The world lost a 20th century icon this week, as Hugh Hefner shuffled off this mortal coil to an afterlife that can't possibly measure up to the one he enjoyed here on Earth. Love him or hate him, his success in building an empire on the back of skin mags and debaucherous parties is as American a story as they come. And while The Hef was always known for his stylish rides, you may not be familiar with the key contribution cars made to his life and business—the Playboy name itself.

It's understandable if you've always assumed Playboy magazine was named for, well, playboys, which according to The Dictionary of American Slang has been used to describe "wealthy bon vivants" since 1829. But no, that's not quite the case. In reality, Hugh Hefner borrowed the name for his fledgling business from the Playboy Automobile Company, a tiny auto manufacturer based out of Buffalo, New York with big dreams of selling postwar America on small cars. Obviously, that didn't happen: The company was only in business from 1947 to 1951, producing 99 cars before going bankrupt.

Not seeing the connection? In 1953, Hugh Hefner was a fresh-faced copywriter with a young wife, a baby, and a plan to class up the pornography business with a new men's magazine. He originally wanted to call it Stag Party, but representatives from an outdoor adventure magazine called Stag threatened to sue him if he used their name. As he cast about for new ideas, his friend Eldon Sellers, whose mother had worked in a regional sales office for Playboy Automobiles, suggested reusing theirs. Heffner liked it, and the rest, as they say, is history.