Codenames are thrilling things. From the universally recognisable 007 to the excitement of learning that your company has initiated Project Parallax even if it’s just a plan to move the coffee machine to the second floor kitchen, everyone loves a codename. And if you’re of an inherently nerdish disposition, car codenames are the most fascinating of all.
Plenty of internal development codes have slipped into the common car lexicon, which is why anyone with a passing interest in Porsches knows their 964 from their 997 and the proper petrolhead will pop up like a meerkat if they hear someone say E30 M3 or W124. It’s easy to pick the bones out of the latter because Mercedes-Benz has been using W-codes since before it was Mercedes-Benz, the W standing for ‘wagen’ or ‘car’ in German and originating with Daimler in the 1920s. Of course, if you’re a true Benz-head you’ll know that not all Mercs are coded with a W because estates start with an S and coupés with a C; and if you’ve truly earned your Three Pointed Stars you’ll know that a V followed by three digits means long-wheelbase limo.
BMW’s system is younger and started in the 1960s when engineers first started referring to each project with an E – short for Entwicklung, the German word for ‘development’ – followed by two digits, a system that served them for over 40 years until they began to run out of numbers. Numerically, the last E numbered model known outside the company was the E93 3 Series convertible released in 2007, though the last E car to go on sale was the E84 X1 of 2009. Then BMW moved to the somehow less evocative F codes and, because it sells a much broader range of models than when it started the E3 saloon in the ’60s, burnt through these at a rate of knots and lurched into the system we have today which has Beemerbrains casually chatting about G20s and the G80 M3.
