or RZM control markings.  Most prized are the rare handful with a complete "Ernst Röhm inscription" which read In herzlicher freundschaft, Ernst Röhm (In heartfelt friendship, Ernst Röhm).  Given his his habits, enjoying Röhm's "friendship" would for a few have proved a double-edged sword.   Some 136,000 of the engraved SA daggers were produced, a further 9900-odd distributed to the SS.  After Röhm (1887–1934; chief of the Nazi Sturmabteilung (the stormtroopers (the SA)) was executed during the Nacht der langen Messer (Night of the Long Knives), also called Unternehmen Kolbri (Operation Hummingbird) in 1934, all holders of the Röhm Honour Dagger were ordered to have the inscription removed and most complied, the unmodified survivors thus highly collectable although in some countries, the very idea of trading Nazi memorabilia is becoming controversial.  As ceremonial devices, bladed weapons were a feature of the uniforms worn during the Third Reich (1933-1945) and they were issued to all branches of the Wehrmacht (the German armed forces) the police, the various paramilitaries, the diplomatic service as well as organizations as diverse as the railways, the fire services, the forestry service and the postal office.  In this they were continuing a long German tradition but the Nazis vision of a homogenous, obedient population included the notion that uniforms should be worn wherever possible and there is something in the cliché that (at least at the time), no German was ever as happy as when they were in uniform.

Although the term is used widely, in the narrow technical sense, not all slim, high heels are stilettos.  The classic stilettos were the extremely slender Italian originals produced between the 1930s and 1960s, the heels of which were no more than 5 mm (0.2 inch) in diameter for much of their length, flaring at the top only to the extent structurally required successfully to attach to the sole; the construction of solid steel or an alloy.  Many modern, mass-produced shoes sold as "stilettos" are made with a heel cast in a rigid plastic with an internal metal tube for reinforcement, a design not having the structural integrity to sustain the true stiletto shape.  However, English is democratic and in the context of footwear, "stiletto" now describes the visual style, regardless of the materials.

The lines of the classic black stiletto (top left) were long ago made perfect and can't be improved upon; such is the allure that many women are prepared to endure inconvenience, instability, discomfort and actual pain just to wear them.  They appeal too to designers and the style, the quintessential feminine footwear, has been mashed-up with sneakers, Crocs, work-boots, sandals and even a scuba-diver's flippers (though their natural environment was the catwalk).  Military camouflage is often seen, designers attracted by the ultimate juxtaposition of fashion and function.  The Giuseppe Zanotti Harmony Sandals (bottom row, second from right) were worn by Lindsay Lohan on The Masked Singer (2019).    

In the world of fingernail fashioning, there are stilettos and stilettos square.  A statement shape, something of a triumph of style over functionally, the stiletto gains its dramatic effect from long and slender lines and can be shaped with either fully-tapered or partially square sides.  They’re vulnerable to damage, breaking when subjected to even slight impacts and almost never possible with natural growth and realistically, pointed nails, certainly in their more extreme iterations (the stilettos, lipstick, mountain peaks, edges, arrow-heads, claws or talons), are more for short-term effect than anything permanent.  Best used with acrylics, the knife-like style can be a danger to the nail itself and any nearby skin or stockings.  Those contemplating intimacy with a women packing these should first ponder the implications (although the "Edge" looks more lethal).  True obsessives insist the stiletto styles should be worn only with matching heels and then only if the colors exactly match.

1964 Hillman Imp.

The Hillman Imp was a small economy car introduced in 1964.  It was the product of the Rootes Group which needed an entry in a market segment which had been re-defined by the British Motor Corporation’s (BMC) Mini (1959-2000) and although similar in size, the engineering was radically different: rather than the Mini's front-engine / front wheel drive (FWD) arrangement which became (and to this day remains) the template for the industry, the Imp was configured with a rear-engine and rear wheel drive (RWD), something which had for years been a feature of small Europeans cars but was in the throes of being abandoned.  It never achieved the commercial success of the BMC product although it continued in production after 1967 when the Rootes group was absorbed by Chrysler and, perhaps remarkably, it remained on the books until 1976.  In that time, it sold in not even 10% of the volume achieved by the Mini.

What “Sports Racing Closed” was and what “Sports Sedans” became.  Peter Brock (1945-2006), Austin A30-Holden, Hume Weir, 1968 (left) and Frank Gardner (1931-2009), Chevrolet Corvair, Oran Park, 1976 (right).  The A30 ran a six cylinder Holden engine and sat on a frame built from a Triumph Herald chassis, all these elements bought from wrecking yards.  With a Chevrolet V8, the Corvair was converted to a mid-engined configuration and underneath was essentially a Lola T332 Formula 5000 race car.  Almost unbeatable on the track (except in the wet), the Corvair was legislated out of the sport, the rule changes preventing such a machine for being fielded again.

In Australia, what became the “sports sedans” began in the mid-1960s as a distinctly amateur form of racing called “Sports Racing Closed” which was closer to Formula Libre than any of the rule-bound categories in the mainstream.  What rules there were initially demanded little more than the use of some sort of saloon car (loosely interpreted) with certain safety fittings such as a roll-cage but beyond that builders were limited only by their budget and imagination.  As a non-professional, semi-official category, budgets tended to be tight but deeply imaginations (along with wrecking yards) were mined to compensate, resulting in some occasionally bizarre but often intriguing machines.  A predictably popular theory was to find the smallest and lightest car and install the biggest, most powerful engine one could afford.  The “hot-rod” formula attracted many competitors and a dedicated following but the racing establishment looked (down) upon the Sports Racing Closed category disapprovingly and would liked it to have gone away but, fast and loud, the crowds loved it so race organizers were anxious to invite the little hot rods to compete, knowing they’d draw a large (paying) audience.  By 1969, things had developed to the point where rather than just stage stand-alone races, what was planned was the “Australian Sports Sedan Championship” but CAMS (the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport, then the sport’s national regulatory body) refused to grant these upstarts the dignity of a “championship” and would concede only that they may contest a “trophy”.  The dam had however been breached and from that beginning, the sports sedans entered the mainstream, becoming one of the most popular categories of the 1970s.

Harry Lefoe in Hillman Imp-Ford.  Still with small square flares, trying to find traction, Oran Park 1970 (left), be-winged in an attempt to stay on the track, Hume Weir, 1971 (centre) and in final (flared) form, Hume Weir 1974 (right).

That drew in television coverage, sponsorship and the involvement of factories, a new professionalism which doomed the era of hybrid machines built with parts salvaged from wrecking yards.  In the last days of amateurism however there were still a few old-school machines fielded and was wilder most.  The Hillman Imp did enjoy some success in competition, winning three successive British Saloon Car Championships between 1970-1972 (competing in Class A (under 1000 cm3)) but before that, the light weight and diminutive dimensions held great appeal for Australian earth-moving contractor Harry Lefoe (1936-2000) who had a spare 302 cubic inch (4.9 litre) Ford (Windsor) V8 sitting in his workshop.  By 1969 the Imp was a Chrysler product and the recently formed Australian Sports Sedan Association (ASSA) had published guidelines which included restricting engines to those from cars built by the manufacturer of the body-shell but because the Windsor V8 had earlier been used in the Sunbeam (a corporate companion to Hillman) Tiger (1964-1967) the mix qualified.  So the big lump of an iron V8 replaced the Imp's 875 cm³ (53 cubic inch) aluminium four and such was the difference in size that Lefoe insisted his Imp had become “mid-engined” although it seems not to have imparted the handling characteristics associated with the configuration, the stubby hybrid infamous for its tendency to travel sideways.  It was never especially successful but even more than most at the time it was loud, fast, spectacular and always a crowd favourite.  The prodigious power and short wheelbase made the thing “twitchy” and in an attempt to improve traction and keep the rear wheels in contact with the road Lefoe fitted an elevated wing in the style which had been briefly popular in Formula One and the Can Am until being banned following a number of accidents caused by component failure.  In Australia a similar ban was soon imposed so Lefoe’s only obvious path to grip was to fit wider tyres which necessitated the fashioning of enveloping flares.  The approach brought some success but it was the end of an era as the fields increasingly were filled by highly developed (and expensive) machines, created often with factory support and the use of chassis not far removed from open-wheel racing cars.  Lefoe’s Imp was most influential because the car which in the mid 1970s was the dominant sports sedan was a (much modified) Chevrolet Corvair, another rear-engine machine transformed into something mid-engined.  So dominant was it the rules were changed limiting how far an engine could be moved from the original location.

1970 Sunbeam Stiletto Sport.

Introduced in 1967, the Sunbeam Stiletto was a “badge-engineered” variant of the Imp (there were also Singers), the name an allusion to the larger Sunbeam Rapier (a stiletto a short blade, a rapier longer).  Badge engineering (a speciality of the British industry during the post-war years) was attractive for corporations because while it might increase unit production costs by 5-10%, the retail price could be up to 40% higher.  Very much a “parts-bin special” (although there was the odd unique touch such as the quad-headlamps and the much-admired dashboard), mostly it was a mash-up, the fastback bodywork already seen on the Imp Californian and some interior fittings and the more powerful twin carburettor engine shared with the Singer Chamois.  Curiously, some sites report the fastback lines proved less aerodynamically efficient than the Imp’s more upright original, the opposite of what was found by Ford in the US when the “formal roof” Galaxies proved too slow on the NASCAR ovals, a “semi-fastback” at essentially the same angle as the Stiletto proving the solution; the physics of aerodynamics can be counter-intuitive.  Stiletto production ceased in 1972 with the Sunbeam brand-name retired in 1976 although Chrysler used it as a model name until 1981.

Ombre

Ombre (pronounced om-brey)

(1) A gradual blending of one color to another, usually a blended shifting of tints and shades from light to dark within the range of one hue but it can also be applied when using contrasting hues.

(2) A card game of Spanish origin, dating from the late seventeenth century; played usually by three, it uses a deck of forty cards, the 8, 9 & 10 discarded and gained the name from the phrase “Soy el hombre” (I am the man), uttered at critical points during play.  As a fashionable game, it was superseded by quadrille.

(4) A large Mediterranean fish (Umbrina cirrosa), popular in cooking (archaic and better known as the shi drum, gurbell, sea crow, bearded umbrine or corb).

1840–1845: From the French ombré (shadowed, shaded), past participle of ombrer, from the Italian ombrare (to cover in shadow (in painting)), ultimately from the Latin umbra (shadow).  The name of the card game (as a reference to the player who attempts to win the pot) was from the French hombre, from the Spanish hombre (man), from the Latin homo, from the earlier hemō, from the Proto-Italic hemō, from the primitive Indo-European ǵm̥mṓ (earthling), from déǵōm (earth), from which Latin gained Latin humus (ground, floor, earth, soil).  It was cognate with the Old Lithuanian žmuõ (man), the Gothic guma and the Old English guma (man).  The link between the words for both earth and man wasn't unique to Latin and existed also in Semitic languages, illustrated by the Hebrew אָדָם‎ (adám) (man) & אֲדָמָה‎ (adamá) (soil).  Ombre is a noun & adjective (and conceivably a verb); the noun plural is ombres.

Ombre chiffon strapless bridesmaid dress from Dollygown (left) and Mansory’s Ferrari F8XX Spider Tempesta Turchese (right).  There seems no clear agreement about when a "bridesmaid dress" becomes a "bridesmaid gown" and most retailers avoid the latter term, presumably to avoid compressing relativities between "bridal gowns" and what the bridesmaids wear.

Mansory is a German operation based in Tirschenreuth, Bavaria, the core business of which is the modification of high-priced (mostly European) cars.  Their signature approach is the celebration of conspicuous consumption and they eschew subtlety in favor of an eye-catching appearance, a focus being “one-off” (the “one of one philosophy” as they describe it) creations where a particular combination of colors and modifications are not duplicated on another vehicle.  So, while not exactly bespoke, their products are about the closest thing possible to actually displaying a price-tag somewhere on the bodywork, their output said to have achieved high sales Russia, China, the Middle East and India; Mansory's work with specific components, notably carbon-fibre, is renowned in the industry as state-of-the-art and of the highest standard.  One recent one-off creation was the F8XX Spider Tempesta Turchese (Turquoise Storm), a variation of their modified Ferrari F8 Spider on which the ombre color scheme transitioned gradually from a specially blended white to a vivid turquoise, accented by Mansory’s traditional set of forged carbon-fibre pieces in black.  The company also modifies the 3.9 liter (238 cubic inch) twin-turbocharged V8, its output increased by some 22% to 868 bhp (648 kW) which propels the Tempesta Turchese to a top speed of 220 mph (355 km/h).

Lindsay Lohan in vintage Herve Leger bandage dress, Maxim Hot 100 Party, Gansevoort Hotel, New York City, May 2007 (left) and 1976 PDL Ford Mustang II, Baskerville Raceway, Tasmania, Australia, 1977 (right).

Incorrectly, ombre sometimes is used to describe color arrays or schemes where a variety of distinct shades are applied with a clear line of division between each and this is wrong because the ombre effect is one in which there's a gradual blending of one hue into another.  Where the multi-color (which can be just two) layers are distinct and differentiated, designers use the generic term “color block” to refer to the use of solid blocks of contrasting or complementary shades.  A special case is the “rainbow stripe”, applied to an array which recalls the pattern (not necessarily the curved shape) of a rainbow but this need not follow the classic (ROYGBIV) color model.  Indeed, an array of colors which in nature would never be seen in a rainbow can still be called “rainbow stripe”, based on the pattern. So, Ms Lohan's bandage dress is in rainbow stripe while the Mustang II's livery is in a color block scheme. 

1974 Ford Mustang II.

Although of the seven generations it's the least fondly remembered, commercially, the Mustang II (1973-1979) was a great success.  Smaller and lighter than what it predecessor had evolved to become, serendipitously, it had been released just weeks before the first oil shock (October 1973).  It's sometimes forgotten the shift in the US to also produce smaller cars pre-dated the oil crisis of the 1970s and was a reaction to changing public tastes and success of imported cars, most notably those from Japan.  Upon debut, the Mustang II surprised some (and appalled others) because a V8 engine wasn't even on the option list but it was the right car at the right time and a great success although it's the only Mustang not to have some sort of following in the collector market.

1976 PDL Mustang II.

The PDL Mustang II was a space-frame race car built in New Zealand in 1976 to conform to the commendably liberal rules which at the time applied.  So extensive were the modifications from the donor vehicle that any relationship with the actual Ford Mustang II wasn’t even skin deep and it used one of the rare, aluminum-block Ford 351 cubic inch (5.8 litre) Cleveland V8s.  It replaced the original PDL Mustang  which was based on a genuine 1970 Mustang Boss 429 which had been stolen and recovered without its valuable engine and transmission.  Purchased for what was in retrospect the bargain price of US$500, it was actually a good basis for a circuit racer because Kar Kraft (the specialist operation to which the build of the Boss 429 programme (1969-1970) was out-sourced) was compelled to widen the front track to accommodate the big 429, something which, when fitted with an iron-block 351, greatly improved the handling.  Both cars enjoyed much success but so radical were the modifications to the Mustang II that eventually it was compelled to wander the planet to find events where the organizers were prepared to let it run.  When it was unleashed, it was fast, loud and spectacular and made a good case for there being more Formula Libre races.  That case can still be made.

Sling

Sling (pronounced sling)

(1) A (sometimes improvised) device for hurling stones or other missiles, constructed typically by the use of a short strap with a long string at each end, operated by placing the missile in the strap, and, holding the ends of the strings in one hand, whirling the instrument around in a circle and releasing one of the strings to discharge the missile; often called a slingshot (or sling-shot).

(2) A bandage used to suspend or support an injured part of the body, most commonly in an arrangement suspended from the neck to support an injured arm or hand.

(3) A strap, band, or the like, forming a loop by which something is suspended or carried, as a strap attached to a rifle and passed over the shoulder.

(4) As sling-back, a design used for woman’s shoes which uses an exposed, usually thin strap which wraps around the ankle.

(5) A rope, chain, net, etc, used for hoisting freight or other items or for holding them while being hoisted.

(6) An act or instance of slinging.

(7) In nautical use, a chain or halyard for supporting a hoisting yard (an in the plural (as slings), the area of a hoisting yard to which such chains are attached; the middle of a hoisting yard.

(8) To throw, cast, or hurl; fling, as from the hand.

(9) To place in or secure with a sling to raise or lower; to raise, lower, etc by such means; to hang by a sling or place so as to swing loosely.

(10) To suspend.

(11) An iced alcoholic drink, typically containing gin, water, sugar, and lemon or lime juice.

(12) In mountaineering, a loop of rope or tape used for support in belays, abseils, etc.

(13) A young or infant spider, such as one raised in captivity or those in labs used in scientific or industrial research (a shortening of s(pider)ling).

(14) In the sport of badminton, carrying the shuttle on the face of the racquet rather than hitting it cleaning (penalized as a foul).

1175–1225: From the Middle English noun slynge (hand-held implement for throwing stones) & verb slyngen (past tense slong, past participle slungen & slongen) (to knock down" using a sling (and by the mid-thirteenth century “to throw, hurl, fling, especially if using a sling), probably from the Old Norse slyngja & slyngva (to hurl, to fling), from the Proto-Germanic slingwaną (to worm, twist) which was cognate with the Middle Low German slinge (a sling), the Old High German slingan and the Old English slingan (to wind, twist) and etymologists speculate that while the Middle English noun may be derived from the verb, the sense of “strap, hoist” may be of distinct (an uncertain) origin.  The Old English slingan (to wind, twist) came from the same source and comparable European forms include the German schlingen (to swing, wind, twist), the Old Frisian slinge, the Middle Dutch slinge and the Danish and Norwegian slynge, from the primitive Indo-European slenk (to turn, twist) which may be compared with the Welsh llyngyr (worms, maggots), the Lithuanian sliñkti (to crawl like a snake) and the Latvian slìkt (to sink).  The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) approved the past tense slung but not slang.  Sling is a noun & verb, slinger is a noun, slinging & slung are verbs and slinged is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is slings.

The notion of the verb was doubtlessly that of the missile being twisted and twirled before it is released and the stone or piece of metal hurled was by the late fourteenth century known as a sling-stone, the older English word for which was lithere, from the Old English liþere (related to leather), the connection being the strips of tanned animal hide used in slings.  Etymologists note the likely influence of Low German cognates in the sense development in English, the use to describe a “loop for lifting or carrying heavy objects” documented since the early fourteenth century and the “leather shoulder strap for a musket or other long-arm” was in use by at least 1711.  As pieces of fabric used to support injured arms, there evidence of use dating back thousands of years but such things seem formally to have been called slings only after the 1720s, the earlier medical word in Middle English for a “sling or supporting loop used in treating dislocations”, although there was also the early fifteenth century stremb & suspensorie, from the Medieval Latin stremba.  The slingshot (also sling-shot or hand-catapult) dates from 1849 and although it seems likely to have previously been in oral use, it’s not documented as a verb until 1969.  The slung-shot, first recorded in 1848, was a rock wrapped in a sling, used as a weapon by the criminal class and those living in rough neighborhoods.

Separamadu Lasith Malinga (b 1983), a Sri Lankan cricketer and right-arm fast bowler who was known as "Slinga Malinga" because of his unusual delivery, often referred to as a "sling action".

As a battlefield weapon, the sling is ancient and has endured (often in improvised form) to this day because it’s simple, reliable and can readily be fashioned from whatever falls to hand.  As projectiles, rocks can be lethal if delivered with force and in many environments (include urban), ammunition is effectively limitless.  In Antiquity, the armies of Greece, Rome & Carthage all had units of slingers attached to their infantry formations and used continued into the sixteenth century when the first grenades were developed.  There’s a political aspect too, the Palestinian resistance fighters gaining notably more international sympathy when they restricted their weapons to stones and slings rather than guns and bombs.  The sweetened, flavored liquor drink known as the sling was a creation of US English, dating from 1792, the origin mysterious although it may have been from the notion of “throwing back” a drink or linked with the German schlingen (to swallow).  In the nineteenth century, it was used also as a verb in the sense “to drink slings”.  The noun gun-slinger, although now associated with the Hollywood version of the nineteenth century American west, is documented only since 1916 and sling hash was US slang for a waiter or waitress, especially one employed at a lunch counter or cheap restaurant. In Australian slang a sling was a (1) a part of one’s wages paid in physical cash, thereby avoiding taxation and (2) that part of a business’s turnover not entered in the transactional record, again as a form of tax evasion.  It picked up- on the earlier use of sling to mean “to sell, peddle, or distribute something (often drugs, sex etc) illicitly, e.g. drugs, sex, etc.).  A rare variation was undersling (to sell with an implication of illegality) and that presumably was for emphasis, being a blend of “under the table” and “sling”.

Lindsay Lohan in open-toed slingbacks, New York City, April 2006.

Slingback shoes are so-named for the distinctive ankle strap which crosses around the back and sides of the ankle and heel.  In this it’s a style distinct from a conventional arrangement in which a strap completely encircles the ankle.  Produced in a variety of heel heights and in open & closed-toe styles, most slingbacks are made with a low vamp little different from those with enclosed heels.  In a sense, the slingback shoe is related to the many types of sandal but is almost always more formal.  To accommodate different ankle sizes, slingback straps are almost always of adjustable length, typically with a buckle and such is the design that it’s rarely necessary for the wearer to re-buckle after the first fitting.  In that sense, slingbacks are effectively slip-ons.

Two Singapore Slings.

The Singapore sling cocktail said to have been invented in 1915, by a bartender at Raffles Hotel’s (named after Sir Stamford Raffles (1781–1826), a colonial official who under the Raj was a notable figure in the early development of Singapore) Long Bar.  Selling sometimes a thousand a day during the peak season, the current price of a Singapore sling (including taxes) is SGD$46 (US$34) so the Long Bar’s cash flow is usually positive.  The unusual story of its origin is also a tale of one of the Far East’s early contributions to women’s rights because although the European men in the Long Bar coped with the heat & humidity with gin & tonics or whisky & sodas, they didn’t approve of women drinking alcohol in public places so they were served iced teas or fruit juices.  However, although it’s not recorded where it was a product of feminist agitation or local initiative, a bartender created a drink visually indistinguishable from the fruit juices usually served but which was actually a cocktail infused with gin, cherry liqueur & grenadine, the latter chosen for the pinkish-red hue it produced, something said to lend it some “feminine appeal”.  Thus was born the Singapore Sling which, more than a century later remains a symbol of the city-state although there have been many variations over the years including the addition of ingredients such as lime, pineapple juice, Cointreau or Benedictine liqueur.

The Singapore Sling Chicane in its original form (left) and before & after (2012-2013, right).

Conducted on a street circuit the Singapore Grand Prix was added to the Formula One (F1) calendar in 2008 and is notable as the first ever night time Grand Prix, a wise move in the equatorial zone.  Although regarded as one of the more challenging of the street circuits, the city-state had previously staged motor-racing events and they were conducted on an a narrow and treacherous course called the Thomson Road Grand Prix circuit, created overnight from public roads which offered almost no run-off areas and featured monsoon drains, bus stops, and lampposts, all dangerously close to the racing line which itself was marked by the oil trails left by the cars, trucks and buses which usually percolated around.  More than one driver called the circuit the “most dangerous in the world”.  The racing however was good, the original Grand Prix on the course run in 1961 under Formula Libre rules (much more interesting than the current, dull Formula One cars) and the events between 1966-1973 were usually Formula Two (F2) events but by 1973 Singapore had developed to such an extent the organization was just too disruptive and the safety concerns about Thomson Road were not merely theoretical because there had been injuries and deaths.  However, in 2008 the Marina Bay Street Circuit was designed and despite being regarded as “difficult”, it conformed to all modern safety requirements.  Notably, it contained 23 corners, more than any other on the calendar and by far the most famous was turn 10 which attracted such interest it was divided by analysts into 3 smaller turns (10a, 10b, & 10c).  The corner was called the Singapore Sling Chicane.

Lindsay Lohan, 2009 Singapore Grand Prix.

It was well-named because between turns 9 & 10, F1 cars were travelling at around 170 mph (273 km/h) and the Singapore Sling was defined with raised kerbing which, it hit at speed would literally launch a car into the air if the driver varied by less than an inch (25 mm) from the ideal line.  One driver called them “little tortoises that would wreck the car if you get something wrong” and after many complaints from various drivers the height of the kerbing was reduced.  However, that only reduced the danger they posed and crashes continued so in 2010 Turn 10 was modified but there were still airborne adventures and broken cars still littered the chicane at every event.  Physicists even ran the number through one of the super-computers used usually to model the climate or simulate thermo-nuclear weapons and determined that if a F1 machine hit “a tortoise” at racing speed, it was guaranteed to hit the wall.  Accordingly, in 2013 Turn 10 became just a left-handed turn instead of the left / right / left format of the notorious Singapore Sling Chicane.  That in itself was unusual because the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (the FIA; the International Automobile Federation which is international sport’s dopiest regulatory body) has for decades adored chicanes to the point of fetishism, such is their desire to make racing as slow and processional as possible.  In recent seasons however, F1 has become so predictably processional, there have been calls to bring back the Singapore Sling Chicane and given nobody has come up with a better suggestion to make the competition interesting, it may be worth considering.  Of course, they could change the rules relating to the cars and the adoption of large capacity hydrogen-burning internal combustion engines would be a good start. 

Breadvan

Breadvan (pronounced bred-vann)

(1) A delivery vehicle adapted for carrying loaves of bread or other bakery items for delivery to retail outlets, hotels, cafés etc.

(2) As the Ferrari 250 GT SWB (short wheelbase) “Breadvan”, a one-off vehicle produced in 1962.

(3) As a descriptor of the “breadvan” style applied to the rear of vehicles to seek aerodynamic advantages in competition, variously applied, mostly during the 1960s.

1840s: The construct was bread + van.  Bread was from the Middle English bred & breed (kind of food made from flour or the meal of some grain, kneaded into a dough, fermented, and baked), from the Old English brēad (fragment, bit, morsel, crumb), from the Proto-West Germanic braud, from the Proto-Germanic braudą (cooked food, leavened bread), from the primitive Indo-European berw- & brew- (to boil, to see).  Etymologists note also the Proto-Germanic braudaz & brauþaz (broken piece, fragment), from the primitive Indo-European bera- (to split, beat, hew, struggle) and suggest bread may have been a conflation of both influences.  It was cognate with the Old Norse brauð (bread), the Old Frisian brad (bread), the Middle Dutch brot (bread) and the German Brot (bread), the Scots breid (bread), the Saterland Frisian Brad (bread), the West Frisian brea (bread), the Dutch brood (bread), the Danish & Norwegian brød (bread), the Swedish bröd (bread), the Icelandic brauð (bread), the Albanian brydh (I make crumbly, friable, soft) and the Latin frustum (crumb).  It displaced the non-native Middle English payn (bread), from the Old French pain (bread), having in the twelfth century replaced the usual Old English word for "bread," which was hlaf.  Van was short for caravan, from the Middle French caravane, from the French caravane, from the Old French carvane & carevane, (or the Medieval Latin caravana), from the Persian کاروان‎ (kârvân), from the Middle Persian (kārawān) (group of desert travelers), from the Old Persian ultimately from the primitive Indo-European ker- (army).  Most famously, the word was used to designate a group of people who were travelling by camel or horse on the variety of routes referred to as the Silk Road and it reached the West after being picked up during the Crusades, from the Persian forms via the Arabic qairawan and connected ultimately to the Sanskrit karabhah (camel).  Breadvan (also as bread-van) is a noun; the noun plural is breadvans.

Breadvans various

Horse-drawn breadvan.

The breadvans were first horse-drawn and came into use in the in the 1840s.  These vans were used to transport freshly baked bread from bakeries to homes and businesses in cities and towns in the UK, Europe, North America and Australasia.  The breadvan was adopted as an efficiency measure, being a significant improvement on the traditional system of delivery which was usually a “baker’s boy” carrying baskets of bread on foot to customers.  The horse-drawn breadvans allowed bakers increase production and expand their customer base.  The construction of the vehicles was not particularly specialized but they did need to be (1) waterproof to protect the goods from the elements and (2) secure enough that the bread was accessible either to opportunistic birds, dogs or thieves.

Breadvan: Morris Commercial J-type (1949-1961).

Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988) is famous for the cars which carry his name but his imperious attitude to customers and employees alike led to a number of them storming out of Maranello and creating their own machines.  Some, like Lamborghini survived through many ups & downs, others like Bizzarrini survived for a while and ATS (Automobili Turismo Sport) produced a dozen exquisite creations before succumbing to commercial reality.  Another curious product of a dispute with il Commendatore was the Ferrari 250 GT SWB “Breadvan”.

Ferrari 250 GT SWB “Breadvan”.

Ferrari’s 250 GTO became available to customers in 1962 and one with his name on the list was Count Giovanni Volpi di Misurata (b 1938), principal of the Scuderia Serenissima Republica di Venezia (ssR) operation but when Enzo Ferrari found out Volpi was one of the financial backers of the ATS project, he scratched the count’s name from the order book.  Through the back channel deals which characterize Italian commerce. Volpi did obtain a GTO but he decided he’d like to make a point and decided to make something even better for his team’s assault on the 1962 Le Mans 24 hour endurance classic.  In the ssR stable was what was reputed to be the world’s fastest Ferrari GT SWB (serial number 2819 GT) and it was decided to update this to to a specification beyond even that of the GTO, a task entrusted to Giotto Bizzarrini (1926-2023) who, with remarkable alacrity, performed the task in the workshops of noted coachbuilder Piero Drogo (1926–1973).

The Breadvan leading a 250 GT SWB, the car on which it was based.

The changes were actually quite radical.  To obtain the ideal centre of gravity, the 3.0 litre (180 cubic inch) V12 engine was shifted 4¾ inches (120 mm) rearward, sitting entirely behind the front axle and mounted lower, something permitted by the installation of a dry sump lubrication system.  Emulating the factory GTO, six downdraft, twin choke Weber carburetors sat atop the inlet manifold, the tuned engine generating a healthy 300 bhp.  Given the re-engineering, on paper, the car was at least a match for the GTO except it lacked the factory machine’s five-speed gearbox, running instead the standard four-speed.  What really caught the eye however was body Bizzarrini’s striking bodywork, the sharp nose so low Perspex cover had to be fabricated to shield the cluster of a dozen velocity stacks of the Webers that protruded above the bonnet-line.  Most extraordinary however was the roofline which extended from the top of the windscreen to the rear where it was sharply cut-off to create what remains perhaps the most extreme Kamm-tail ever executed.

Ferrari 250 GT SWB “Breadvan”.

The count was impressed, the creation matching the GTO for power while being 100 kg (220 lb) lighter and aerodynamically more efficient.  Accordingly he included it in the three-car Ferrari team he assembled for Le Mans along with the GTO and a 250 TR/61 and it appearance caused a sensation, the French dubbing it la camionnette (little truck) but it was the English nickname “Breadvan” which really caught on.  To a degree the count proved his point.  Under pressure from Ferrari the organizers forced the Breadvan to run in the prototype class against pure racing cars rather than against the GTOs in the granturismo category but in the race, it outpaced the whole GT field until, after four hours, a broken driveshaft forced its retirement.  It was campaigned four times more in the season scoring two GT class victories and a class track record before being retired.  Volpi sold the car in 1965 for US$2,800 and its current value is estimated to be around US$30 million.  It remains a popular competitor on the historic racing circuit.

1965 Ford GT40 Mark I (left) 1966 Ford J Car (centre) & 1967 Ford GT40 Mark IV (right).

As well as the ATS, Lamborghinis and Bizzarrinis, Enzo Ferrari’s attitude to those who disagreed with him also begat the Ford GT40, a well-known tale recounted (with a little license) in the 20th century Fox film Ford vs Ferrari (2019).  In 7.0 litre (427 cubic inch) form, the GT40 Mark II won at Le Mans in 1966 but Ford’s engineers were aware the thing was overweight and lacked the aerodynamic efficiency of the latest designs so embarked on a development program, choosing the project name “J Car”, an allusion to the “Appendix J” regulations (one of the FIA’s few genuinely good ideas) with which it conformed.  The aluminum honeycomb chassis was commendably light and, noting the speed advantage gained by the Ferrari Breadvan in 1962, a similar rear section was fabricated and testing confirmed the reduction in drag.  Unfortunately, the additional speed it enabled exposed the limitation of the breadvanesque lines: above a certain speed the large flat surface acted like an aircraft’s wing and the ensuing lift provoked lethal instability and one fatal crash in testing proved the lightweight chassis also was fragile.  The “J Car” was thus abandoned and a more conventional approach was taken for both the chassis and body of the GT40 Mark IV and it proved successful, in 1967 gaining the second of Ford’s four successive victories at Le Mans (1966-1969).

The modern Ferrari "breadvans"

Ferrari 250 GT SWB “Breadvan” (left) and 2013 Ferrari FF (right).

Rather than the 250 Breadvan, it was probably market research which inspired the Ferrari FF (2011-2016), the Italian factory's first take on the shooting brake concept although over the decades, there had been more than a dozen "variations on the theme of a Ferrari station wagon" by a number of coachbuilders, all in their own way distinctive but none improved the lines of the donor car on which they were based, unlike the Jaguar XJS shooting brakes which looked so good it was remarkable one never appeared in the catalogue.  According to the factory, "FF" stood for "Ferrari Four" a reference to the AWD (all wheel drive) configuration although it may also have been intended to remind potential buyers the thing could seat four and the promotional material included pictures of ski-racks and even a roof-mounted “ski-box”, able to hold ski-gear for four.  Clearly, the combination of AWD traction and the carrying capacity was a hint this was a car for those who liked to drive to the ski-fields.  The Ferrari FF "shooting brake" (the factory seems not to have used the term although most journalists seems to thought it best except the better informed who referenced the 250 "Breadvan") was very much in the same vein, its capaciousness closer to that of a “big coupé” rather than any size of station wagon although the factory did circulate photographs of the rear-compartment comfortably (if snugly) packed with a set of golf-clubs and a half dozen-odd travel bags; with folding rear seats, Ferrari claimed a trunk (boot) capacity of 450-800 litres (16-28 cubic feet).

1966 Jensen FF Series 1 (left) and 2017 Ferrari GTC4Lusso (right).

Despite the name, there was apparently no intention to link the car with the Jensen FF (1966-1971) a pioneering machine which featured both all wheel drive (AWD although then still called 4WD (four wheel drive)) and anti-lock brakes (an early, mechanical implementation derived from use in aviation which was most effective).  Anti-lock braking is essentially a form of “pressure modulation” and the modern abbreviation "ABS" doesn’t reference the often quoted  “Anti-Lock Braking System”; the correct source is Anti-Bloc System, the name adopted in 1966 when Daimler-Benz and the Heidelberg electronics company Teldix (later absorbed by Bosch) began a co-development of a hybrid analogue-electronic system.  The system used on the Jensen FF was an early, mechanical implementation derived from use in aviation which have proved effective for aircraft landing on icy runways)

The Jensen FF really wasn’t a shooting brake although the huge and distinctive rear window was also a hatch so it did offer some of the advantages.  Despite the high price, the Jensen FF sold remarkably well but its market potential was limited because all Ferguson’s development work had been done in England using right-hand-drive (RHD) vehicles and the system was so specific it wasn’t possible to make a left-hand-drive (LHD) FF without re-engineering the whole mechanism which was so bulky the passenger's front seat was narrower than that of the driver so much did things intrude.  Consequently, only 320 were built, apparently at a financial loss.  Ferrari did better with their FF, over 2000 sold between 2011–2016 and although the packaging may have been remarkably efficient, with a 6.3 litre (382 cubic inch) V12 it was never going to be economical, listed by the 2013 US Department of Energy as the least fuel-efficient car in the midsize class, sharing that dubious honor with the bigger, heavier (though not as rapid) Bentley Mulsanne.  For owners, the 335 km/h (208 mph) top speed was presumably sufficient compensation.  When production ended, the FF was replaced by the conceptually similiar GTC4Lusso (2016-2020) and, unusually, in 2017 the factory announced the GTC4Lusso T, the appended "T" a reference to it being powered by a twin-turbocharged V8 rather than its older sibling's V12; the V8 was RWD (rear wheel drive) but did retain the four-wheel steering (4WS) system.  The last of the pair left the factory late in 2020 and were not replaced so there have been no Ferrari Breadvans since.    

Homemade breadvans

Ford Anglia, Rallye Monte-Carlo, 1962 (left) & Ford Anglia "breadvans" built for New Zealand Allcomer racing during the 1960s. 

Marketing opportunity for niche players: A Lindsay Lohan breadvan, Reykjavik, Iceland.

In the US, at a time with a million dollars was still a lot of money, Ford spent probably at least a million on the GT40’s abortive breadvan but in New Zealand, it doubtful the amateur racers in the popular “Allcomers” category (a close cousin of the admirable Formula Libre) spent even a hundred in the development of their “breadvans”.  In the Allcomer category, the “breadvans” (again a nod to the Count Volpi’s 1962 Ferrari) were Ford Anglias with a rear section modified to gain some aerodynamic advantage.  The English Ford Anglia (1959-1968) had an unusual reverse-angle rear-window (borrowed from some of the corporation's US Lincolns & Mercurys), a design chosen to optimize headroom for back-seat passengers.  That it did but it also induced additional drag which, while of no great consequence at the speeds attained in rallying or on public roads, did compromise the top speed, something of great concern to those who found the light, agile machines otherwise well-suited to racing.  In the spirit of improvisation for which New Zealand Allcomer racing was renowned, “breadvans” soon proliferated, fabricated variously from fibreglass, aluminum or steel (and reputedly even paper-mache although that may be apocryphal and based on the use of the technique to create molds for a fibreglass structure) and the approach was successful, Anglias competitive in some forms of racing well into the 1970s by which time some had, improbably, been re-powered with V8 engines, an Allcomer solution for just about any problem.