Legend Of The Prancing Horase Ferrari

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The Legend of the Prancing Horse

"The story of the prancing horse is simple and fascinating. The horse was painted on the fuselage of the fighter plane flown by Francesco Baracca, a heroic Italian pilot who died on Mount Montello: the Italian ace of aces of the First World War.
In 1923, when I won the first Savio circuit, which was run in Ravenna, I met Count Enrico Baracca, the pilot's father, and subsequently his mother, Countess Paolina.
One day she said to me, "Ferrari, why don't you put my son's prancing horse on your cars; it would bring you luck." I still have Baracca's photograph with the dedication by his parents, in which they entrusted the emblem to me. The horse was black and has remained so; I added the canary yellow background because it is the colour of Modena."
...Enzo Ferrari
The Ferrari Stables emblem appeared for the first time in 1929 on all company publications, signage and official papers, but not on the cars, which belonged to Alfa Romeo and wore the Alfa colours, a green cloverleaf in a white triangle.
The shield made its debut on the cars on July 9 and 10, 1932, at the Spa 24 Hours.
There could not have been a more auspicious occasion: the race was won by the car driven by Taruffi and D'Ippolito, ahead of Siena and Brivio. After that victory, the shield adorned all the official Ferrari Stables cars in the Thirties, right up to the moment the stables became the official Alfa Corse department, directed by Enzo Ferrari, but run by the company.

The first Ferrari to sport the trademark on its bonnet was a 125 driven by Franco Cortese on May 11, 1947, the Maranello company's racing debut, on the Piacenza circuit. Designed by the Ferrari Technical department and produced by the Castelli e Gerosa company of Milan and Cristiglio of Bologna, it remained unchanged until 1950.
Since then the symbol has been scrupulously applied, with occasional exceptions, in its conventional form which has never changed, on...