So did the Plymouth Valiant name come from a french cartoon character?

This cartoon is from the '70's...the F1 car has aerodynamic wings and skirts

I feel better about the cartoons. I thought this guy was quite prescient about the cars. The blue car is the Ligier JS9 from 1978. F1 cars are sort of a moving target in terms of appearances as they are always trying stuff out. The front end of the car looks like the Lotus 77 also from 1978. Could Ligier have reverse engineered a Lotus nose for its car? Yup.

That does not explain the silver car which debuted as the Audi R10 in 2006. It was the first diesel car to win LeMans in that year. Won Sebring, too.