There are plenty of car brand logos with hidden meanings, but the reason why Porsche and Ferrari both use a horse as their logo comes down to their individual histories and not their branding strategy. While the similarity is uncanny, both brands drew inspiration from independent moments in European history that happened to revolve around one animal. Porsche’s horse has direct ties to the country where the brand’s story comes from. The company was founded in Stuttgart, a city whose coat of arms has featured a prancing horse for centuries. To pay tribute to its origins, Porsche placed the horse at the center of an emblem when it first introduced its logo in the early 1950s.
On the other hand, Ferrari’s horse has a personal and symbolic meaning. During World War I, Italian fighter pilot Francesco Baracca painted a prancing horse on his plane. After his death, the horse became a symbol of his legacy. In 1923, when Enzo Ferrari (Ferrari’s founder) won his very first race in Northern Italy, he met Baracca’s father and developed a great friendship with his family. Enzo was eventually moved to adopt that same horse as the logo on his racing cars, believing it to bring good luck.
Did one brand copy another? 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 actually has the exact same logo as Ferrari.
The detail that complicates the story
The above explanation is usually presented as the full story. However, it still doesn’t fully explain why the two horses are more similar than chance would allow. The connection becomes complicated once we take the story beyond Francesco Baracca himself.
The part of the story about Enzo’s meeting with Baracca’s relatives is well documented. What’s not clear is where Baracca got his horse emblem in the first place. Some speculators indicated that Baracca could have taken this emblem after downing a German pilot whose plane carried a horse emblem from their home city, in this case Stuttgart.
If these stories are to be believed, the horse that Ferrari adopted is the very same horse that Porsche borrowed from its hometown. While this detail adds even more depth to the story, it still doesn’t suggest that either brand deliberately copied the other. Instead, it shows how the same image could silently move across borders and contexts, changing meaning along the way.
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 began production of its vehicles after 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. The horse was turned to the left, according to direct instructions from Enzo Ferrari, and this was worn on Ferrari road cars, starting with the 125 S.
For Porsche, the horse came from the coat of arms of Stuttgart. The horse was located in the center of a shield with the words “Stuttgart” and “Porsche”, along with colors referring to the Württemberg region. The emblem has been on the Porsche 356 since the early 1950s and was later incorporated on hubcaps and bodywork. Although the logo has evolved over the years, the horse has remained part of the larger emblem design – and Porsche’s new logo features all the same elements with minor stylistic changes.
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