When the motor car was new, 120 years ago, hundreds of crazy young men in all corners of the industrialised world – including one Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan – fell to building selfpropelled contraptions of their own design.
These vehicles and their successes varied greatly, but when it came to naming them, the inventors all did the same thing: they used their surnames. By the time the Ford Motor Company opened for business in 1903, we had Daimler and Benz, Peugeot and Panhard, Renault and Opel, Dodge and Lanchester. Even Alldays & Onions. And more were waiting in the wings.
However, while companies run by their founders were once common, family and financial fragmentation now means they are rare. Porsche is still active, of course, but Ford is the…