Triple

Triple (pronounced trip-uhl)

(1) Threefold; consisting of three parts (matching or not).

(2) Of three kinds; threefold in character or relationship.

(3) Three times as great; multiplied by three (numbers or quantities in general).

(4) In international law or international relations, as triple entente, triple alliance etc, a treaty or some state of arrangement between three states.

(5) In baseball (also called the three-base hit), a hit which enables the batter safely to reach third base.

(6) In (ten-pin) bowling, three strikes in succession.

(7) In basketball, a three-point field goal.

(8) In curling, takeout shot in which three stones are removed from play.

(9) In musical time or rhythm, having three beats in each bar

(10) As triple crown, in various sporting competitions (Rugby Union, thoroughbred racing, motor sport et al), a (sometimes informal) acknowledgement of victory in three specific events (use based on the triple crown (sometimes as triple tiara) once used for the coronation of the Roman Catholic Pope).

(11) In internal combustion engines (ICE), an engine with three pistons or rotors.

(12) One of three; a third (obsolete and the source of some misunderstandings when found in historic texts).

(13) In programming theory, as Hoare triple, a description of how the execution of a piece of code changes the state of the computation in Hoare logic, consisting of (1) a command to be run, (2) a pre-condition that holds true beforehand, and (3) a post-condition that holds true afterwards.

(14) In mathematics, a sequence of three elements or 3-tuple.

1325-1375: From the Middle English triple (there was also þripell), from the Old French triple or the Medieval Latin triplare (to triple) from the Latin triplus (threefold, triple), from the primitive Indo-European tréyes.  Triple is a noun, verb & adjective, tripled is a verb, tripling is a noun & verb, triply is an adverb and triplet is a noun; the noun plural is triples.

In English, the Latinate multiplier “triple” is but one of many ways the value three (3) is in some way expressed or applied.  “Three” is the highest value, single digit cardinal number, as an ordinal it’s “third” (the Latinate ordinal is “tertiary”), the adverbial form is “thrice” (or the more mundane “three times”, as a multiplier the term is “threefold” (also as “three-fold”), the distributive is “triply”, the collective “tripartite”, “trio” or “threesome” (ménage à trois a popular variation), the multiuse collective “triplet”, the Greek or Latinate collective “triad”, the collective prefix (from both Latin & Ancient Greek (the latter also had “trito”)) was “tri”, the fractional expression is “third” (the Latinate fractional prefix was “trient-”, the elemental “thrin” & “triplet” and a period of three years is a triennium.  However, while there are weeks, fortnights & months, there’s no accepted term which express a measure of 21 days although three months is often described as “a quarter”.

Boss & Co SxSxS 16-bore triple-barrel shotgun #4690.

Originally an adjective, the noun emerged in the early fifteenth century.  The use in baseball dates from 1880 while the various uses of triple-deck, triple-decker etc (a development of the earlier double-decker) for cakes, sandwiches, bunk-beds etc all came into use in the early 1940s.  Triple-barrel carburetors were rare but did exist, Porsche for example using them on their flat sixes.  Rugby Union in 1883 was the first to use “triple crown”, awarded in the UK to the side which won the three “home countries” (England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales) matches.  That was based on the use of the papal triple crown (sometimes as triple tiara) then used for the coronation of the Roman Catholic Pope and was later picked up in US thoroughbred racing: The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes comprise the Triple Crown which was first officially awarded in 1919 although the term didn’t become widely used until the 1930s.  In motorsport, despite the popular perception, it’s never been an official award and many branches of the sport have their own triple crowns, most barely known outside of the small circle of their cognoscenti.  The three events which comprised the classic triple crown were (1) the Indianapolis 500 (first run in 1911), the 24 Hours of Le Mans (first run in 1923) and the Monaco Grand Prix (first run in 1929) and it’s been achieved only once.  That was by Graham Hill (1929–1975) who completed the set at Le Mans in 1972 and although he and others have suggested the Formula One World Championship should be included instead of the Monaco Grand Prix, the original arrangement seems still the accepted triple crown.

Six-pack: Lindsay Lohan re-imagined as a triplet.

The word is used also as a modifier as required such as triple-barreled (used with three-element surnames and in various manufactured items but best known in shotguns), triple-headed (again widely used but probably still most associated with creatures from mythology, tripledemic (a term used in public health and epidemiology to describe the simultaneous outbreak of three epidemics or pandemics), triple fault (in computing a third (and fatal) error instance in a CPU attempting a graceful recovery from a double fault, triple jump (an athletic (track & field) event involving three different types of jump), triple goddess (a female deity who is either three goddesses in one or one who is triune (both three and one at the same time) and triple X syndrome (a chromosomal variation characterized by the presence of an extra X chromosome in each cell of a human female).

Pope Pius XII (1876-1958; pope 1939-1958) in the papal triple tiara, at his coronation, 1939.

The papal triple tiara is a crown which has been worn by popes of the Roman Catholic Church since the eighth century.  Traditionally it was worn for their coronation but no pontiff has been so crowned since Saint Paul VI (1897-1978; pope 1963-1978) in 1963 and he abandoned its use after the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II, 1962-1965).  The name tiara refers to the entire headgear and it has used a three-tiered form since a third crown was added during the Avignon Papacy (1309–1378).  It's also referred to as the triregnum, triregno or Triple Crown.  In a piece of one- (or perhaps four-) upmanship, Suleiman I (Süleyman the Magnificent, 1494-1566, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1520-1566) commissioned from Venice a four tier helmet to show, in addition to the authority claimed by popes, he could add the symbol of his imperial power.  Often put on display as the centrepiece of Ottoman regalia to impress visitors, there's no documentary evidence the sultan ever wore the four layer tiara, crowns not part of the tradition and, fashioned from gold and gemstones, it would anyway have been extraordinarily heavy.

A representation of the triregnum combined with two crossed keys of Saint Peter continues to be used as a symbol of the papacy and appears on papal documents, buildings and insignia.  Remarkably, there’s no certainty about what the three crowns symbolize.  Some modern historians link it to the threefold authority of the pope, (1) universal pastor, (2) universal ecclesiastical jurisdiction and (3) temporal power.  Others, including many biblical scholars, interpret the three tiers as meaning (1) father of princes and kings, (2) ruler of the world and (3) vicar of Christ on Earth, a theory lent credence by the words once used when popes were crowned:  Accipe tiaram tribus coronis ornatam, et scias te esse patrem principum et regum, rectorem orbis in terra vicarium Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi, cui est honor et gloria in saecula saeculorum (Receive the tiara adorned with three crowns and know that thou art father of princes and kings, ruler of the world, vicar on earth of our Savior Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory for ever and ever).

Lindsay Lohan triple-pack DVD offer.

Documents in the Vatican Archive suggest by 1130 the papal tiara had been modified to become a conventional (and temporal) symbol of sovereignty over the Papal States.  In 1301 during a dispute with Philip IV (Philip the Fair, 1268–1314, King of France 1285-1314), Pope Boniface VIII (circa 1230–1303; pope 1294-1303) added a second layer to represent a pope’s spiritual authority being superior to an earthly king’s civil domain.  It was Benedict XII (1285–1342; pope 1334-1342 (as the third Avignon pope)) who in 1342 who added the third, said to symbolize the pope’s moral authority over all civil monarchs, and to reaffirm Avignon’s possession.  A changing world and the loss of the Papal States deprived the triple crown of temporal meaning but the silver tiara with the three golden crowns remained to represent the three powers of the Supreme Pontiff: Sacred Order, Jurisdiction and Magisterium.

Not since 1963 has a pope worn the triple crown.  Then, the newly-elected Pope Saint Paul VI, at the end of his coronation, took the tiara from his head and, in what was said to be a display of humility, placed it on the altar.  In a practical expression of that humility, the tiara was auctioned; the money raised used for missionary work in Africa although, keeping things in house, the winning bidder was the Archdiocese of New York.  Popes Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022) and Francis (b 1936; pope since 2013) received tiaras as gifts but neither wore them.  Benedict’s, in a nice ecumenical touch, was made by Bulgarian craftsmen from the Orthodox Church in Sofia, a gesture in the name of Christian unity.  Benedict would have appreciated that, having always kept a candle burning in the window to tempt home the wandering daughter who ran off to Constantinople.

The original (although there was a prototype rendered in the tradition of functional brutalism) Mercedes-Benz C111 with triple rotor Wankel engine (1969).

Triple cylinder engines in cars were something of a niche in the early post war years but of late they’ve achieve a new popularity, improvements in electronics and combustion chamber designs meaning three cylinders can now achieve what once required four and even with an equivalent displacement their efficiency is inherently greater because of the reduction in internal friction.  Obviously compact, they’ve proved an ideal power-plant in hybrid vehicles.  One quirky triple was the Mercedes-Benz C111 which first appeared in 1969 with a 1.8 litre (110 cubic inch) three-rotor Wankel engine, something then thought to have a great future.  It seemed a good idea at the time.  The C111, although produced in a small run and finished in some cases to production car standards was only ever a test bed, not only for the doomed rotary engine but also developments in suspension design, ant-lock braking (ABS) and safety engineering.  The gullwing body was actually designed by an Italian-born stylist but so long had he been in Stuttgart that the lines were a little more Teutonic than might have emerged from a studio in Turin but at the time it still caused a stir, even though finished in what the factory called “safety orange”, their standard high-visibility paint for prototypes and test-beds.  Later versions were fitted with a four-rotor Wankel, a variety of diesels and even a 4.8 litre (292 cubic inch) V8, the fastest of the rotaries said to be capable of 300 km/h (188 mph) while the V8 version (C111-II-D) in 1976 set a new closed-course record on the Nardò Ring in Italy, clocking in at 403.978 km/h (251.815 mph).

1980 Laverda Jota 1000 (3-into-2, far left), 1973 Suzuki GT750 "Water Buffalo" (3-into-4, centre left), 1972 Kawasaki 750 Mach IV (H2) (3-into-3, centre right) and 2017 MV-Augusta Dragster 800Rc (3-into-3, far right).

Triple cylinder engines have been a feature of motorcycle engines for decades and different manufacturers have taken various approaches to the exhaust systems, an item which exerts upon riders a special fascination.  It’s not unusual to fit single systems (3-into-one) but there are also some which “siamesed” the central header pipe, the derived pair joining the two outer pipes to duct into two mufflers.  Unusually, Suzuki for a while offered 380, 550 & 750 cm³ machines with 3-into-4 systems, the central header again “siamesed” the central header but had the novelty of terminating the two pipes in separate mufflers thereby emulating the appearance of a four-cylinder machine.  It was a curious arrangement which Suzuki abandoned and other manufacturers choose not to follow.  Suzuki must greatly have valued symmetry.  Somewhat earlier, asymmetry hadn’t frightened Kawasaki which used pragmatic 3-into-3 engineering for their range (250, 350, 400, 500 & 750 cm³) of charismatic, highly strung two-strokes, one pipe to the left, two to the right and it was a distinctive feature which, although sometimes seen on the track, remains rare on the road.  In the same era, Triumph on their X75 Hurricane took asymmetry to its logical conclusion, its three pipes arranged in a radically upswept stack on the right.  It looked dramatic and was much admired but didn’t catch on although there’s the odd revival, the Italian house MV-Augusta engineering a particularly aggressive interpretation on their Dragster 800Rc.

1957 DeSoto Adventurer Convertible.

DeSoto's signature triple stacked taillamps were a footnote in Detroit's macropterous era of the late 1950s, the style making possible the distinctive vertical arrangement.  Chevrolet would for years make the triple lamps a trademark of their more expensive lines (although, apart from the odd special built for the show circuit, they resisted the temptation to add a third to the Corvette) but they always had them in a less memorable horizontal array.  DeSoto's motif was Chrysler's most successful use of the fins but it wasn't enough to save the brand  which was crowded out of the mid-priced market, not only by competition from General Motors (GM) and Ford but also by intra-corporate cannibalization, squeezed from below by Dodge and from above by Chrysler's new Newport line.  Demand for DeSotos collapsed and that so many were built in 1960 was simply to use up the large inventory of parts exclusive to the brand, the last of the line, heavily discounted, not sold until well into 1961.

Gully

Gully (pronounced guhl-ee)

(1) A small valley or ravine originally worn away by running water and serving as a drainage-way after prolonged or heavy rain.

(2) A ditch or gutter.

(3) In cricket, a position in the off-side field (some 30^o behind square), between point and the widest of the slips (or wicket-keeper if no slip is set); the fielder occupying this position.

(4) In tenpin bowling, either of the two channels at the side of the bowling lane.

(5) To make gullies in the ground or an object

(6) In hydrology, to form channels by the action of water.

(7) In slang, or relating to the environment, culture, or life experience in poor urban neighborhoods; vulgar, raw, or authentic and sometimes used as an alternative to ghetto.

(8) In (US) slang, as gullywasher, an intense, but typically brief rain event, the form dating from 1887.

(9) In Scotland and northern England, a knife, especially a large kitchen or butcher’s knife (the alternative spelling gulley).

(10) In some parts of the English-speaking word, a synonym for valley, especially one heavily wooded; a deep, wide fissure between two buttresses in a mountain face, sometimes containing a stream or scree (although in most traditions gullies are usually dry, water flowing only after heavy rain or a sudden input of water from other drainage systems.

(11) In engineering slang, any channel like structure which is available to be used for some purpose such as ducts or cables (applied to anything from computer motherboards to nuclear reactors).

(12) In engineering, a grooved iron rail or tram plate (mostly UK).

(13) In civil engineering, sometimes used as a descriptor for drop-kerbs, gutters etc.

(14) Of liquid, noisily to flow (obsolete).

(15) In South Asia (chiefly India but known also in Pakistan, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka, an alleyway or side street.     

1530–1540: Etymologists have traced several possible sources of the word and it’s not impossible the word evolved independently in different places.  It may have been a variant of the Middle English golet (esophagus, gullet), from Old French goulet (the French –et ultimately replace by –y), from Latin gula (throat) and the meaning-shift in the Middle English to "water channel, ravine" may have been influenced by Middle English gylle, gille & galle (deep narrow valley, ravine), hence gill for some time being a synonym.   An alternative source from The French has been suggested as goulet (neck of a bottle).  The use is South Asia is more certain, borrowed from Hindi गली (galī) and the Urdu گَلی‎ (galī) with the spelling evolving under the Raj under the influence of English.  It was inherited from Ashokan Prakrit galī and was cognate with the Punjabi ਗਲੀ (galī) / گَلی‎ (galī), the Gujarati ગલી (galī), the Sindhi ڳَليِ‎ / ॻली, the Marathi गल्ली (gallī) and the Bengali গলি (gôli), the Latin callis, the Italian calle and Spanish calle (street, lane or path).  The first reference (in Scottish English) to the knife (the spelling gully or gulley) dates from circa 1575–1585, the origin unknown.  Gully is a noun & verb and gullied & gullying are verbs; the noun plural is gullies.

Historically, a gully was a natural formation of water flows which was usually dry except after periods of heavy rainfall or a sudden input of water from other drainage systems after more remote flooding or the melting of snow or ice.  Over the years the meaning has become less precise and other words are sometimes used to describe what are understood by many as gullies.  The noun ravine (long deep gorge worn by a stream or torrent of water) dates from 1760 and was from the mid seventeenth century French ravin (a gully), from the Old French raviner (to pillage; to sweep down, cascade), and the French ravine (a violent rush of water, a gully worn by a torrent), from the Old French ravine (violent rush of water, waterfall; avalanche; robbery, rapine).  Both the French noun and verb ultimately came from the Latin rapina (act of robbery, plundering (related to rapine and the source of much modern confusion because “rape” was long used in the sense of “pillage” or “kidnapping”)) with sense development influenced by the Latin rapidus (rapid).  Entries for ravine appear in early seventeenth century dictionaries with the meaning “a raging flood” whereas in fourteenth century Middle English, both ravin & ravine meant “booty, plunder, robbery”, this circa 1350-1500 borrowing of the Latin influenced French word.  Dating from 1832, the noun gulch (deep ravine), despite being of recent origin, is a mystery.  It may have been from the obsolete or dialectal verb gulsh (sink in to the soil) or "gush out" (of water), from the early thirteenth century Middle English gulchen (to gush forth; to drink greedily), the most evocative use of which was the mid thirteenth century gulche-cuppe (a greedy drinker).  Despite the vague similarities, etymologists maintain these forms had no etymological connection with gully.  Other words (trench, culvert, crevasse, chasm, notch, chase, watercourse, channel, gutter gorge watercourse etc), even when they have precise meanings in geography or hydrology, are also sometimes used interchangeably with gully.

Japanese manhole covers (マンホールの蓋 (Manhōru no futa)) can be delightful or functional (in a typically thoughtful Japanese manner, some include a locality map with directions) but usually provide little inspiration for those designing wheels.

In the nineteenth century, Modern German picked up Gully from English in the sense of “a road drain, a drainage channel” (synonym: Straßenablauf), the covering of a road drain or gully being Ablaufgitter & Ablaufdeckel.  One adaptation quickly coined was Gullydeckel (manhole cover), the construct being gully + deckel, (an untypically economical construct in German given the usual forms for manhole were Kontrollschacht & Einstiegschacht), an alternative to Kanaldeckel (manhole cover).  Deckel (lid, cap, cover of a container) was an ellipsis of Bierdeckel (beer mat) and also used in humorous slang to mean “headwear, hat” although it was most productive in the formation of compounds with cap in the sense of “an artificial or arbitarily imposed upper limit or ceiling” such as Preisdeckel (price cap), the common synonym being Deckelung (capping).

A German Gullideckel (left), a Mercedes-Benz “Gullideckel” aluminum wheel (centre) and a 1988 Mercedes-Benz 560 SL so equipped.

The alternative spelling was Gullideckel and it was this which was picked up to describe the design of aluminum wheel adopted by Mercedes-Benz in 1982.  The reference is explained by the wheel’s design bearing a similarity to that typically used by German manhole covers although Mercedes-Benz dryly explained their concerns were less artistic or a tribute to Teutonic urban hydrology than a reflection of the imperatives of optimizing the air-flow required for brake cooling and a reduction in drag compared to their earlier, long-serving design.  It was in the 1980s that the greatest improvement in the aerodynamic efficiency of cars was achieved and wheels were a significant, though often little-noticed part of the process.

Top row: Mercedes-Benz C111 at Hockenheimring, 1969 (left).  The C111 series was originally a rolling test bed for the evaluation of Wankel engines ad it was on the C111 that the new wheels (then called “Premier”) were first shown although no production versions (centre) were ever made so wide.  The 6½ inch versions were first used on the 450 SEL 6.9 (right).  Bottom row: A bundt cake tin (left); like the wheels, the tins are made from aluminum but are always cast or pressed, not forged.  A ginger bundt cake (centre) and a lemon blueberry bundt cake with vanilla icing (right).      

The earlier design used by Mercedes-Benz was apparently not inspired by any existing product but the public soon found nicknames.  Introduced in 1969 and soon an option throughout the range except du Grosser (the 600 (W100) 1963-1981) until 1986, the factory initially listed them as the “Premier Wheel” (ie the “top of the range”) but in the public imagination the nicknames prevailed.  First informally dubbed "Baroque" because of what was then considered an ornate design, the name which endured was “Bundt” an allusion to the popular “bundt cakes”, a circular cake with a hole in the centre and there was certainly some resemblance.  Produced by the Otto Fuchs (pronounced fuks) Company of Meinerzhagen (near Cologne), the early versions were all painted silver (though not clear-coated) and available only in a 14 x 6-inch size, 5½ inch versions soon offered to suit the lower powered cars while in the mid-1970s, production began of 6½ inch versions to handle the tyres fitted to the much faster 450 SEL 6.9 (W116) and 450 SLC 5.0.  Demand for the bundt wheel option grew rapidly, forcing Fuchs to add a line of cast wheels in the same design, the casting process able to achieve both higher volumes and a lower unit cost.  The process of forging aluminum requires great heat and immense pressure (Fuchs used as much as 7,000 tons of force) and realigns the granular structure of the material in the direction of the flow, creating a more homogeneous and less porous micro-structure.  Forging renders aluminum as strong as steel for less weight and provides a notably higher resistance to fatigue and corrosion but the process is expensive.  Fuchs also manufactured small runs of a 15 x 7-inch version and today these are much sought after.  Such is the appeal of the style, specialists in the US have fabricated versions in both a 16 & 17-inch format although, being very expensive, they remain rare.  Today, factories often offer a variety of designs of aluminum wheels with some styles available only briefly but for over fifteen years, the bundt was the only one offered.

Fuchs wheels on Porsche 911s in matt metal, (left), polished (centre) & with painted highlights.  The Porsche pedants chide any restorer who finishes the wheels in any manner than that originally done at the factory.  

A half a decade earlier, Mercedes-Benz neighbors in Stuttgart had also designed an aluminum wheel.  Porsche had planned a 1965 release for its new 911 S, at that time the fastest, sportiest version of the 911 which had been on sale since 1963 and the distinctive five-spoke shape would first be sold in 1966 and remain on the option list until 1989, the popularity so enduring it’s since been reprised more than once.  Distinctive though it was, there were really only two requirements for the new wheel: It needed to be durable and light, strong enough to endure the stresses the higher speed of the 911 S and delivering a reduction in un-sprung mass weight significant enough to enhance handling.  The design target was an aluminum wheel which weighted 3 kg (6½ lb) less than steel wheel of the same dimensions.

Porsche had also used the Otto Fuchs Company, impressed by the foundry having developed a new manufacturing process which, instead of using a cast rim, manufactured it in one piece from an alloy made of 97% aluminum with the remainder composed mostly of magnesium, silicon, manganese & titanium, the technique still used by the company today.  The five-leaf clover design was based on nothing in particular and was done in-house by Porsche, the only change from the original prototype apparently a smoothing of the scalloped shape which first adorned the spokes.  The design proved adaptable, the original 15 x 4½-inch wide wheels growing eventually to eight inches when fitted to the rear of the 911 Turbo (930), the additional rubber required to tame the behavior of a machine which some labeled the “widow maker”.  Later designs have offered various specific improvements but none has matched the charm of the original and Fuchs have continued its manufacture for later model 911s, some in larger diameters to accommodate advances in suspension geometry and tyres.

Gas-burners: Lindsay Lohan using gas-burner as improvised cigarette lighter, Terry Richardson (b 1965) photo-shoot, 2012 (left), two of Mahle GmbH’s magnesium wheels (centre) and a 1971 Porsche 911 T so equipped.

The five spoke wheel is a matter of particular interest to the originality police in the Porsche collector community and great attention is paid to date-stamping and paint, it being very important that where appropriate the wheels variously should either be unpainted or painted in a certain way in a certain color.  Deviations from what the factory did are not tolerated.  Although five-leaf clover design never picked-up an association with other circular shapes like manhole covers or cakes, there was another Porsche wheel which did.  Produced by Mahle GmbH and quickly dubbed “gas-burners”, they were available on the 911, 912 & 914-6 between 1970-1972 and although generally not thought as attractive as Fuchs’ creations, the “gas-burners” have a cult following based on pure functionality: Pressure cast in magnesium and available only in a 15 x 5½-inch format, at 4.3 kg (9½ lb) they’re said to be the lightest 15-inch wheel ever made, more svelte even than the 15 x 6-inch units Michelin rendered in glass fibre & resin for the Citroën SM (1970-1975).

Aunger magazine advertisement, 1974.  Not all wheels use an existing circular product as a model.  A style popular in the 1970s, it was known colloquially as the “jellybean”, “slotted” or “beanhole”.

Pagoda

Pagoda (pronounced puh-goh-duh)

(1) In South Asia and the Far-East, a temple or sacred building, often a pyramid-like tower and typically having upward-curving roofs over the individual stories.

(2) An ornamental structure imitating the design of the religious building, erected since the eighteenth century in parks and gardens.

(3) In fashion, a flared sleeve, most popular in the 1850s.

(4) A unit of currency, a coin made of gold or half-gold, usually bearing a figure of a pagoda temple, issued by various dynasties in medieval southern India and later by British, French, and Dutch traders.

(5) An image or carving of a god in South and South East Asia; an idol (sixteenth century use, usually as pagod, now extinct).

(6) Term applied to the first of the two generations of Mercedes-Benz SL (W113 & R107) roadsters to use a pagoda-themed roof.

1580-1585: From the Portuguese pagode, via Tamil from the Sanskrit भगवती (bhagavatī (name of a goddess, feminine of bhagavat (blessed, adorable) from bhagah (good fortune)) from the primitive Indo-European root bhag- (to share out, apportion; to get a share) or भागवत (bhāgavata), (follower of the Bhagavatī).  The alternative etymology suggests pagoda was either a corruption of the Persian butkada (from but (idol) + kada (dwelling) or perhaps from or influenced by the Tamil pagavadi (house belonging to a deity), itself from the Sanskrit bhagavatī.  There’s also the suggestion it’s derived a South Chinese pronunciation of the term for an eight-cornered tower (八角塔), a use influenced by the adoption by European visitors to China of the name of a noted pagoda in the Guangzhou region, the Pázhōu tǎ (琶洲塔).  Finally, it may be from the Sinhala dāgaba, from the Sanskrit dhātugarbha or the Pali dhātugabbha (relic, womb or chamber; reliquary shrine (ie stupa)) which made its way into other languages through Portuguese.

Given the uncertainty, it’s not impossible pagoda emerged in its modern form under more than one influence.  The related (pagod) and alternative (pagode & pagody) forms are now rare, occurring almost exclusively in historic texts.  The noun plural is pagodas.

Pagoda Sleeve 

Pagoda sleeve describes any funnel shaped sleeve and the style is still seen, though its impracticality tends to confine it to cat-walks and casualwear.  Briefly popular in the US during the late 1850s, it appears abruptly to have vanished, an 1870s revival on not so extravagant a scale not lasting; function again triumphing over fashion.  The original design was narrow at the shoulder and very wide at the wrist, worn often with an under-sleeve, made usually of a lighter cotton or linen fabric, matching the bodice’s chemisette or collar.

Layered Pagoda Sleeve

The variation of the pagoda sleeve which most closely emulated the architectural motif was tailored with layered tiers.  It may not have been co-incidental that the pagoda sleeve’s decline in popularity was at the time of the US Civil War, conflicts often imposing austerity in fashion as in other parts of the economy.  The style didn’t entirely vanish but certainly became restrained, the replacement “bishop” and “bell” sleeves both of a more severe cut but all three terms were often used interchangeably.

Yellow Crane Pagoda, near Wuhan, China

In architecture, a Pagoda is an Asian temple, rendered usually as a pyramidal tower with one or more upward curving roofs.  Although most associated with structures created for Buddhist religious purposes, the first may actually have been built in China, even before Buddhism spread there.  Whether these early buildings used the motifs of the pagoda as a stylistic embellishment or for some function purpose such as rigidity or water drainage isn’t known but it does seem the technique improves resistance to the stresses imposed by earthquakes.  In Buddhism, the structure’s original purpose was to house relics and sacred writings but the style soon extended to other sacred and secular sites.  Made from wood, brick, or stone, they can have as many as fifteen stories, each with an up-curved, overhanging roof and the tradition, in the East, was always to build with an uneven number of levels, a convention not always followed in Europe.  

Grand Pagoda, Kew Gardens, London

Built in 1762 and designed by Sir William Chambers (1723-1796), the Grand Pagoda at Kew Gardens, London, is an example of what in the eighteenth century came to be called “follies”, the term referring to the tendency of increasingly rich plutocrats to build grandiose structures fulfilling no purpose.  A gift for Princess Augusta, founder of the botanic gardens and the first building to offer an aerial view of Greater London, it’s a ten-storey octagonal structure.  Although based on the fifteenth-century Porcelain Tower in Nanking, it’s thought Chambers based his design on a woodcut which erroneously showed ten floors.  Happily, despite not having the requisite uneven number of levels thought in the East to bring good luck, the Grand Pagoda still stands and is a fine example of chinoiserie (a loanword from the French from the Chinese chinois ), used to describe the European interpretation and imitation of Chinese and other East Asian artistic traditions.

Taipai 101 in the renegade province of Taiwan.  Although not technically a pagoda, it borrows aspects of the design.

Pagodas almost always have a central staircase and, in common with many architectural styles, consist of a base, a body, and a top although, because of the origin in sacred representational form, pagodas tend not to be optimized for the functional maximization of interior space, whether circular, square, or polygonal.  Because of their height, they’ve always attract lightning strikes, something which may have played a role in the perception of worshipers of them being spiritually charged places but the electrical propensity proved useful in the modern age, lightning rods and cabling often added.

Mercedes-Benz SL W113 (230, 250 & 280) 1963-1971

The pagoda roof on the 1963 230 SL was initially misunderstood.  The designer didn’t lower the roof’s centre; it was actually the side windows which were raised.  The engineering advantage was a strengthening of the structure and, when in place, the hardtop, although un-stressed, became an integral part of the passenger "safety-cell" introduced in 1959.  It had the additional benefit of making ingress and egress slightly easier.  All that was of interest to designers and engineers but for most, it was the delicacy of line which drew the eye and women especially proved loyal and often repeat customers.  There were those who hoped for more and when the 2.3 litre 230 SL made its debut in 1963, thought it was too much the replacement for the 190 SL (R121; 1955-1963), and not sufficiently a successor to the 300 SL (W198) which as both the gullwing coupé (1954-1957) and roadster (1957-1963) was one of the supercars of the era.  In that the critics were of course correct but it wasn't that the factory had failed, it was that it had abandoned that market, its priorities now to pursue objectives which lay in other directions.

By the late 1960s however, Mercedes-Benz understood the gusty, high-revving straight-sixes, on which they'd re-built the brand's post-war reputation, were technologically bankrupt and that success in the next decade would be delivered by a range of larger-capacity, mass-market V8s, the known concerns then mostly about pollution rules rather than a rise in the price of oil.  The events of October 1973 would change that but while US$2 a barrel oil was being pumped in abundance the engineer's attention remained fixated on poise, power and performance and the W113 even played a small part in the development of the new, bigger engines.  Although, bizarrely, one W113 had been fitted with the 6.3 litre (M100) big-block V8 used in the 600 and 300 SEL 6.3 (presumably because the engineers wondered what would happen), a more plausible prototype was the one which used the new 3.5 litre V8 (M116).  That was a more satisfactory machine but the limitations of the old platform meant even it couldn't be considered for production.  All the V8 W113s were scrapped once testing was complete as was the even more unusual test-bed which used a Wankel engine, something for which (never realized) high hopes were once held.

Over its life, although the appearance didn't change, the W113 was subject to constant product development, the engine growing first to 2.5 and later 2.8 litres but the emphasis always was more on improving low and mid-range torque rather than outright power although, by 1968 when production began, the 280 SL was usefully quicker and even a little faster than its predecessors.  It wasn't sportier though, the stiff suspension of the original softened as the decade grew into middle-age though the addition of disk brakes at the rear was a welcome improvement.  More attention however was devoted to creature comforts because things like the seats and air-conditioning were more important to the target market than ultimate cornering performance, something indicated by the majority being sold with automatic transmissions, sales of the four-speed manual declining year-by-year while the optional ZF five-speed was rarely specified.

Almost all were sold with both a folding fabric soft-top and the pagoda hard-top but one interesting variation concocted for the US market was the "Californian Coupe" which was actually just a W113 outfitted with the standard removable hard-top but no soft-top, a folding bench-seat fitted in the space the deletion made available.  That made the California Coupe a genuine (if cramped) 2+2, something rather more accommodating than the rarely-seen option of a transverse seat for one.  Of course without a folding top, the thing was suitable only for days when it didn't rain but, as everyone in Stuttgart knew, California had plenty of those.  Available both as a 250 and 280 SL, the California Coupe was one of three occasions the SL was sold without a folding top, the others being the original 300 SL Gullwing and the AMG SL 65 Black Series (2008-2012), on the R230 (2001-2012) platform.  The Black Series was some 250 kilograms (551 lb) lighter than the 604 horsepower AMG SL 65 AMG (made famous in 2005 when Lindsay Lohan crashed one) and rated at about 10% more powerful (although those numbers are thought conservative).  The weight-loss programme included substituting some metal components with carbon-fibre units but of greater significance was the deletion of the folding aluminium roof, replaced by a fixed structure in carbon-fibre, something which produced the additional benefit of a lower centre of gravity.  Only 350 were built (tales of 400 seem to be an internet myth).                     

Mercedes-Benz SL R107 (280, 300, 350, 380, 420, 450, 500 & 560) 1971-1989.

The pagoda roof was retained when the R107 was introduced in 1971 but, despite the contours, it was only ever its predecessor which was known as "the pagoda".  Because of concerns impending US legislation would outlaw convertibles, Daimler-Benz didn’t develop open versions of their new (W116) S-Class platform so the R107 SL remained in production for close to two decades as the marque’s only drop-top.  The factory claimed the pagoda roof was the strongest ever offered and, like the W113's pagoda, a slight aerodynamic advantage was claimed, directional stability said to be improved.  Strongest or not, made from steel and glass, it was certainly one of the heaviest.  SL actually stands for “super light” which was sort of true when first it was used in 1952 but by 1971 was misleading at least, the R107 no lightweight and a grand tourer rather than a sports car.  For years, the factory never much discussed what the abbreviation "SL" stood for and the assumption had long been it meant Sports Light (Sports Leicht), based presumably on the SSKL of 1929-1931 (Super Sports Kurz (short) Leicht) but the factory documentation for decades used both Sports Leicht and Super Leicht.  It was only in 2017 it published a 1952 paper discovered in the corporate archive confirming the correct abbreviation is Super Leicht. However defined, the R107 is heavy, the removable hard-top famously so.

The first R107 sold in the US was the 350 SL but it was fitted with a long-stroke, 4.5 litre engine, the 3.5 sold in the rest of the world lacking the torque characteristics known to be preferred by American drivers and it was anyway soon to be too toxic to meet the stricter emission regulations.  In time, as the bigger engine was made available in other markets, the 450 SL badge was applied to all such machines.  The R107 was thus an early example of the once (usually) logical nomenclature of Mercedes-Benz beginning the path to confusion which the reorganization of the mid-1990s substantially fixed before in the twenty-first century descending to the point where the model designations are now merely indicative of a place in the hierarchy.  It was a footnote in engineering too, the 350 SL (along with the SLC & SE) in 1980 the last occasion the factory would offer a manual transmission behind a V8 engine.  In truth, using the clunky Mercedes-Benz four-speed was not all that satisfying an experience but the rarity of the small number of 350 SLs so equipped has made them something of a collector's item among the survivors of the 227,000-odd produced and (as automatics) they were for decades the preferred (one suspects almost the obligatory) transport for types such as interior decorators, Hollywood starlets, successful hairdressers and the wives of cosmetic surgeons.

Over its unexpectedly long life, the appearance changed little except for a mid-life revision to the size and design of the aluminium wheels but over the eighteen-odd years, eight different engines and several transmissions were fitted and the biggest offered was the 5.6 liter V8 in the 560 SL.  The factory had never intended to develop the 5.6 but two factors forced their hand, the first being the news BMW were unexpectedly reviving their 5.0 litre V12 project, shelved in the 1970s when the political and economic atmosphere proved unfriendly.  The other was pressure from the US where dealers were losing sales because the largest engine Mercedes-Benz were then offering (the 3.8 litre V8) was thought inadequate and the volume of "grey-market" sales of 5.0 litre cars (500 SL, SEL & SEC) was troublesome.  With their own V12 years from readiness and the 5.0 V8 not suitable for modification to comply with US emission rules, the solution was obvious; thus the 560 range, offered only in the US, Japan and Australia, then the markets with (1) a taste for big engines and (2) the toughest anti-emission laws.

However, although it packed the biggest engine, the 560 SL wasn't the fastest R107, that honor accorded to the 500 SL which used a modified version of the 5.0 litre V8 first offered in 1977 in the 450 SLC 5.0 (the C107, a long-wheelbase coupé based on the SL).  Used (improbably but successfully) as the factory's entry in long-distance rallies, the 450 SLC 5.0 was a homologation special produced only to ensure the bits and pieces needed to make the thing competitive in motorsport (the all-aluminium engine and some light-weight body & structural components) could lawfully be used.  Toxic though it was at the tail-pipes, by the standards of the 1980s, the 500 SL was a genuine high-performance car.                

Mercedes-Benz SL R129 (280, 300, 320, 500, 600) 1989-2002.

By 1989, improvements in metallurgy and structural engineering meant the pagoda curves were no longer required to achieve the desired strength, it being now possible to render an even stronger roof in aluminum with the advantage of a significant weight reduction.  It’s not known if a pagoda roof was considered but the late 1980s was the last era  at Mercedes-Benz during which engineers held sway over salesmen so a mere styling gimmick would likely have been vetoed.  Much admired as it had been, by 1989 the origins of the R107 as a design of the late 1960s were looking obvious; it had after all been on the market for what would usually have been two-three model cycles so hopes for the new SL were high.

The R129 didn't disappoint.  Introduced in 1989 as the 500 SL, it was based on the fine platform of the W124 (which had proved its competence as the 500 E) and as well as the 5.0 litre V8, would be offered also with 2.8, 3.0 and 3.2 litre sixes, the larger of which, for general use, proved remarkably effective alternatives to the big-engined versions which tended to attract most publicity.  That was certainly the case in 1993 when the 600 SL was released with the new 6.0 litre V12 (M120).  The M120 would prove to be one on the best engines Mercedes-Benz ever made and it made headlines at the time as the company's first road-going V12 (their previous V12s were all for racing or the Luftwaffe and the planned 600K programme was scrapped in 1940 because German industry suddenly had other priorities).  Some purists thought the front-heaviness detracted somewhat from the fine balance achieved by the six and eight-cylinder cars but it was the beginning of the emergence of AMG as a major player in the high-performance market and for them, the M120 was a base the like of which few other manufacturers offered and in time, 7.0, 7.1 and 7.3 litre SLs would appear with the AMG badge, offering a naturally-aspirated driving experience (including aurally) very different from the turbo-charged competition.  The AMG V12 SLs were a reminder of the way things used to be done, done faster.  That the Citroën XM (a car hardly as innovative as the DS, SM or CX had in their day been) won the 1990 European Car of the Year can be explained only by dark hints about the undue influence (or worse) of French journalists. The R129 was runner-up and remains, unlike the XM, fondly remembered and much admired.

Temple of the 500 Lohan, Kijiang, Riau Islands Province, Indonesia.  Many Buddhist temples use the pagoda root as an architectural feature and despite the traditional appearance, the Temple of the 500 Lohan is a recent construction.

Not etymologically or in any other way connected with Lindsay Lohan, in Buddhist theology a Lohan is an individual who had achieved Enlightenment and was a true follower of Buddha.  The Lohans are also known as the Arhat, Arahat or Arahant while in the Far East, the transliteration was often phonetic and in the Chinese 阿羅漢 (āluóhàn) it was often shortened to 羅漢 (luóhàn) and, via the Raj, this was picked up in English as Lohan or luohan whereas in Japanese the pronunciation of the Chinese characters was arakan (阿羅漢) or rakan (羅漢).

Resin

Resin (pronounced rez-in)

(1) Any of a group of non-volatile solid or semisolid organic substances & compounds (that consist of amorphous mixtures of carboxylic acids), obtained directly from certain plants as exudations of such as copal, rosin & amber (or prepared by polymerization of simple molecules) and used typically in pharmaceuticals, plastic production, lacquers, adhesives and varnishes.

(2) A substance of this type obtained from certain pine trees (also called rosin).

(3) To treat, rub or coat with resin.

(4) A precipitate formed by the addition of water to certain tinctures.

(5) Any of various artificial substances, such as polyurethane, that possess similar properties to natural resins and used in the production of plastics; any synthetic compound with similar properties.

1350–1400: From the Middle English resyn & resyne (hardened secretions of various plants), from the Old French resine (gum, resin), from the Latin rēsīna (resin), from the Ancient Greek rhētī́nē (resin of the pine tree), both probably from a non-Indo-European language.  In chemistry, the word came to be applied to synthetic products by after 1883.  The verb resinate (impregnate with resin) dated from 1756.  The adjective resinous (of the nature of, pertaining to, or obtained from resin) is documented since the 1640s, from the Latin resinosus; the earlier adjective was resiny (having a character or quality like resin), noted since the 1570s.  The related (and now rare) noun rosin (distillate of turpentine (especially when in a solid state and employed for ordinary purposes)) dates from the late thirteenth century and was from the Old French raisine & rousine, both variants of résine; it was used as a verb after the mid-fifteenth century.  The later adjectives resiniferous & resinless appear never to have been used except in chemistry or technical literature in relevant industries, the more common forms in general use being resin-like or resinous.  Because the word resin covers a wide field of substances, it usually appears in modified form (acaroid resin, acrylic resin, epoxy resin, phenolic resin, polyresin, polyvinyl resin et al).  The present participle is resining and the past participle resined.  Resin, resinousness & resinite are nouns, resinously is an adverb and resinify is a verb; the noun plural is resins.

Resin wheels

1972 Citroën SM with Michelin RR wheels. 

Although sometimes referred to as being made from “carbon fibre”, materials engineers insist the optional wheels offered on the Citroën SM must be described as “synthetic resin reinforced with long-strand carbon fibre”.  Notable as the first composite road wheel offered for public sale, they were developed by Michelin, the tyre-maker which since 1934 had been Citroën’s parent corporation and the innovation was an appropriate accessory for the SM which, upon release in 1971, was immediately recognized as among the most intricate and intriguing cars in the world.  A descendant of the DS which in 1955 had been even more of a sensation than the SM, it took Citroën not only up-market but into a niche the SM had created, nothing quite like it previously existing, the combination of a large (in European terms), front-wheel-drive (FWD) luxury coupé with hydro-pneumatic suspension, self-centreing (Vari-Power steering), high-pressure braking and a four-cam V6 engine, unique in the world.  The engine had been developed by Maserati, one of Citroën’s recent acquisitions and the name acknowledged the Italian debt, SM standing for Systemé Maserati.  Although, given the size and weight of the SM, the V6 was of modest displacement (initially 2.7 litres (163 cubic inch) and power was limited compared to the competition (181 HP (133 kW)), such was the slipperiness of the body that in terms of top speed, it was at least a match for most.

Michelin RR wheel.

However, lacking the high-performance pedigree enjoy by some of that competition, a rallying campaign had been planned as a promotional tool.  Although obviously unsuited to circuit racing, the big, heavy SM didn’t immediately commend itself as a rally car, early tests indicated some potential but there was a need radically to reduce weight.  One obvious candidate was the steel wheels but attempts to use lightweight aluminum units proved abortive, cracking encountered when tested under rally conditions.  Michelin immediately offered to develop glass-fibre reinforced resin wheels, the company familiar with the material which had proved durable when tested under extreme loads.  Called the Michelin RR (roues resin (resin wheel)), the new wheels were created as a one-piece mold, made entirely of resin except for some embedded steel reinforcements at the stud holes to distribute the stresses.  At around 9.4 lb (4¼ kg) apiece, they were less than half the weight of a steel wheel and in testing proved as strong and reliable as Michelin had promised.  Thus satisfied, Citroën went rallying.

Citroën SM, Morocco Rally, 1971.

The improbable rally car proved a success, winning first time out in the 1971 Morocco Rally and further success followed.  Strangely, the 1970s proved an era of heavy cruisers doing well in the sport, Mercedes-Benz winning events with their 450SLC 5.0 which was both the first V8 and the first car with an automatic transmission to win a European rally.  Stranger still, Ford in Australia re-purposed one of the Falcon GTHO Phase IV race cars which had become redundant when the programme was cancelled in 1972 and the thing proved surprisingly competitive during the brief periods it was mobile, the lack of suitable tyres meaning the sidewalls repeatedly failed.  However, the SM, GTHO & SLC proved a quixotic tilt and the sport went a different direction.  On the SM however, the resin wheels had proved their durability, not one failing during the whole campaign and encouraged by customer requests, Citroën in 1972 offered the wheels as a factory option although only in Europe; apparently the thought of asking the US federal safety regulators to approve plastic wheels (as they’d already been dubbed by the motoring press) seemed so absurd to the French they never bothered to submit an application.

Reproduction RR in aluminum. 

Michelin ceased to make the RR when SM production ended in 1975 but did provide another batch for sale in the mid 1980s and this was said to be a new production run rather than unsold stock.  A cult accessory for a cult car, perfect examples now sell for around US$2000 each which does sound expensive but, given what it can cost to restore (or even maintain) a SM, it’s not a significant sum and, unlike much of the rest of the machine, the RRs are at least trouble-free.  Michelin are not said to be contemplating resuming production but another company has produced visually identical wheels made from aluminum; these only slightly heavier.  Despite the success and the fifty-year history of robustness, Citroën didn’t persist and the rest of the industry never adopted the resin wheel.  The reason was two-fold: (1) Even if economies of scale operated to lower the unit cost, the technology was always going to be more expensive than using aluminum and advances in alloys meant the metal units can provide similar strength with only a slight weight penalty and (2) the resin was always susceptible to high temperatures, something not encountered on the SM which used inboard brakes.  Most cars however don’t use inboard brakes and as Ford found when testing resin wheels during Lincoln's downsizing programme in the mid-1970s, although the weight reduction was impressive, almost the same was possible with aluminum at much lower cost and the problems caused by heat-soak from the brakes were insoluble.  So it proved until the late 1980s when, with the development of new, heat-resistant materials, reinforced resin wheels were made available on the limited-production Dodge Shelby CSX (1989).

True carbon fibre wheels have had a little more success, although only at the top-end of the market, Koenigsegg in 2013 manufacturing carbon fibre single-piece wheels which it offered as a US$40,000 option; a number which needs to be considered in the context of the US$2 million price tag for one of their cars.  Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari and Ford have all flirted with carbon fibre wheels and some manufactures are interested in the possibilities offered by hybrid designs which use aluminum for some components and carbon fibre for others, an idea familiar from earlier steel/aluminum combinations.  Regulatory authorities are apparently still pondering things.

The SM V8

1974 prototype Citroën SM with 4.0 V8.

Ambitious as it was, circumstances combined in a curious way that might have made the SM more remarkable still.  By 1973, sales of the SM, after an encouraging start had for two years been in decline, a reputation for unreliability already tarnishing its reputation but the first oil shock dealt what appeared to be a fatal blow; from selling almost 5000 in 1971, by 1974 production numbered not even 300.  The market for fast, thirsty cars had shrunk and most of the trans-Atlantic hybrids (combining elegant European coachwork with large, powerful and cheap US V8s) which had for more than a decade done good business as alternative to the highly strung British and Italian thoroughbreds had been driven extinct.  Counter-intuitively, Citroën’s solution was to develop an even thirstier V8 SM.  It actually made some sense because, in an attempt to amortize costs, the SM’s platform had been used as the basis for the new Maserati Quattroporte but, bigger and heavier still, performance was sub-standard and the theory was a V8 version would transform both and appeal to the US market, then the hope of many struggling manufacturers.

Recreation of 1974 Citroën SM V8 prototype.

Citroën didn’t have a V8; Maserati did but it was big and heavy, a relic with origins in 1950s sports car racing and while its (never wholly tamed) raucous qualities suited the character of the sports cars and saloons Maserati offered in the 1960s, it couldn’t be used in something like the SM.  However, the SM’s V6 was a 90^o unit and thus inherently better suited to an eight-cylinder configuration.  In 1974 therefore, a four litre (244 cubic inch) V8 based on the V6 (by then 3.0 litres (181 cubic inch)) was quickly built and installed in an SM which was subjected to the usual battery of tests over a reported 20,000 km (12,000 miles) during which it was said to have performed faultlessly.  Bankruptcy (to which the SM, along with some of the company's other ventures, notably the Wankel programme, contributed) however was the death knell for both the SM and the V8, the prototype car scrapped while the unique engine was removed and stored, later used to create a replica of the 1974 test mule.

Citroën Traction Avant 22, Paris Motor Show 1934.

It was a shame because, despite being most associated with the US, it was the French engineer Léon Levavasseur (1863–1922) who in 1904 created the first V8 engine and at the 1934 Paris Motor Show, Citroën displayed their “22”, a variation of their Traction Avant model but fitted with a 3.8 litre (233 cubic inch) V8, created essentially by joining on a common crankcase two of their 1.9 litre (117 cubic inch) four-cylinder units.  When presented at the show, several models were displayed and the promotional material confirmed the 22 would be available with an extensive choice of coachwork including a saloon, an elongated limousine, a cabriolet and a coupé.  Bankruptcy however halted the project and Michelin, having just taken control, insisted the company concentrate on the best-selling, most profitable lines.  A reputed two dozen-odd 22s were built before the Michelin Man dropped his axe and although all passed into private hands, none appears to have survived the war although there have always been rumors one remains hidden somewhere in the Far-East, a survivor of the colonial presence in Indo-China.

1967 Cadillac Eldorado, which proved the big, FWD coupé could still be done.

Evidence does however suggest a V8 SM would likely have been a failure, just compounding the existing error on an even grander scale.  It’s true that Oldsmobile and Cadillac had offered big FWD coupés with great success since the mid 1960s (the Cadillac at one point fitted with a 500 cubic inch (8.2 litre) V8 rated at 400 HP (300 kW)) but they were very different machines to the SM and appealed to a different market.  Probably the first car to explore what demand might have existed for a V8 SM was the hardly successful 1986 Lancia Thema 8·32 which used the Ferrari 2.9 litre (179 cubic inch) V8 in a FWD platform.  It was about a daft an idea as it sounds.  Even had the V8 SM been all-wheel-drive (AWD) it would probably still have been a failure but it would now be remembered as a revolution ahead of its time.  As it is, the whole SM story is just another cul-de-sac, albeit one which has become a (mostly) fondly-regarded cult.

Lindsay Lohan in Tsubi Scooter Jeans, Andrea Brueckner Saddle Bag, L.A.M.B. Lambstooth Sweater, Manolo Blahnik Butterfly Sandals & Louis Vuitton Inclusion Resin Bangle, Los Angeles, April 2005.