Fiat

Fiat (pronounced fee-aht, fee-at, fahy-uht or fahy-at)

(1) An authoritative decree, sanction, or order.

(2) A fixed form of words containing the word fiat, by which a person in authority gives sanction, or authorization; official sanction; authoritative permission.

(3) An arbitrary decree or pronouncement, especially by a person or group of persons having absolute authority to enforce it.

(4) As FIAT, the acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (originally Italian Automobiles Factory, Turin, now Fiat Automobiles SpA and part of FCA (the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles conglomerate).  The companion initialism (as derogatory slang) in certain places (as an allusion to perceptions of unreliability) was “fix it again Tony”.

(5) In the law of England and some Commonwealth countries, an authority for certain actions issued given by the Lord Chancellor (England) or the attorney-general (elsewhere).

(6) In the law of England, a warrant issued by a judge for certain purposes.

(7) As fiat currency, a government-issued currency backed not by the possession of a physical commodity (typically gold) but inherently by the issuing government (also called fiat money).

1625–1635: From the Latin fiat (literally “let it be done”, the third singular present subjunctive of fierī (be done, become, come into existence).  The original meaning was "authoritative sanction", fiat thus understood as it was used in the preamble of Medieval Latin proclamations and commands.  The Latin fierī was from the primitive Indo-European root bheue- (to be, exist, grow), used as passive of facere (to make, do).  The meaning "a decree, command, order" became formalized circa 1750 and remains in the legal vocabulary of English (and of some Commonwealth countries) law to this day.  Fiat is the third-person singular, fiats the simple present, fiating the present participle and fiated the simple past and past participle.  The noun plural is fiats.  In the transitive, it’s used in academic debate and in role-playing games although use is now less frequent.

It’s also sometimes is a reference to fiat lux (the famous “let there be light") in the biblical Book of Genesis.  In the Latin Vulgate Bible, the Hebrew phrase יְהִי אוֹר‎ (let there be light) is translated in Latin as fiat lux, the relevant scriptural passage (Genesis 1:3 in the Torah (the first part of the Hebrew Bible)) being dixitque Deus fiat lux et facta est lux (And said God let there be light, and there was light) although Fiat lux would actually translate literally as "let light be made" (fiat the third person singular present passive subjunctive form of the verb facio, meaning "to do" or "to make").  Fashions of form and conventions of use in language do however change and translators adjust their work to render sentences in a form familiar to the audiences of the day: The Douay–Rheims Bible (an English translation from the Vulgate made by members of the English College, Douai, under a commission from the Catholic Church and first published in 1858 in Reims, France) translated the phrase as "Be light made. And light was made."  In translations from the Old Testament, the Greek was usually γενηθήτω φῶς (genēthḗtō phôs) and the Latin fiat lux and lux sit.

Although the words authorization, directive, ruling, mandate, diktat, ukase, command, decree, dictate, dictum, edict, endorsement, mandate, ordinance, permission, precept, sanction & warrant often (in practical application and effect) overlap with fiat, fiat retains at law a precise technical meaning.  While there are variations, the power of an attorney-general in the Australian states to issue a fiat is broadly indicative of the scope (where it exists) in the English-speaking world (although in England all or some of these powers may instead be discharged by the Lord Chancellor).  Essentially, an attorney-general will grant a fiat if it is held to be in the public interest or for the efficient administration of justice. 

In order to participate in a legal proceeding, a person must have "standing" which means their legal rights or interests have been or will be adversely affected by the conduct of another party.   If a person lacks standing, they can request the attorney-general to grant a fiat, or consent to bring the action in the AG's name, a practice sometimes called a "relator action".  An attorney-general has a personal discretion in the matter of fiats but will tend to consent to an issue only if things involve the enforcement or protection of a public right or interest.  What constitutes the public interest is a matter for the attorney and there are no circumstances in which they're obliged to grant a fiat but some jurisdictions require the reasons for a refusal to be provided in writing and tabled in parliament and provision for judicial review is sometimes possible.

FIAT (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino)

The Italian car manufacturer FIAT is now part of FCA (the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles conglomerate).  In business since 1899, sometime in the late twentieth century, FIAT lost its way, essentially because of the need to respond to the challenge of the much-improved Japanese cars which, even if their dynamic qualities were uninspiring, offered very competitive pricing, reliability, superb build-quality, responsive dealer networks and high standard equipment levels.  FIAT’s response was the same as that of many others which hadn’t expected the rapidity of improvement from the far-east manufacturers: they tried to produce “Japanese” cars only to find out the Nipponese were better at it and in the years since have never really recovered the spirit which for decades, once made even modest, low-priced FIATs genuinely exciting cars which were a joy to look at and a pleasure to drive.

Some notable Fiats

Fiat 850 Spider (1965-1973).

Between 1964-1973 (although the commercial derivative, the 850 Familiare would last until 1976), Fiat produced a range of 850s, all rear-engined (which seemed at the time a good idea).  Most were utilitarian family cars or stubby coupés but most memorable were the 850 Spiders, exquisite little roadsters designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro (b 1938) while at Carrozzeria Bertone.  The lovely lines were uncluttered and the restraint extended to the engineering, resulting in a light, aerodynamic body which permitted the engine, although a modest 843 cm³ (51.44 cubic inch), busily to deliver surprising sprightly performance.  Notably too, in a masterpiece of design which eluded generation of English manufacturers, the convertible top folded effortlessly in a one-handed operation and tucked neatly away under a metal lid.

In 1968, except for the US market, the engine was enlarged to 903 cm³ (55.10 cubic inch) which sounds slight but in percentage terms was about the same increase Chevrolet during the same era performed on their small-block (327 (5.3 litre) to 350 cubic inch (5.7 litre)) & big-block (396 (6.5) to 427 (7.0)) V8s so the effect was noticeable, torque and top speed both benefiting (a little) and despite the bump in displacement, instead of being re-named to 900, the new model was instead called the 850 Sport.  US buyers got an engine with a slightly smaller bore, reducing the displacement to 817 cm³ (49.9 cubic inch), a quick and (literally) dirty solution to the new emission-control rules in that the regulations weren't imposed on engines smaller than 50 cubic inches.  Adding insult to injury, the US lighting laws forced Fiat to replace the elegant faired-in headlamps with rather ungainly sealed-beam units, a fate also suffered by machines as diverse as the Jaguar E-Type (XK-E) and the Volkswagen Beetle.  Between 1965-1973, 125,010 were built, 87,360 of which were sold in the US and the few survivors (rust was quite an issue) are a collectable, collectors attracted especially to the limited-production variations, the rare, highly-tuned Abarth version the most coveted.

Fiat 130 Sedan (1969-1976).  Only four of the coach-built estates were made.

Had the Fiat 130 been sold badged as a Lancia or even (with a V8 engine) as a Ferrari (both marques at the time owned by FIAT), it might now be remembered as a great success rather than a failure.  It’s debatable whether brand-name consciousness was any less then than now but perceptions certainly counted against the 130 which moved FIAT suddenly into the upper middle-class market where not only were Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar-Daimler long dominant but the newer, bigger BMWs were also becoming established, building on the successes enjoyed by their smaller models.  Some at the time criticized the styling of the sedan, suggesting it showed little more imagination than increasing the dimensions of the company’s smaller, three-box designs but this was after all exactly the approach of Mercedes-Benz and the 130 was a well-executed, balanced shape with an interior which displayed true Italian flair, offering something more modern than the leather & walnut of the Jaguar or the austere functionality of the German competition.  However, as a driving experience, the 130 was very much in line with the smaller Fiat sedans, demanding involvement from the driver to extract the most from the 2.9 litre (175 cubic inch) V6 but rewarding with fine handling and high levels of adhesion though ultimately not the refinement and effortlessness to which Jaguar and Mercedes drivers had become accustomed.  Not even increasing the engine capacity to 3.2 litres (197 cubic inch) helped sales and when production ending in 1976, only 15,089 had been built, Mercedes-Benz in the same time having produced 243,234 of their comparable (six cylinder) W114 sedans (230.6, 250, 280 & 280E).

Fiat 130 Coupé (1971-1977).  The Maremma (a two-door shooting brake) and the Opera (a four-door sedan) were both one-offs.

If the avant-garde had thought the appearance of the 130 sedan underwhelming, few were less than effusive in praising the coupé when first it was displayed in 1971.  Styled by Paolo Martin (b 1943) of Carrozzeria Pininfarina , it makes an interesting contrast with the Citroën SM (1970-1975) on which barely a straight-line could be found and the 130’s knife-edged lines so defined the European rectilinear motif that no manufacturer has since attempted to push the envelope further.  In Europe, like the sedan, it was available with a five-speed manual gearbox which really suited the characteristics of the high-revving V6 but in most exports markets it was offered only with an uninspiring three-speed automatic, resulting in performance which, while not exactly anemic, was lethargic by comparison. Again, the badge meant that sales suffered but Pininfarina saw the possibilities offered by the severe lines and fabricated two prototypes, the Maremma (a two-door shooting brake) in 1974 and the four-door Opera the following year.  Both were much admired but FIAT, disappointed and financially chastened by what would be their last foray into the (European) large-car market, had already decided to abandon the segment and neither project proceeded.  When production of the 130 coupé ended in 1977, only 4,498 had been made.

Fiat 124 Sport Coupé (1967-1975).

The versatile platform on which FIAT built the 124 sedan (1966-1974) is now probably best recognized as the remarkable Russian-made Lada VAZ-21xx (Zhiguli in the home market but often known by the nickname Kopeyka) which in modified but substantially original form remained in production until 2012 (lasting ever longer in the license-built versions produced in Egypt).  However, FIAT also leveraged the platform even before selling designs and tooling to the USSR, in 1967 producing the stylish Fiat 124 Sport Coupé on a shortened wheelbase but otherwise using most of the sedan's mechanical and structural components.  Sold over three generations with three engine displacements (1438 cm³ (88 cubic inch), 1608 cm³ (98 cubic inch) & 1756 cm³ (107 cubic inch), it was an immediate hit in both home and export markets, and worldwide, often in short supply, sales constrained only by FIAT’s inability to increase production.  One quirk was the 1592 cm³ (97 cubic inch) version produced for the home market to take advantage of tax regulations, a regime which also produced oddities such as the two litre (122 cubic inch) Lamborghini & Ferrari V8s.  Over 285,000 had been built when in 1975, production ended and another 24,000 odd were built under licence by the Spanish manufacturer SEAT between 1970 and 1975.

Fiat 124 Sport Spider.

Long lived though the 124 coupé was, the 124 roadster lasted another decade, produced by FIAT until 1982 and then by Pininfarina as a separate line until 1985.  The 124 Sport Spider used the same mechanical components as the coupé although in 1979, a two litre version of the familiar twin-cam four was made available, eventually gaining fuel-injection and a turbocharger although the most powerful of all was the Volumex, a supercharged model which for reasons of compatibility reverted to carburetors; it was sold only in Europe, there being no prospect of engineering the induction system to conform with US emission rules.  Despite being available only in left-hand drive, over 200,000 124 spiders were made in the two decades it was produced and, perhaps improbably, the roadster also enjoyed an illustrious career in competition, Abarth in 1971 co-operating with FIAT in homologating it in the FIA’s Group 4 for entry into the World Rally Championship where it proved competitive, winning the 1972 European Rally Championship despite competing against more obviously credentialed machinery.  The experience gained proved useful when the factory later embarked on more serious campaigns using the Lancia Stratos and the Fiat-Abarth 131.

Fiat G.55 Centauro (Centaur) (1943-1948).

The Fiat G.55 Centauro was a single-engine, single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Regia Aeronautica (though not in combat) and the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana between 1943–1945.  Acknowledged by both sides as the best Italian fighter produced during the war, it was in some aspects as good as most competitive types of the era, only the very last of the Allied fighters demonstrably superior.  It was an extensively re-designed development of the earlier G.50 Freccia, distinguished by a highly efficient wing, a more slender fuselage, heavier armament and the use of the much more powerful Daimler-Benz 605A V12 engine or the FIAT-built RA 1050 equivalent.  Manufacture began early in 1943 but it wasn’t until shortly before Italy’s capitulation in September 1943 that the first planes were delivered to operational squadrons, too late to be deployed in combat.  Instead, it entered service with the pro-Nazi Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana, partly equipping six fighter groups operating with Luftwaffe units defending the skies of northern Italy.  Fewer than 300 had been completed by the end of hostilities in 1945 but the quality of the airframe was noted and production resumed in 1946, almost all of which were exported, used by the military in Argentina, Egypt and Syria.  Demand continued however and, once stocks of the now out-of-production Daimler-Benz and Fiat engines were exhausted, the front sub-frames were re-designed to use the Rolls-Royce Merlin V12; in this form production continued in 1948 as the G.59.

Fiat 127 (1971-1983).

Replacing the rear-engined 850s, the 127, along with the Peugeot 104 and Renault 5 set the template for what would be called the European “supermini” class, the design imperatives of which would last for three decades, the influences seen still today.  What however distinguished the Fiat 127 from the French (and soon the Japanese) competition was its Italian flair, the driving experience genuinely involving though admittedly at the expense of NVH (noise, vibration & harshness) to which others paid more attention but Italian drivers probably didn’t object, enjoying pushing the little (903 cm³ (55.10 cubic inch)) engine to the redline with one hand on the stubby gear lever, the other hovering above the horn button.  One magazine tested a 127 and called it "the .9 litre Ferrari" which was hyperbolic but made the point the thing was fun (if a little raucous) to drive.  Like the 124, the 127’s platform also had a long life even after Fiat ceased production in 1983, made in Spain for another year and in South America until 1996.  Ominously too, the 127 was the basis for some of the Yugos, the Yugoslav-built cars which feature so frequently on list like “the ten worst cars ever built”.

Fiat Dino (1966-1973).

The Fiat Dino (Type 135) was from a happy era when manufacturers built road cars with racing car engines so a sufficient number would exist to homologate them for use in competition.  In what was at the time a novel arrangement (and similar to the later agreement between Volkswagen and Porsche for the 914), the all aluminum 2.0 litre (122 cubic inch) V6 would be used in the front-engined Fiat Dinos and Ferrari’s mid-engined Dino (1967-1974).  It was the Dino spider which Fiat first displayed, the coupé released a few months later and the Dino 206 (made by Ferrari), some weeks later still.  In 1969, Ferrari and Fiat almost simultaneously announced revised Dinos, the engine now with an iron block and enlarged to 2.4 litres (146 cubic inch), the configuration and tune more suited to use on the road, the highly-strung two litre version most at home at high revs on a race track.  Now named the Fiat Dino 2400, it also gained an independent rear suspension, revised gearing and upgraded brakes.  The Fiat Dinos were always expensive and very much a niche product so production was accordingly low: 6225 coupés and 1583 spiders, most being the earlier, two litre versions.  Interestingly, the pattern was reversed at Ferrari which, having made only 152 Dino 206 GTs, entered almost mass-production when the more manageable 2.4 liter Dino 246 GT was released, 3569 being sold, 1274 as the 246 GTS with a (Porsche targa style) removable roof-panel.

Fiat 8V (1952-1954).

The Fiat 8V (Otto Vu) was powered by a 2.0 litre (122 cubic inch) V8 intended originally for a luxury car but when that project was cancelled, the power-plant became available for re-deployment, the curious name 8V adopted, according to industry legend, because FIAT’s in-house legal department became convinced Ford held a world-wide trademark to “V8”.  Displayed first at the 1952 Geneva Motor Show, the car generated great publicity for the company but few sales and apparently little or no profit as it shared few parts with other Fiats although production costs were reduced somewhat by most of the 8Vs being supplied only as a rolling chassis, external coach-builders being contracted by customers to fabricate the bodywork, Zagato, Ghia, and Vignale all building their own versions although the factory’s experimental division did make one fibreglass body, FIAT’s first ever use of the composite material.  Most were coupés although a handful of roadsters were also made and eventually 114 were built, 34 of which were bodied by FIAT’s Dipartimento Carrozzerie Derivate e Speciali (Special Bodies Department).  Being light, powerful and by the standards of the time, apparently aerodynamic, they enjoyed some success in competition, over 200 km/h (120 mph) attainable in racing trim and the 8V gained a class wins at the 1955 Targa Florio and the 1957 Mille Miglia, taking the 1956 Italian Sports Car Championship in the two litre class.  The 8V remains a genuine one-off, the only Fiat ever fitted with a V8 engine.

Panda

Panda (pronounced pan-duh)

(1) A black & white, herbivorous, bearlike mammal (in popular use sometimes as “giant panda”), Ailuropoda melanoleuca (family Procyonidae), now rare with a habitat limited to relatively small forested areas of central China where ample growth exists of the stands of bamboo which constitutes the bulk of the creature’s diet.

(2) A reddish-brown (with ringed-tail), raccoon-like mammal (in the literature often referred to as the “lesser panda”), Ailurus fulgens which inhabits mountain forests in the Himalayas and adjacent eastern Asia, subsisting mainly on bamboo and other vegetation, fruits, and insects.

(3) In Hinduism, a brahmin (a member of the highest (priestly) caste) who acts as the hereditary superintendent of a particular ghat (temple) and regarded as authoritative in matters of genealogy and ritual.

(4) In colloquial use (picked up as UK police slang) as “panda car” (often clipped to “panda”), a UK police vehicle painted in a two-tone color scheme (originally black & white but later more typically powder-blue & white) (historic use only).

(5) Used attributively, something (or someone) with all (or some combination of) the elements (1) black & white coloration, (2) perceptions of “cuteness” and (3) the perceived quality of being “soft & cuddly”.

1835: From the French (Cuvier), a name for the lesser panda, assumed to be from a Tibeto-Burman language or some other native Nepalese word.  Cuvier is a trans-lingual term which references the French naturalist and zoologist Georges Cuvier (1769–1832) and his younger brother the zoologist and paleontologist Frédéric Cuvier (1773–1838).  The term was use of any of the Latinesque or pseudo-Latin formations created as taxonomic names for organisms following the style & conventions used by the brothers.  Most etymologists suggest the most likely source was the second element of nigálya-pónya (a local name for the red panda recorded in Nepal and Sikkim), which was perhaps from the Nepali निँगाले (nĩgāle) (relating to a certain species of bamboo), the adjectival form of निँगालो (nĩgālo), a variant of निङालो (niṅālo) (Drepanostachyum intermedium (a species of bamboo)).  The second element was a regional Tibetan name for the animal, related in some way to ཕོ་ཉ (pho nya) (messenger).  The use in Hinduism describing “a learned, wise; learned man, pundit, scholar, teacher (and specifically of the Brahmin (a member of the highest (priestly) caste) who was the hereditary superintendent of a particular ghat (temple) and regarded as authoritative in matters of genealogy and ritual, especially one who had memorized a substantial proportion of the Vedas)” was from the Hindi पंडा (paṇḍā) and the Punjabi ਪਾਂਡਾ (pāṇḍā), both from the Sanskrit पण्डित (paṇḍita) (learned, wise; learned man, pundit, scholar, teacher).  The English word pundit (expert in a particular field, especially as called upon to provide comment or opinion in the media; a commentator or critic) entered the language during the British Raj in India, the use originally to describe native surveyor, trained to carry out clandestine surveillance the colonial borders.  The English form is now commonly used in many languages but the descendants included the Japanese パンダ (panda), the Korean 판다 (panda) and the Thai: แพนด้า.  Panda is a noun and pandalike (also as panda-like) is an adjective (pandaesque & panderish still listed as non-standard; the noun plural is pandas.

A charismatic creature: Giant Panda with cub.

As a word, panda has been productive.  The portmanteau noun pandamonium (the blend being panda +‎ (pande)monium was a humorous construct describing the reaction which often occurs in zoos when pandas appear and was on the model of fandemonium (the reaction of groupies and other fans to the presence of their idol).  The "trash panda" (also as "dumpster panda" or "garbage panda") was of US & Canadian origin and an alternative to "dumpster bandit", "garbage bandit" or "trash bandit" and described the habit of raccoons foraging for food in trash receptacles.  The use was adopted because the black patches around the creature's eyes are marking similar to those of the giant panda.  The Australian equivalent is the "bin chicken", an allusion to the way the Ibis has adapted to habitat loss by entering the urban environment, living on food scraps discarded in rubbish bins.

Lindsay Lohan with “reverse panda” eye makeup.

The “panda crossing” was a pedestrian safety measure, an elaborate form of the “zebra crossing”.  It was introduced in the UK in 1962, the name derived from the two-tone color scheme used for the road marking and the warning beacons on either side of the road.  The design worked well in theory but not in practice and all sites had been decommissioned by late 1967.  The giant panda’s twotonalism led to the adoption of “panda dolphin” as one of the casual tags (the others being “jacobita, skunk dolphin, piebald dolphin & tonina overa for the black & white Commerson's dolphin (Cephalorhynchus commersonii).  “Reverse panda” is an alternative version of “raccoon eyes” and describes an effect achieved (sometimes “over-achieved”) with eye-shadow or other makeup, producing a pronounced darkening around the eyes, an inversion of the panda’s combination.  It’s something which is sometimes seen also in photography as a product of lighting or the use of a camera’s flash.

In English, the first known reference to the panda as a “carnivorous raccoon-like mammal (the lesser panda) of the Himalayas” while the Giant Panda was first described in 1901 although it had been “discovered” in 1869 by French missionary Armand David and it was known as parti-colored until the name was changed which evidence of the zoological relationship to the red panda was accepted.  The giant panda was thus once included as part of the raccoon family but is now classified as a bear subfamily, Ailuropodinae, or as the sole member of a separate family, Ailuropodidae (which diverged from an ancestral bear lineage).  The lesser panda (the population of which has greatly been reduced by collectors & hunters) is now regarded as unrelated to the giant panda and usually classified as the sole member of an Old World raccoon subfamily, Ailurinae, which diverged from an ancestral lineage that also gave rise to the New World raccoons, most familiar in North America.  As late as the early twentieth century, the synonyms for the lesser panda included bear cat, cat bear & wah, all now obsolete.

Panda diplomacy

Lindsay Lohan collecting Chinese takeaway from a Panda Express outlet, New York City, November 2008.

Although the first pandas were gifted by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s (1887-1975; leader of the Republic of China (mainland) 1928-1949 & the renegade province of Taiwan 1949-1975) Chinese government in 1941, “panda diplomacy” began as a Cold War term, the practice of sending pandas to overseas zoos becoming a tool increasingly used by Peking (Beijing after 1979) following the Sino-Soviet split in 1957.  Quite when the phrase was first used isn’t certain but it was certainly heard in government and academic circles during the 1960s although it didn’t enter popular use until 1972, when a pair of giant pandas (Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing) were sent to the US after Richard Nixon’s (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) historic visit to China, an event motivated by Washington’s (1) interest in seeking Peking’s assistance in handling certain aspects of the conflict in Indochina and (2) desire to “move Moscow into check on the diplomatic chessboard”.  Ever since, pandas have been a unique part of the ruling Communist Party of China’s (CCP) diplomatic toolbox although since 1984 they’ve been almost always leased rather than gifted, the annual fee apparently as high as US$1 million per beast, the revenue generated said to be devoted to conservation of habitat and a selective breeding program designed to improve the line’s genetic diversity.  Hong Kong in 2007 were gifted a pair but that’s obviously a special case ("one country, two pandas") and while an expression of diplomatic favour, they can be also an indication of disapprobation, those housed in the UK in 2023 returned home at the end of the lease and not replaced.

It’s one of a set of such terms in geopolitics including  “shuttle diplomacy” (the notion of a negotiator taking repeated "shuttle flights" between countries involved in conflict in an attempt to manage or resolve things (something with a long history but gaining the name from the travels here & there of Dr Henry Kissinger (1923-2023; US national security advisor 1969-1975 & secretary of state 1937-1977) in the 1960s & 1970s)), “ping-pong diplomacy” (the use of visiting table-tennis teams in the 1960s & 1970s as a means of reducing Sino-US tensions and maintaining low-level cultural contacts as a prelude to political & economic engagement), “commodity diplomacy” (the use of tariffs, quotas and other trade barriers as “bargaining chips” in political negotiations), “gunboat diplomacy” (the threat (real or implied) of the use of military force as means of coercion), “hostage diplomacy” (holding the nationals of a country in prison or on (sometimes spurious) charges with a view to exchanging them for someone or something) and “megaphone diplomacy” (an official or organ of government discussing in public what is usually handled through “usual diplomatic channels”; the antonym is “quiet diplomacy”).

Panda diplomacy in action.

A case study in the mechanics of panda diplomacy was provided by PRC (People’s Republic of China) Premier Li Qiang (b 1959; premier of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 2023) during his official visit to Australia in June 2024.  Mr Li’s presence was an indication the previous state of “diplomatic deep freeze” between the PRC & Australia had been warmed to something around “correct but cool”, the earlier state of unarmed conflict having been entered when Beijing reacted to public demands (delivered via “megaphone diplomacy”) by previous Australian prime minister Scott Morrison (b 1968; Australian prime-minister 2018-2022) for an international enquiry into the origin of the SARS-Covid-2 virus which triggered the COVID-19 pandemic.  Such a thing might have been a good idea but underlying Mr Morrison’s strident call was that he was (1) blaming China and (2) accusing the CCP of a cover-up.  Mr Morrison is an evangelical Christian and doubtlessly it was satisfying for him to attend his church (one of those where there’s much singing, clapping, praising the Lord and discussing the real-estate market) to tell his fellow congregants how he’d stood up to the un-Christian, Godless communists but as a contribution to international relations (IR), it wasn’t a great deal of help.  His background was in advertising and coining slogans (he so excelled at both it was clearly his calling) but he lacked the background for the intricacies of IR.  The CCP’s retributions (trade sanctions and refusing to pick up the phone) might have been an over-reaction but to a more sophisticated prime-minister they would have been reasonably foreseeable.

Two years on from the diplomatic blunder, Mr Li arrived at Adelaide Zoo for a photo-opportunity to announce the impending arrival of two new giant pandas, the incumbent pair, Wang Wang and Fu Ni, soon to return to China after their 15 year stint.  Wang Wang and Fu Ni, despite over those years having been provided “every encouragement” (including both natural mating and artificial insemination) to procreate, proved either unable or unwilling so, after thanking the zoo’s staff for looking after them so well, the premier announced: “We will provide a new pair of equally beautiful, lovely and adorable pandas to the Adelaide Zoo.”, he said through an interpreter, adding: “I'm sure they will be loved and taken good care of by the people of Adelaide, South Australia, and Australia.”  The duo, the only giant pandas in the southern hemisphere, had been scheduled to return in 2019 at the conclusion of the original ten year lease but sometime before the first news of COVID-19, this was extended to 2024.  Although their lack of fecundity was disappointing, there’s nothing to suggest the CCP regard this as a loss of face (for them or the apparently unromantic couple) and Wang Wang and Fu Ni will enjoy a comfortable retirement munching on abundant supplies of bamboo.  Unlike some who have proved a “disappointment” to the CCP, they’ll be spared time in a “re-education centre”.

A classic UK police Wolseley 6/80 (1948-1954) in black, a staple of 1950s UK film & television (top left), Adaux era Hillman Minx (1956–1967) (top centre) & Jaguar Mark 2 (1959-1969) (top right), the first of the true "black & white" panda cars, Ford Anglia 105E (1958-1968) on postage stamp issued by the Royal Mail in 2013 (bottom left), in one of the pastel blues which replaced the gloss black, Rover 3500 (SD1, 1976-1984) (bottom centre) in one of the deliberately lurid schemes used in the 1970s & 1980s (UK police forces stockpiled Rover 3500s when it was announced production was ending; they knew what would follow would be awful) and BMW 320d (bottom right) in the "Battenburg markings" designed by the Police Scientific Development Branch (SDB).

Until 1960, the fleets of cars run by most of the UK’s police forces tended to be a glossy black.  That began to change when, apparently influenced by US practice, the front doors and often part or all of the roof were painted white, the change said to be an attempt to make them “more distinctive”.  The new scheme saw then soon dubbed “panda cars”, the slang picked up by police officers (though often, in their economical way, clipped to “panda”) and use persisted for years even after the dominant color switched from black to pastels, usually a duck-egg blue.  Things got brighter over the years until the police developed the high-visibility “Battenburg markings” a combination of white, blue and fluorescent yellow, a system widely adopted internationally.  Interestingly, although the black & white combination was used between the 1960s-1990s by the New Zealand’s highway patrol cars (“traffic officers” then separate from the police), the “panda car” slang never caught on.

The Fiat Panda

Basic motoring, the 1980 Fiat Panda.

Developed during the second half of the troubled and uncertain 1970s, the Fiat Panda debuted at the now defunct Geneva Motor Show in 1980.  Angular, though not a statement of high rectilinearism in the manner of the memorable Fiat 130 coupé (1971-1977), it was a starkly functional machine, very much in the utilitarian tradition of the Citroën 2CV (1948-1990) but visually reflecting more recent trends although, concessions to style were few.  Fiat wanted a car with the cross-cultural appeal of its earlier Cinquecento (500, 1957-1975) which, like the British Motor Corporation’s (BMC) Mini (1959-2000) was “classless” and valued for its practicality.  It was designed from “the inside out”, the passenger compartment’s dimensions created atop the mechanical components with the body built around those parameters, the focus always on minimizing the number of components used, simplifying the manufacturing and assembly processes and designing the whole to make maintenance as infrequently required and as inexpensive as possible.  One innovation which seemed a good, money saving device was that all glass was flat, something which had fallen from fashion for windscreens in the 1950s and for side windows a decade later.  In theory, reverting to the pre-war practice should have meant lower unit costs and greater left-right interchangeability but there were no manufacturers in Italy which had maintained the machinery to produce such things and the cost per m² proved eventually a little higher than would have been the case for curved glass.  Over three generations until 2024, the Panda was a great success although one which did stray from its basic origins as European prosperity increased.  There was in the 1990s even an electric version which was very expensive and, its capabilities limited by the technology of the time, not a success.

The name of the Fiat Panda came from mythology, Empanda, a Roman goddess who was patroness of travelers and controversial among historians, some regarding her identity as but the family name of Juno, the Roman equivalent of Hera, the greatest of all the Olympian goddesses.  Whatever the lineage, she was a better choice for Fiat than Pandarus (Πάνδαρος) who came from the city of Zeleia, Apollo himself teaching him the art of archery.  Defying his father’s advice, Pandarus marched to Troy as a foot soldier, refusing to take a chariot & horses; there he saw Paris & Menelaus engaged in single combat and the goddess Athena incited Pandarus to fire an arrow at Menelaus.  In this way the truce was broken and the war resumed.  Pandarus then fought Diomedes but was killed, his death thought punishment for his treachery in breaking the truce.

Press-kit images for the 2024 Fiat Grande Panda issued by Stellantis, June 2024.

In June 2024, Fiat announced the fourth generation Panda and advances in technology mean the hybrid and all-electric power-trains are now mainstream and competitive on all specific measures.  The Grande Panda is built on the new Stellantis “Smart Car platform”, shared with Citroën ë-C3, offering seating capacity for five.  Unlike the original, the 2024 Panda features a few stylistic gimmicks including headlights and taillights with a “pixel theme”, a look extended to the diamond-cut aluminium wheels, in homage to geometric motifs of the 1980s and the earlier Panda 4x4.

Omicron

Omicron (pronounced om-i-kron or oh-mi-kron)

(1) The fifteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabet and the sixteenth in Ancient archaic Greek; a short vowel, transliterated as o.

(2) The vowel sound represented by this letter.

(3) The common name designated (on 26 November 2021 by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE)) for the variant B.1.1.529 of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes the condition COVID-19.

(4) In English, as “o” & “O” (fifteenth letter of the alphabet), a letter used for various grammatical and technical purposes.

Circa 1400: The fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet (oʊmɪkrɒn; the symbol Oo), literally "small o" (ὂ μικρόν (ò mikrón)), the construct being o + the Ancient Greek (s)mikros (small (source of the modern micro-) and so-called because the vowel was "short" in ancient Greek.  Omega (O) was thus the “long” (O) and omicron the “short” (o).  It’s from omicron both Latin and Cyrillic gained “O”.  Depending on the context in which it’s being written, the plural is omicrons or omicra.

The fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet was derived from a character which in Phoenician was called 'ain or ayin (literally "eye") and represented by what most dictionaries record as something like "a most peculiar and to us unpronounceable guttural sound".  The Greeks also lacked the sound, so when they adopted characters from the Phoenician alphabet, arbitrarily they changed O's value to a vowel.  Despite the medieval belief, there is no evidence to support the idea the form of the letter represents the shape the mouth assumes in pronouncing it.  The Greeks later added a special character for the "long" O (omega), and the original thus became the "little o" (omicron).  In Middle English and later colloquial use, o or o' has a special use as an abbreviation of “on” or “of”, and remains literary still in some constructions (o'clock, Jack-o'-lantern, tam-o'-shanter, cat-o'-nine-tails, will-o'-the-wisp et al).  The technical use in genealogy is best represented by Irish surnames, the “O’” from the Irish ó (ua), which in the Old Irish was au (ui) and meant "descendant".

As a connective, -o- is the most common connecting vowel in compounds either taken or formed from Greek, where it is often the vowel in the stem.  English being what it is, it’s affixed, not only to constructions purely Greek in origin, but also those derived from Latin (Latin compounds of which would have been formed with the L. connecting or reduced thematic vowel, -i).  The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) adds the usage note that this occurred especially when what was wanted were compounds with a sense of Latin composition, which even if technically possible, would not be warranted but, were correct under the principles of Greek composition.  Similarly, blood type-O was in 1926 originally designated “0” (zero)" denoting the absence of any type-A & B agglutinogens but the letter O was adopted to align the group with existing nomenclature.  The standardized scale in railroads (O=1:48 (1:25 gauges)) dates from 1905.

As the character to represent the numerical value "zero", in Arabic numerals it is attested from circa 1600, the use based on the similarity of shape.  The similarity would later cause a Gaëtan Dugas (1952–1984), a Québécois Canadian flight attendant, mistakenly to be identified as "Patient Zero" (the primary case for HIV/AIDS in the United States).  The error happened because of a mistake made in 1984 in either the reading or transcription of a database maintained by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which tracked the sexual liaisons and practices of gay and bisexual men, mostly those from California and New York. Dugas, because he was statistically unusual in having no relevant connections with either state, was coded as "Patient O" (indicating out-of-state) but this was at some point misinterpreted as "Patient 0 (Zero)".  Dugas was later identified as "Patient Zero" (ie the person who introduced HIV/AIDS to North America) in Randy Shilts's (1951-1994) book And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic (1987) which explored the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic in the United States.  Shilts would later dismiss the significance of the technical error, claiming it made no difference to his point that Dugas engaged in behavior by which he either carelessly, recklessly or intentionally infected his many sexual partners with HIV (a claim subsequently contested by others).  Shilts died in 1994 from an AIDS-related condition.

Flirting with risk of exposure to, inter-alia, Omicron: Lindsay Lohan in facemask during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The authorities discourage the use of masks with the one-way, non-return valves (this one a twin-valve model) during epidemics & pandemics because, while affording the usual protection to the wearer, there is a slight reduction in their effectiveness in reducing the risk of infecting others.

A variant of the original SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes Covid-19, Omicron (B.1.1.529) was first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) in November 2021 after being detected in Botswana.  Rapidly, it out-competed other SARS-CoV-2 strains to become the predominant variant in circulation, the primary transmission vector of that thought to be international air travel.  The WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) named variant B.1.1.529 “Omicron” in November 2021, skipping the Greek letters next in sequence (nu (Ν, ν) & xi (Ξ ξ)), the former not used because of the confusion envisaged by virtue of the English pronunciation (“new” virus) and the latter avoided so the feelings of Xi Jinping (b 1953; general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 2013) weren’t hurt, the origins of Covid-19 being a sensitive issue among the CCP’s Central Committee.

Flirting virus: Omicron FLiRT variant.

Although a number of Omicron sub-variants have subsequently been identified, none has been found so structurally dissimilar that the TAG-VE felt constrained to allocate a different Greek letter.  Instead, such variants were tagged alpha-numerically according to the group’s established convention (BA.1, BA.2 etc; identified sub-variants of BA.5 listed in a BQ.n sequence).  By June 2024, Omicron and its sub-variants remain dominant globally although new strains continue to emerge, notably the “FLiRT" which sounds encouraging but the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) provided a rather dry explanation: “F for L at position 456, and R for T at position 346 (references to specific mutations in the virus’s spike protein).  The FLiRT variants are sub-variants of the Omicron JN.1 strain and include notable strains such as KP.2, KP.3, and KP.1.1.  The FLiRT variants now account for a significant portion of cases in the United States.

The Omicron and others: Notable Lancias

1981 Lancia Beta Spyder (Zagato).

Vincenzo Lancia (1881–1937) used letters from the Greek alphabet (Alpha, Beta, Lambda, Kappa, Omicron et al) as model names for many of his early vehicles and in 1953 returned to the practice for a one-off range based on a commercial chassis.  However, when the Beta (1972-1984) was released in 1972 it was the first time since 1945 the company had used letters from the Greek to designate a passenger vehicle.  It wasn’t Lancia’s first use of Beta, that had been the 1909 car which replaced the Alpha (also Alfa) and, although the 1972 car had been intended to be the model which would symbolize Lancia’s re-birth (il risorgimento), Beta rather than Alfa was chosen to avoid confusion with Alfa Romeo.  Over time, the Beta would be offered with two four-door saloon bodies and a coupé from which two variants were derived: (1) a three-door estate labeled HPE (high-performance estate) in the tradition of the "shooting brake" (a la the Reliant Scimitar et al) and (2) as a co-project with Lombardy-based coach-builder Zagato, a targa-style convertible with a structural arrangement vaguely similar to that used by the Triumph Stag.  In some markets, in an attempt to enhance the image, the Montecarlo sports car was badged as a Beta.  The survival rate of the Betas was low because of chronic rust but the oft-told tale the steel was of poor quality (described as “porous” and obtained in some sort of barter transaction between Italy and the Soviet Union) has been debunked, the Betas (like to contemporary Alfa Romeo Alfasud) crumbling away because of design flaws, inadequate corrosion-prevention measures and poor build quality, the latter due in part to the appalling state of the relations between capital & labor during the troubled 1970s.

1987 Lancia Thema 8·32.

By the standards of European front wheel drive mass-production, the Lancia Thema (1984-1994 and available as a four-door saloon, a five door estate and a low-volume long wheelbase (LWD) limousine) was completely conventional and mostly unexceptional but there was one memorable diversion: the Thema 8·32.  Introduced at the 1986 Turin Motor Show, instead of the predictable variety of four & six-cylinder petrol and diesel engines used in the mainstream range, the 8·32 was fitted with a version of the 3.0 litre V8 Ferrari used in their 308 and Mondial models.  By the mid-1980s, although it was no longer novel to put powerful engines into previously nondescript saloons, the 8·32 was in the avant garde of the more extreme, pre-dating the BMW M5 (E28) by some months and the Mercedes-Benz 500E (W124) by seven years but what made it truly bizarre was it retained the Thema’s front wheel drive (FWD) configuration.  That probably sounds like the daftest idea since Oldsmobile and Cadillac in the mid 1960s decided to offer big FWD "personal coupes" (which eventually would be offered with V8 engines as large as 500 cubic inches (8.2 litre)) but journalists who tested the 8·32 declared it a surprisingly good good road car although those who tried them on racetracks did note the prodigious understeer.  Ferrari supplying Lancia with a V8 was actually returning a favor: In 1954, it was the Lancia D50 Formula One car which became the first Ferrari V8.  By 1986, even the V8-powered Cadillac DeVille range had switched to FWD but it was a very different machine from the 8·32 and many DeVille owners probably neither noticed nor cared the configuration had changed although they would have appreciated the flat floor and additional interior space.

1974 Lancia Stratos HF.

The 8·32 experiment (which Lancia opted not the repeat) wasn’t the first time Ferrari had provided engines for a Lancia. The Stratos HF (1973-1978, the HF standing for "High Fidelity", a moniker sometimes attached to Lancia’s high performance variations) was named after the Stratos Zero, a 1970 show car designed by Bertone’s Marcello Gandini (1938–2024) although, except conceptually, the production vehicle bore little resemblance to that which lent the name.  The diminutive wedge was powered by the 2.4 litre V6 with which Ferrari used in the Dino 246 (1969-1974) and it was one of the outstanding rally cars of the 1970s, winning the 1974 Targa Florio and taking the World Rally Championship (WRC) in 1974, 1975 & 1976.  Still competitive in the late 1970s when factory support was withdrawn because Fiat, the conglomerate which by then owned Lancia, wished to use its activities in motorsport to promote more mainstream models, it continued in private hands to win events into the 1980s and replicas have since been produced.  Such is the appeal of the Stratos that Torino-based coach-builder Manifattura Automobili in 2018 announced a run (said to be limited to 25) of the "New Stratos", based on the (shortened) platform of a Ferrari 430 Scuderia (2007). 

1971 Lancia 2000 Coupé.

The Lancia Flavia was in production between 1961 and 1971 before it was re-named the 2000, a reference to the two litre flat-four, introduced in 1969, an enlarged version of the power-plant which, in 1.5 and 1.8 litre form had powered the Flavia.  Although a decade old at its introduction, the 2000 was still of an advanced specification including the then still uncommon option of fuel-injection.  Although the earlier Flavias were built as four-door saloons, two-door coupés & convertibles (including a quite strange looking coupé by Zagato), the 2000 was offered only with saloon and coupé coachwork, the latter so elegant that most were prepared to forgive the FWD beneath, something the Lancia cognoscenti (a most devoted crew) inexplicably believe is a good idea.

1983 Lancia 037.

The last rear-wheel drive car to win the WRC, the 037 (the mysterious name merely a carry-over of the original project code) was a highly modified version of the Montecarlo, a Pininfarina-designed mid-engined coupé produced between 1975 to 1981 (in some markets called the Beta Montecarlo to maintain a link with the more mainstream Beta models and in North America sold as the Scorpion).  The Montecarlo had begun life as a project undertaken by Pininfarina to replace Fiat’s much admired but outdated 124 Coupé but Bertone’s X1/9 design was thought so outstanding it was instead chosen for immediate production while the 124 continued.  Pininfarina’s bigger, heavier car was then designated the Fiat X1/8, envisaged to compete as an up-market, mid-engined, three litre V6 sports car.  However, after the first oil shock in 1973, the market was re-evaluated and, now code-named named X1/20, it was re-positioned as a two litre, four cylinder car and handed to Lancia to become the Montecarlo.  In development since 1980, the competition version, the Lancia Rally 037, was released late the next year and in its first competitive season in Group 5 rallying proved fast but still fragile although, it was certainly promising enough for the factory to return in 1983 when, fully developed, it won the WRC.  It was however the end of an era, the 037 out-classed late in the season by the all-wheel-drive competition which has since dominated the WRC.  In one aspect however it remains a WRC benchmark: no competitor since has looked as good.

1971 Lancia Fulvia 1.3 Coupé.

The slightly frumpy looking Fulvia saloon was the mass-selling (a relative term) model of Lancia’s range between 1963-1976 but the memorable version was the exquisite coupé (1965-1977).  Mechanically similar to the saloon except that it was on a short wheelbase  (SWB) platform and the FWD Fulvias were only ever offered with V4 engines of modest displacement (1.1-1.6 litres), the relatively high-performance achieved by virtue of light weight, high specific output and, in the two-door versions, a surprisingly efficient aerodynamic profile, belying the rather angular appearance (except for the usual special coupes by Zagato which managed almost to look attractive, not something which could be guaranteed to emerge from their drawing boards).  The HF versions were built for competition with more spartan interior trim, aluminum doors & non-structural panels, the engines tuned for higher power.  Produced in small runs, the early Flavia HFs used quite highly-strung 1.2 & 1.3 litre engines (the last batch gaining a five-speed gearbox) but the definitive competition HF was released in 1969 with a 1.6 litre engine and nicknamed Fanalona (big headlamps), an allusion to the seven inch units which had replaced the earlier five inch versions.  Almost mass-produced by earlier standards, over thirteen hundred were build and it delivered for the factory-supported Squadra Corse team, winning the 1972 Monte Carlo Rally.  The success inspired the factory to capitalize on the car’s success, a purely road-going version, the 1600 HF Lusso (Luxury) with additional interior appointments and without the lightweight parts manufactured between 1970-1973.  This one really was mass-produced; nearly four thousand were made and they remain much coveted.

1930 Lancia Omicron Autoalveolari with two and a half deck arrangement and a clerestoried upper-deck windscreen.

The Lancia Omicron was a bus chassis produced between 1927-1936; over 600 were built in different wheelbase lengths with both two and three-axle configurations.  Most used Lancia's long-serving, six-cylinder commercial engine but, as early as 1933, some had been equipped with diesel engines which were tested in North Africa where they proved durable and, in the Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya and Algeria, once petrol powered Omicron chassis were being re-powered with diesel power-plants from a variety of manufacturers as late as the 1960s.  Typically of bus use, coachbuilders fabricated many different styles of body but, in addition to the usual single and double deck arrangements, the Omicron is noted for a number of “double deck and a half” models, the elevated third deck (a layer architects would probably class as a “mezzanine”) configured usually as a first-class compartment but in at least three which operated in Italy, they were advertised as “smoking rooms”, the implication presumably that the rest of the passenger compartment was smoke-free.  History doesn't record if the bus operators were any more successful in enforcing smoking bans than the usual Italian experience.  Domestically, those with the so-called “double deck and a half” coachwork were known as the Autoalveolari (honeycombs) and that yet again proves how just about anything sounds better in Italian.

Autoalveolari on the streets of il Duce's Roma.

The Autoalveolari were intended to be used as short range, mass-transit buses to transport workers between Rome and its outskirts but although the passenger capacity was impressive, when laden, they proved quite unsuited to the city’s hilly terrain, the claimed top speed of 45 km/h (28 mph) rarely attained with at least part of most journeys undertaken at less than 20 Km/h (12 mph).  Given that, plans to build extended versions able to carry and ambitious 190 passengers never materialized.  Interestingly, the big busses were envisaged only as a stop-gap.  As part of the project to modernize Italy (remembered, if misleadingly as part of “making the trains run on time”) the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & prime-minister of Italy 1922-1943) in mid-1920s embarked on a capital works programme to replace the steam tramways lines which, like much of Italy’s infrastructure, were in a state of decay.  Thus the attraction of large-capacity busses but reality soon prevailed and fleets rapidly had to re-equip with more, smaller units.

Lancia proved both imaginative and inventive when naming their bus and truck chassis.  One backbone of the nation’s post-war transportation system was the Lancia Esatau, some 13,000 of which were delivered between 1947-1973 and that name was a blend using the Italian pronunciation of the Greek letter Σ (Sigma) and the letter T (Tau) (thus esa + tau).  There was also the Lancia Esagamma, produced between 1962-1973, the name another blend.  In Italian, the term esa corresponds to the Greek & Latin prefix hexa- (six) while gamma (sixth letter in the Greek alphabet) was often used to mean “range” or “series” which, as a suffix, was often appended to indicate a generation or class of products.  In the case of the Esagamma, the name was constructed to focus on the new six-cylinder diesel engines used in the chassis, their novelty being what was in the era their unusually light weight which reduced fuel consumption and thus operating costs.  Highly regarded though Lancia’s truck and bus chassis were, the Esagamma was the company’s last design as an independent entity, the financial troubles afflicting other divisions leading to Fiat taking control and Lancia’s commercial vehicle division was later absorbed into Fiat Veicoli Industriali (Fiat’s commercial vehicle division).

The 1959 Plymouth.

In the industry, Lancia was far from unique in creating compound words for product names and linguistically, Chrysler was more adventurous still in 1956 with the release of TorqueFlite, the new automatic transmission, the use of the first element obvious, torque from the Latin torqueō (to twist), from the Proto-Italic torkeō, from the primitive Indo-European terk- (to turn).  The companion value of power, torque is a measure at a certain point of the force something’s rotational or twisting effect and it’s transmitted (and, with some engineering, “multiplied”) by a transmission.  The element “flite” however was a distinctive spelling a la “nite” or “lite”, something often seen in commerce and Chrysler meant it in the sense of “flight”, implying speed.  Presumably the corporation assumed not many would explore the historic meaning of flite because it meant variously (1) a dispute, quarrel, wrangle or brawl, (2) to scold or jeer and (3) to make a complaint.  Flite was either from (1) the Middle English flit, from the Old English flit & ġeflit (strife, contention), from the Proto-West Germanic flit or (2) the Middle English flyten (to argue, quarrel), from the Old English flītan (to strive, contend), from the Proto-West Germanic flītan (to strive, contend).  Chrysler need not have been concerned about any tarring with the linguistically associative brush, the TorqueFlite transmission attracting few complaints, being robust and, by the standards of the time, efficient.

After a hiatus, TorqueFlite returned.

The practice of forming compound words while retaining the capitalization of the original components is called CamelCase (when the capitalization follows an internal hump (iPhone)) or PascalCase (when each word starts with a capital letter (PowerPoint)).  The “camel” is a reference to the visual clue of a hump (and upper case character) appearing in the middle of a word) and in the broader linguistic or typographic sense, the class is called “intercapping”, the general term for inserting capital letters within a word (such as TorqueFlite) and now most associated with IT products and terminology.  Chrysler made the choice just to gain a marketing gimmick (although the corporation would also use Torqueflite, Torque-flite  & Torque-Flite) but the tradition in IT was to some degree technologically deterministic, the file systems in many early operating systems not supporting the gap between characters created at the application level by tapping a keyboards space-bar (and some file systems didn’t use lower case characters).  From that CamelCase became something of a signature for IT products including variants: (1) lowerCamelCase (eBay), (2) StudlyCaps (seemingly random capitalization within a word, often for stylistic or meme purposes (iNiQUiTY BBS), (3) the self-explanatory aLtErNaTiNg CaPs and (4) Snake_Case (file_name) which began as a work-around in those cases where a visual break between two elements in a text string was desired but a space either wouldn’t have been recognized by the system or would have created an internal conflict.

Visualizing variants CamelCase variants makes it possible to interpret unseparated text strings like those sometimes on license plates.  Different meanings are conveyed by "A nu start" and "Anus tart". 

The elegant Fiat 130s (left) and the dull Lancia Gammas (right).

When the Beta was released in 1971, Lancia revived the pre-war tradition of borrowing from the Greek alphabet and, by now part of the Fiat conglomerate, they returned to Greek also when naming their new up-market sedan and coupé.  Fiat had dabbled in the sector between 1969-1977 with the 130 range but, although dynamically in many ways impressive (and the styling of the 130 Coupé was a rectilinear masterpiece), that it was marketed as a Fiat proved a handicap in a market segment where the names Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Jaguar carried such cachet.  Making the Gamma (1976-1984) a Lancia certainly made sense but unlike the 130s, the Gamma was front-wheel-drive (FWD) which tended to be associated with small, low-powered machines and the Gamma, in an expanded market, proved little more successful than the 130. 

1928 Lancia Lambda series 7 tipo Siluro Bateaux (torpedo) "Casaro".

One of the most innovative designs of the 1920s, the Lamba was produced between 1922-1931 and was the first car to enter volume production using a stressed, unitary body.  It featured very effective four-wheel brakes (something surprisingly rare at the time) and independent front suspension, the competence of which was such that it was able to more than match the point-to-point performance of many cars much more powerful but with more brutishly simple solid axles attached to a chassis.  However, because it was so attractive, demand much exceeded Lancia’s capacity to build sufficient numbers and the factory was forced to offer a model with a conventional chassis so coach-builders could provide bodies to fill the supply gap.  All Lambdas were powered by advanced, compact narrow-angle aluminum overhead camshaft V4 engines between 2.1-2.6 litres and over 11,000 were built.