would have positive associations for customers. While Auto Union customers were enticed to buy cars with names such as DKW F8 and BMW were inviting customers to be seduced by names such as BMW 326, Ford were selling the Ford Köln, named after a major cathedral city as well as the Ford Eifel and the Ford Taunus named after hilly areas of great natural beauty. For Project 1, Ford Germany evidently intended to invoke another hilly region of natural beauty, and the name “Ford Hunsrück” was thought uncontroversial for a successor to the Ford Taunus. However, the “Hunsrück” name was blocked shortly before launch, possibly because of problems encountered explaining the pronunciation of “Hunsrück” to management colleagues in Dearborn. This left the name Taunus, and it was proposed to name the new car “Taunus 12 Meisterstück" in order to differentiate it from the existing Ford Taunus which was by now an aging model that would nevertheless continue to be listed in parallel with the new model throughout most of 1952. However, it transpired that the name “Meisterstück” ("Masterpiece") was unavailable for any Ford vehicle, having been patent-protected by a German bicycle manufacturer. Therefore, by the time Ford's radical new car came to market it arrived under the name “Ford Taunus 12M”. The “12” in the name referred to the engine size of 1.2 litres and the “M” was the only part of the “Meisterstück” name available to Ford. The engines During development it was intended that the car would be powered by a 1,498 cc engine. This was in many respects the engine that had originally been intended for the previous Ford Taunus first produced in 1939, but now it was to be developed into an ohv unit. However, cost constraints intervened, and when the new Taunus 12M appeared in 1952 it was powered by the 1,172 cc side-valve unit that had powered not merely its predecessor, but also its predecessor's predecessor, the Ford Eifel of 1935. By 1952 sidevalve engines were already seen as old fashioned. In an analysis undertaken of the models shown at the 1952 Paris Motor Show it was noted that 48 of the cars exhibited were fitted with engines employing overhead valves while only 6 featured sidevalve engines. That Ford were still powering their entry level Taunus P1 with a sidevalve engine ten years later, in 1962, would leave the model looking badly outclassed under