Santa's reindeer but make them cars | Axon's Automotive Anorak

With Santa getting older and feeling the cold more, this year, to help cope with the wet and windy conditions he’ll face far away from his North Pole residence, there are rumours that for this Christmas, he is considering swapping his traditional sleigh, pulled by his nine faithful reindeer for nine other suitable forms of transportation that will be warmer, dryer, less exposed, more comfortable and faster. Santa might choose nine cars, suitably named after varieties of the reindeer from the caribou family, so that he still feels at home and can at least remember some of their names.

With reindeer not known for being the most eco-friendly of creatures, they being rather flatulent, Santa will be keen to reduce his carbon footprint. Frustratingly, as yet however, no electric car or other modern low-emission vehicle has a long range sufficient to travel around the world administering festive gifts in a very tight time frame, and smoke-stake chimneys are not at all good for the environment either.

So, given this dilemma, Santa is rumoured to be having some fun this Christmas by opting for nine classic cars, each one with a deer-related name. Although none of these cars can fly, he can at least stay comfortable and warm, whilst entertaining himself listening to Jingle Bells and Christmas hymns on the in-car audio system, use the sat nav to help guide his most efficient route, and have a decent amount of secure luggage space to safely store his copious bundles of toys and other gifts.

Santa will need to quickly learn a few new reindeer names, but at least four of them will be very familiar to him. Alphabetically, these are…

Mercury Comet 

The 1960-68 Mercury Comet was a more expensive, premium version of Ford’s economy ‘compact’ 1960s Falcon sedan. After being dropped from the North American range in 1968, Mercury revived the Comet name from 1971-78, this time basing the model on the more modern 1970s Ford Maverick range.

In its initial form, the entry Mercury soon became a surprisingly unlikely performance machine, powered by a wide selection of six-cylinder and V8 engines, including drag strip specials with lightweight GRP and allow panels, these now being highly sought collector's items. Prior to the 1960 Mercury model, Ford had previously used the Comet name (as Comete) for its French-built subsidiary, with a rare but handsome Facel-made coupe.

Volkswagen Dasher

The Volkswagen Dasher was the North American name given to the first-generation Passat. Sold in North America from 1974-81, the Dasher (Passat) was the first of a trio of landmark Giugiaro/ItalDesign-styled Volkswagens, launching ahead of the subsequent Scirocco coupe and standard-setting Golf of 1974.

The range-topping Dasher/Passat was also the first VW-engineered water-cooled, front-engined, front-wheel-drive model for the Wolfsburg marque. When the second-generation Passat was introduced in 1981, VW USA dropped the Dasher model name and fell in line with the rest of the VW world by applying Passat badging. 

Rudolph Perfect Roadster GmbH

The Rudolph Perfect Roadster GmbH might seem an odd name for a car company. Rudolph was founded in 1992 as a German self-built specialist sports car maker, based in Mechernich. For more than 25 years, most of Rudolph’s limited production focus on was on an accurate self-build glass fibre toolroom replica of the second-series Volkswagen Karmann Ghia Convertible, called the Rudolph Classic Roadster. It was appropriately built around a Volkswagen Beetle chassis, with a choice of a VW Beetle or Subaru boxer engine.

Rudolph also later added a pleasing Porsche 550-inspired Spyder S and C two-seater roadster to its range, this being powered by a modern Audi 1.8 turbo motor. By way of contrast, it then introduced the wild Rudolph Diardi, a modern roadster take on the classic Lotus Seven theme, powered by BMW 3-Series-sourced four-or six-cylinder motors, ranging in power from 150-343 PS. With self-assembly kit cars being something of a rarity in Germany, Rudolph threw in the towel and stopped making cars in 2018.