What Do The Initials Of The Cars Mean?

Over the years car manufacturers have used different methods to differentiate between the most special versions of their cars. A new name was the solution in the past, but adding acronyms to these has become a common practice that is even repeated between different brands.

Some of these nomenclatures inspire respect, and it is that they are the element that tells us that we are facing a more special product than normal, a care machine. In total there may be thousands, so today we are going to talk and explain what some of the most famous ones mean.

AMG

AMG in the badge worn by the most performance versions of the cars signed by Mercedes. Depending on the number that accompanies these acronyms we can know how powerful it is.

The AMG range is divided into 43, 45, 53, 63 and 65. The origin of AMG is very peculiar, coming from the name and place of birth of the creators.

Hans Werner A ufrecht and Eberhard M elcher, born in G rossaspach, were Mercedes engineers who in their spare time were in charge of preparing racing engines in a mill. These engines were capable of winning races, capturing the attention of Mercedes which, after collaborating for years, absorbed AMG as part of its brand.

CUPRA

CUPRA has recently been presented as an independent brand parallel to SEAT, but its origins date back to 1996 with the Ibiza II as the protagonist. In the nineties, small sports cars were in fashion, and the Spanish brand started from the base of the Ibiza GTI to create a car that is a tribute to the rally version.

The Ibiza Kit Car kept beating rivals around the world and the brand wanted to offer fans a bit of that glory. For the new SEAT Ibiza CUPRA, the brand unified the words Cup-Racing. In addition, for cars whose focus is even more sporty, the brand has the CUPRA-R

RS

RS is usually used for the most performance versions of each car, above the rest. We owe its origin to Ford, who debuted it in 1970 with the Escort RS1600, a small sports car in which everything learned in rallying was applied. This is why RS stands for Rally Sport.

Hyundai N

Without making much noise, Korean brands have reached the level of quality of any European firm. Once positioned in the market, they have proposed to be able to fight even with the performance versions of others, such as the Volkswagen Golf GTI. For this, the guys from Hyundai have released the N variants.

This N refers to the German Nürburgring circuit, where the brand has a development center and puts the dynamic capabilities of all its cars to the test. The first of this lineage has been the Hyundai i30 N, a compact five-door available with 250 and 275 hp in its Performance version.

WRX / WRX STI

Like Ford and its RSs, Subaru is widely known for its rallying adventures. After scrapping the Legacy in favor of the new Impreza, the firm would launch a version derived from the competition version. It would be called Impreza WRX, an acronym that came from World Rally Experimental.

As a result, these versions were further improved by the technical department of the brand, becoming WRX STI. This last surname comes from Subaru Tecnica International.

NSX

You can’t talk about the Honda NSX without naming Ayrton Senna. The Brazilian star participated in the development of what would be the first supercar of the Japanese firm, launched on the market in the transition from the 80s to the 90s. It was a very special project, somewhat experimental, capable of rivaling Ferrari with reliability of a Civic.

Against this background, Honda decided to name its new car as NSX, acronyms that come from New Sportscar Experimental , that is, new experimental supercar. And boy was the experiment successful. The first generation lasted more than a decade, the same period that had to wait to meet its successor.

GTI

The acronym GTI has been used by many manufacturers to differentiate their sportier cars, but the status was achieved thanks to Volkswagen and the 1976 Golf I GTI. This small compact was the delight of everyone who drove it, and after more The 40-year-old continues to do so, now in his seventh generation.

GTI is the acronym for Gran Turismo Injection, which combines the dynamic characteristics of the car with those of its mechanics, in this case with direct gasoline injection.