Actually, this time we will not be dealing with one, but two logos. Both at Ferrari and Porsche you see images of a rearing horse. And let that be exactly the same horse. How is that possible? Read all about the Porsche logo meaning here.
When Ferdinand Porsche founded his company in 1931, he settled in Zuffenhausen, near Stuttgart. For the logo of his new company, he looked for inspiration from the city’s coat of arms. Stuttgart carries a rearing horse in it, against a yellow background. Simple right?
Why Ferrari uses the same horse as in the Porsche logo?
How the horse from Stuttgart ended up on the logo of an Italian sports car builder is a curious story. The history books contradict each other about the exact course of events, but the fact is that Ferrari owes its logo to the driver Francesco Baracca. In the First World War, the Germans and Italians were not yet as good friends as in the Second. Pilots engaged in deadly aerial duels with wood and cloth biplanes. Francesco Baracca made his opponents tremble and tremble. At least 34 German airmen were killed by bullets from Baracca’s barrel.
The story goes that one day Baracca shot down a German from Stuttgart. He had the coat of arms of his hometown – the Prancing Horse – on his plane. The Italian then applied the image to his own device. A more boring theory is that Baracca simply loved horses, or that the horse refers to his initial army unit, the cavalry. In any case, the horse turned out to be no guarantee of success. Baracca did not survive the war, he crashed with his plane.
The prancing horse had to be a lucky charm for Ferrari
In 1923, Enzo Ferrari met the parents of Francesco Baracca. He had just won a race with an Alfa Romeo at the Savio circuit, Enzo had not yet built any of his own cars. Francesco’s mother suggested putting the prancing horse on the side of his cars as a talisman. Enzo, an admirer of the aviator, thought it was a good idea. He first used the horse in July 1932, at the Spa circuit. He colored the background yellow; the color of Modena, Enzo’s hometown.
It was not until 1947 that Enzo developed his own sports car, the Tipo 125S. Then the rearing horse again adorned the yellow background. And the Porsche logo? It took its final shape in 1952. Since then, the Stuttgart horse has been surrounded by the coat of arms of the former German state of Württemberg-Hohenzollern.