From Batmobile to Unicorn: The Art of Car Dubbing

Yellow Sports Car!!

One of the best things about getting a new car is picking out its name. New or used, a good name can give any car character for all your adventures to come. While not everybody bothers to dub their vehicle, it's really quite simple. Got a bright blue car? Call it the Tardis. Have a Mercury? Name it Freddie. A bright yellow sports car as seen above? Mine! Well, not yet, but I can enjoy what I've got in the meantime.

Ninja Yellow Sports Car!

When I first came into this shiny, black coupe, it had already had a few adventures of its own, and a few dents to prove it. It was a sporty little thing, complete with spoiler, sunroof, snazzy rims, darkened windows and a general aura of awesomeness, and it didn't take long for me to realize the proper name for this super car.

Da na na na na na na na... Batmobile!

That's right, the BATMOBILE. Indeed, the title took so well that my brother even gave me a large, stuffed Batman to be the car's mascot. For over four years, my toddler-sized Batman sat in the backseat and accompanied me everywhere I went. He even gave my nephew some hero training, nap-time style.

The Bat Boys at rest.

But after four awesome years, the quirks of the Batmobile started to get a little too quirky. Hot A/C, broken tape player, no antenna, a side mirror held up with a binder clip, an impressive new dent and so on. It even decided to spring a leak in its radiator hose the day I brought it to meet its future owner. Character is one thing, but attitude is quite another.

A Chevy hit my Batmobile... like a rock.

As it happened, the car I found to replace the Batmobile turned out to be a nice, little white Corolla, complete with a giant dent in almost the exact same place. Fancy that! Even with one door/window rendered into a wall, three doors is still an upgrade from two. ;)

The new and improved 3-door car!

But what to name a little white sedan? I toyed with quite a few options before finding one that worked. Batmobile the White (like Gandalf post-Balrog), Shadowfax, Bartok, Storm Dragon, Sherlock... As fun as these names were, none of them seemed just right. That is, until my mom had a brilliant idea: Charlie the Unicorn (a.k.a. the Unicorolla).


There are few ways to upgrade from a Batmobile, but I figure a unicorn is a pretty good bet, especially a cantankerous unicorn. With a centered antenna and a scar on its side (most likely from a run-in with some less than reputable unicorns), it was clearly meant to be. And now with Charlie by my side, perhaps it's time for a new mascot...

"We're going to Candy Mountain, Charlie!"

If you've got a clever car name of your own, feel free to share in the comments! 

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