BY ROHAAN SAKRANI
There are plenty of car brand logos with hidden meanings, but the reason why Porsche and Ferrari both use a horse as their logo boils down to their individual histories, not branding strategy.
Even though the resemblance is uncanny, both brands derived inspiration from independent moments in European history that just happened to revolve around one animal. Porsche’s horse has direct ties with the land where the brand’s story originates. The company was founded in Stuttgart, a city whose coat of arms has featured a rearing horse for centuries. To pay tribute to its origins, Porsche placed the horse at the center of a crest when it first introduced its logo in the early 1950s.
On the flip side, Ferrari’s horse carries personal and symbolic significance. During World War I, Italian fighter pilot Francesco Baracca painted a prancing horse on his aircraft. After his passing, the horse became a symbol of his legacy. In 1923, when Enzo Ferrari (the founding father of Ferrari) won his first ever race in North Italy, he met Baracca’s father and went on to develop a great friendship with his family. Enzo was eventually moved to adopt that very horse as a logo on his racing cars, believing it would bring good luck.
So, did either brand copy the other? Not really. The two brands share the same animal for entirely different reasons — and these aren’t just the only two brands using the Stuttgart horse. A strange little car company called Steinwinter has basically the same exact logo as Ferrari.
The detail that complicates the story
The explanation above is usually presented as the full story. However, it still doesn’t fully explain why the two horses look more alike than coincidence would allow. The connection becomes complicated once we take the story beyond Francesco Baracca himself.
The part of the story involving Enzo’s encounter with Baracca’s family members is well-documented. What’s not clear is where Baracca got his horse emblem from in the first place. Some speculators indicated that Baracca could have taken this emblem after downing a German pilot whose aircraft carried a horse emblem from their home city, which would be Stuttgart in this case.
If those accounts are to be believed, then the horse that Ferrari adopted is the very same horse that Porsche borrowed from its hometown. While this detail adds further depth to the story, it still doesn’t suggest that either brand has deliberately copied the other. Instead, it shows how the same image could move quietly across borders and contexts, changing meaning as it went.
Why the similarity in logos never became a problem
What ultimately allowed both brands to keep the horse without conflict is how clearly each logo defined its own meaning. In the case of Ferrari, the prancing horse logo became official when it finally commenced the production of its vehicles post World War II. The logo consists of a black horse (also known as Cavallino Rampante) depicted against a yellow background to symbolize the city of Modena, and the Italian flag rests above it all. The horse was positioned facing left, as per the direct instruction of Enzo Ferrari, and this was carried onto Ferrari road cars beginning with the 125 S.
For Porsche, the horse came from the Stuttgart crest of arms. The horse was situated at the centre of a shield that contained the words “Stuttgart” and “Porsche,” along with colours referencing the Württemberg region. The crest has been on the Porsche 356 since the early 1950s, and it was later incorporated onto hubcaps and car bodies. Although the logo has evolved over the years, the horse has stayed part of the larger crest design — and Porsche’s new logo has all of the same elements with slight stylistic changes.
Feature image credit: Kevin Carter/Getty Images