CARS AND PLANES…. AND MEMORIES PART 1

MY FAVORITE CAR MAGAZINE, THE BRIT Classic & Sports Car offers an interesting array of cars and planes that share monikers. Sure, there are familiar ones like the Ford/North American Aviation Mustang and Triumph/Supermarine Spitfire. But plenty of others as well. Here, in Parts 1 and 2 today and tomorrow, are tidbits about them quoted from C&SC along with my related aero sleuthing.

1959 Buick LeSabre/North American F-86 Sabre. This one is a bit of a cheat, like the Pontiac LeMans mimicking the sound, if not the typography, of the famed French circuit. C&SC recounts, “Features such as wraparound windscreens and tailfins were lifted straight from planes such as the North American F-86 Sabre fighter, with its glass bubble cockpit.”

“And the Buick LeSabre of 1959 was no different, because it had clearly been designed to cut the air in half, such was the sharpness of its ‘delta-wing’ fins and edges.”

1959 Pontiac Catalina/Consolidated PBY Catalina. “The name Catalina was used from 1950 as the designation of a trim level on some Pontiac hardtops, but in 1959 it became a model in its own right…. This was a vehicle designed to travel long distances, not unlike the Consolidated PBY Catalina with which it shared its name.”

“This aircraft was a patrol bomber designed to fly vast distances over the ocean. It could also land on the water, which the Pontiac model most assuredly could not.”

1947 Jowett Javelin/Gloster Javelin. “The Jowett Javelin was pretty advanced for its day, as was the aircraft that came to bear the same name–the Gloster Javelin, a delta-wing fighter jet that entered service with Britain’s Royal Air Force in 1956.”

“The four-wheeled Javelin proved quite the competition machine, taking class wins in both Rallye Monte-Carlo and at the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.” It also appeared here at SimanaitisSays as “A Yorkshireman’s Sports Car,” April 12, 2016.

1999 Saab 9-3 Viggen /Saab 37 Viggen. “The Saab 9-3 Viggen is one of the very rare cases in which a special-edition car is actually named after an illustrious aircraft, instead of just sharing the same name as one. The four-wheeled version was developed in tandem with renowned team Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), and was powered by a 2.3-litre, four-cylinder, turbocharged engine, driving the front wheels through a five-speed manual gearbox.”

“The 9-3 Viggen car was named after the Saab 37 Viggen, a 1970 single-seat fighter that was one of the first to use a computer to replace a co-pilot.”

My encounter at the photo shoot was truly memorable: See “Show Cars I’ve Driven–More or Less” on a Swedish Airforce base with multiple close–and I mean close–approaches of a Viggen 37 over my Saab EV-1 concept car. The heat blasts were impressive, especially for photographer Jeff Zwart.

Tomorrow in Part 2, we continue these automotive/aero dual identifications with Comets, Vegas, Aerostars, and Concordes. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanatisSays.com, 2026