Enzo Anselmo Ferrari was born on 18 February 1898 in Modena, Italy and was an Italian race car driver and entrepreneur. He founded the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team and of manufactured the Ferrari car. At the age of 10 and seeing 1908 Circuit di Bologna, Enzo Ferrari decided to become a race car driver.
In June 1923, Enzo Ferrari won a race at the Savio track in Ravenna where he met the Countess Paolina, mother of Count Francesco Baracca, a national hero of World War I, who always painted a horse (Cavallino Rampante) on the side of his planes. She asked Enzo Ferrari to use this horse on his cars, suggesting that it would bring him good luck. Enzo Ferrari changed the horse from red to black and yellow. The black is a sign of grief for Count Francesco Baracca after he was killed in action and the yellow is the color of the city of Modena.
In 1929 at the age of 31, Enzo Ferrari founded the Ferrari trademark. The company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of expensive road cars in 1947. The Ferrari race team famous trademark is the Cavallino Rampante with the letters S F (Scuderia Ferrari) and three stripes of green, white and red that represents the Italian national colors at the top. Ferrari has used the Cavallino Rampante trademark since 1929. The Cavallino Rampante is the visual symbol of Ferrari.
Similar Trademarks
The Coat of Arms of the German city of Stuttgart uses a similar black horse on a yellow shield. 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, centered 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.
Fabio Taglioni used the Cavallino Rampante on his Ducati motorbikes. He was born at Lugo di Romagna like Baracca, and his father was a military pilot during WWI. As Ferrari became more popular, Ducati abandoned the Cavallino Rampante, perhaps the result of a private agreement between the two companies.