Why is there a prancing horse on my car?
08-25-2013, 09:28 PM
#2
Drifting
Crest history courtesy of PCA: There are three components: the family name, of course, is positioned at the top, while the other two components reflect Porsche’s gratitude for the rebirth of the company in the Stuttgart area. The red and black bars with the antlers are from the coat of arms of the State of Wurttemberg, and the horse is from the coat of arms of Stuttgart, capital of Wurttemberg. The origins of Stuttgart developed from the royal patronage given in historical times to the area. A fine horse stud developed here. So (Stud Garden) Stutt Garten and Stuttgart.
08-25-2013, 09:45 PM
#3
Cool. Thanks! I always wondered what was up with the antlers and bars too. I feel really bad for pulling the hood ornament off a 911 sitting in a parking lot in Ocean City, MD in the summer of 1985. If you are our there, let me know. Hope they made it harder to pull those suckers off.
08-25-2013, 11:25 PM
#5
Race Director
^^^ the Ferrari horse came from the plane of a famous War time Italian Pilot. The "S" and the "F" on emblem stands for Scuderia Ferrari.
Last edited by kosmo; 08-26-2013 at 01:03 AM.
08-26-2013, 06:26 AM
#6
Burning Brakes
^^ exactly 
Here's an extended version:
The famous symbol of the Ferrari race team is the Cavallino Rampante ("prancing horse") black prancing stallion on a yellow shield, usually with the letters S F (for Scuderia Ferrari), with three stripes of green, white and red (the Italian national colors) at the top.
On 17 June 1923, Enzo Ferrari won a race at the Savio track in Ravenna where he met the Countess Paolina, mother of Count Francesco Baracca, an ace of the Italian air force and national hero of World War I, who used to paint a horse on the side of his planes. The Countess asked Enzo to use this horse on his cars, suggesting that it would bring him good luck.
The original "prancing horse" on Baracca's airplane was painted in red on a white cloud-like shape, but Ferrari chose to have the horse in black (as it had been painted as a sign of grief on Baracca's squadron planes after the pilot was killed in action) and he added a canary yellow background as this is the color of the city of Modena, his birthplace.
The Ferrari horse was from the very beginning, markedly different from the Baracca horse in most details. The most noticeable being the tail that in the original Baracca version was pointing downward.
Ferrari has used the cavallino rampante on official company stationery since 1929. Since the Spa 24 Hours of 9 July 1932, the cavallino rampante has been used on Alfa Romeos raced by Scuderia Ferrari.
The motif of a prancing horse is old, it can be found on ancient coins. A similar black horse on a yellow shield is the Coat of Arms of the German city of Stuttgart, home of Mercedes-Benz and the design bureau of Porsche, both being main competitors of Alfa and Ferrari in the 1930s. The city's name derives from Stutengarten, an ancient form of the German word Gestüt, which translates into English as stud farm and into Italian as scuderia. Porsche also includes the Stuttgart sign in its corporate logo, centred in the emblem of the state of Württemberg. Stuttgart's Rössle has both rear legs firmly planted on the soil, like Baracca's horse, but unlike Ferrari's cavallino.
Source: the book "Enzo Ferrari, L'uomo, La leggenda, il mito".
Suzy991
Here's an extended version:
The famous symbol of the Ferrari race team is the Cavallino Rampante ("prancing horse") black prancing stallion on a yellow shield, usually with the letters S F (for Scuderia Ferrari), with three stripes of green, white and red (the Italian national colors) at the top.
On 17 June 1923, Enzo Ferrari won a race at the Savio track in Ravenna where he met the Countess Paolina, mother of Count Francesco Baracca, an ace of the Italian air force and national hero of World War I, who used to paint a horse on the side of his planes. The Countess asked Enzo to use this horse on his cars, suggesting that it would bring him good luck.
The original "prancing horse" on Baracca's airplane was painted in red on a white cloud-like shape, but Ferrari chose to have the horse in black (as it had been painted as a sign of grief on Baracca's squadron planes after the pilot was killed in action) and he added a canary yellow background as this is the color of the city of Modena, his birthplace.
The Ferrari horse was from the very beginning, markedly different from the Baracca horse in most details. The most noticeable being the tail that in the original Baracca version was pointing downward.
Ferrari has used the cavallino rampante on official company stationery since 1929. Since the Spa 24 Hours of 9 July 1932, the cavallino rampante has been used on Alfa Romeos raced by Scuderia Ferrari.
The motif of a prancing horse is old, it can be found on ancient coins. A similar black horse on a yellow shield is the Coat of Arms of the German city of Stuttgart, home of Mercedes-Benz and the design bureau of Porsche, both being main competitors of Alfa and Ferrari in the 1930s. The city's name derives from Stutengarten, an ancient form of the German word Gestüt, which translates into English as stud farm and into Italian as scuderia. Porsche also includes the Stuttgart sign in its corporate logo, centred in the emblem of the state of Württemberg. Stuttgart's Rössle has both rear legs firmly planted on the soil, like Baracca's horse, but unlike Ferrari's cavallino.
Source: the book "Enzo Ferrari, L'uomo, La leggenda, il mito".
Suzy991
08-26-2013, 07:33 PM
#7
Additionally, "scuderia" means "stable" in Italian so Enzo was referring to his stable of race cars and it would therefore also be fitting to use the horse as a symbol (not to mention that only a few decades earlier, the automobile was called a "horseless carriage").
