Horse 1185 - Thirty-Seven

I went online looking for some Nescafe Blend 37, wondering if I could import it to tell in there was a difference between it and what is sold in Australia as Nescafe Gold. There is an obvious difference between Blend 43 and Blend 37. 37 has a more bitter yet richer taste to it and I think is a superior blend of coffee.
Nevertheless, a look at Nescafe's own website made me somewhat suspicious:

http://www.nescafe.co.uk/CoffeeCupboard/everyday-choice/nescaf-blend-37
When his co-driver didn’t show up, Didier Cambreson refused to withdraw and simply completed the 1937 Le Mans single-handed. Driving car number 37, and pausing only for coffee breaks, he finished an impressive 37th. What else could we name the coffee that kept him on track?
- as at 5th May, 2011

Update: 
 http://www.nescafe.co.uk/product_details_en_co_uk.axcms?Id=24
When his co-driver didn’t show up, Didier Cambreson refused to withdraw and simply completed the 1937 Le Mans single-handed. Driving car number 37, and pausing only for coffee breaks, he finished an impressive 37th. What else could we name the coffee that kept him on track? Blend 37 has a full-bodied, rugged intensity that we love. Dark roasted to a rich nuttiness with hints of toasted cereal and a smooth, malty caramel finish.
- as at 18th Apr, 2012

However if search back through the record I find that:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1937_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans
The car numbered 37 in 1937, finished in 5th place, was an Aston Martin 1½ Ulster and piloted by J.M. Skeffington and R.C. Murton-Neale. The only places I've managed to find mention of Didier Cambreson whoever he is, seems to be in connected with Nescafe Blend 37. Could it be that Mr Cambreson has been made up? Is he just an invention? A fabrication? A fib?

Finding a photograph of the actual Aston Martin proved difficult, but it appears as though there have been  various models made of it, including a Scalextric variant from about 2002. This photo however is just of one of the models:

I then remembered that there had been some Renaults in the British Touring Car Championship in the late 1990s bearing the number 37.

One person who is not a fabrication or a fib is two times BTCC Champion Jason Plato. For three seasons Nescafe Blend 37 sponsored the Renault BTCC effort of which Plato was a part. Other drivers of the green Blend 37 Renaults were Alain Menu, Tommy Rustad and Jean-Christophe Boullion.

Boullion drove for part of the 1995 Formula One season for Sauber and has competed at Le Mans 11 times, his best result being a third in 2007. In the BTCC he did drive the number 37 Renault, but he didn't really have a good season in 1999 and left after the Renault team folded later that year.

I then wondered where else Nescafe could have decided to take the number 37 from and thought that it might be from Paddy Hopkirk's giant killing Mini Cooper S:

Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon took the Mini (reg 33 EJB) to victory in the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally. This 1071cc car with a paltry 70bhp, probably made the establishment very scared indeed. In 1965 Timo Mäkinen and Paul Easter repeated the win and would have come 1-2-3 in 1966 but the French organisers had to invent the excuse that the cars had lights that were too bright. In 1967 Rauno Aaltonen and Henry Liddon but by that stage The Monte was just another rally and its lustre had been lost.

MINI are desperately trying to cash in on the legend and will sell you a set of "37" decals for your new MINI, and in this year's WRC will again run the number 37 on one of their cars.

Liverpool defender and all around hard man, Martin Skrtel plays in the number 37 kit.
Various "facts" have been written about Martin Skrtel including:
- Martin Skrtel doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
- He once ate an entire bottle of sleeping pills. They made him blink.
- Martin Skrtel eats nails for breakfast.
- Martin Skrtel was once in a knife fight, and the knife lost.

I wonder if Nescafe would consider sponsoring Martin Skrtel. Certainly if you saw him coming towards you in a dark alley you'd want to stay awake, you might even be afraid to ever fall asleep again. Every night the Bogieman checks under his bed for Martin Skrtel...

Adam Goodes is a dual Brownlow Medallist and has played in the Australian side on four occasions. Goodes is one of those players who takes nonsense from no-one and on occasion has been charged with striking. He was part of the 2005 Sydney Swans Premiership side and if it wasn't for Mad Bad Barry Hall would have been captain.
The thing with Goodes is that he will never be given the accolades that he deserves. He'll never be the best Full-Forward, Winger or Full-Back of all time because as probably the only truly complete utility player the AFL has ever seen, he can play any and every position on the park excellently. I bet if they invented a cloning machine and played 18 Adam Goodes at once, the team would beat Geelong 35.9.219 to 0.1.1 and even then Geelong would only score the behind because Goodesy felt sorry for them.

The truth is that I have no idea why Nescafe chose the number 37 for that particular blend of coffee. I'll bet that the truth is ludicrously mundane and is as simple as it being just a batch number, rather like the original Boeing 707 being called "707" because the Boeing marketing department decided "707" was "a bit catchier" than the number "700".