Cavallino Rampante: Scuderia Ferrari as a Brand

Enzo Ferrari once said, "if you can dream it, you can do it."

What does S F stand for anyway? Scuderia Ferrari. Ferrari Stable. Perhaps, of all of the magic of Ferrari, the brand itself is timeless, limitless, priceless.

The Ferraris designed by Leonardo Fioravanti tug at my heartstrings, for obvious reasons.

The logo itself evokes passion and emotion. The black cavallino rampante, on the yellow shield, in a field flag of red.

Wow. Crisp. Clean. Focused. Racy. Pure. Fast.

(Photo credit for this beautiful pic of the 512BB: Richard Owen, Supercars.net)

The Marca Ferrari. It makes you happy. It makes your heart race. It just looks, well, right.

The pedigree and racing traditions are unequaled.  Historically they've been quirky and in the '80's and '90's there were some very polarizing designs (The "Testarossa" so shrewdly profiled in Miami Vice, the Ferrari 348, e.g.) as there are in the current lineup.

What’s more beautiful than the black Cavallino Rampante against a shield of yellow. Incidentally, take a close look at the Porsche and Ferrari logos side by side. No accident there. And, crosstown rival Ferruccio Lamborghini’s company’s logo, a snarling gold bull on a black shield – it’s no coincidence that the colors are the inverse of the Ferrari logos.  Mr. Lamborghini never appreciated Enzo Ferrari's mockery of the company's origins in farm equipment and tractors.

Now we know what the snarling was all about. Enzo Ferrari and Ferry Porsche were brands and icons themselves.  (The Ferrari Dino does not bear a Cavallino Rampante on it's hood, but rather Dino in script, to pay homage to the namesake son lost at age 24.) 

The origin of the prancing horse on Ferraris belongs to the Countess mother of fighter ace Baracca. In 1923, Enzo won a race at the Savio racetrack in Ravenna, while he was there he met the Countess Paolina, the mother of Baracca, a famous fighter pilot who painted the horse on the side of his planes. And with 34 victorious duels under his belt Baracca was a national hero. The Countess had asked Enzo to use the horse on his cars implying that it would give him good luck. It took Enzo eleven years to eventually use the horse and at SPA 24 Hours in 1932, Enzo’s Team Ferrari won. Their cars adorned the black horse exactly as it was on Baracca’s plane and Enzo added a yellow background to symbolize the color of his birthplace, Modena.

"I build engines and attach wheels to them." - Enzo Ferrari

If you think all of Ferrari's masterpieces, even his own, were red, then think again. The 1962 Ferrari SuperAmerica on display at The REVS Institute in Naples, Florida an amazing shade of silver-green, still wearing it's original paint from the factory in Maranello, with a flawless black leather interior. 

https://revsinstitute.org/the-collection/1962-ferrari-superamerica/

The car was originally built with a light colored interior in cloth, per Enzo's specification, but that was ultimately changed along with a bunch of mechanical and performance enhancements.  When you're Enzo Ferrari, you can do those kinds of things. When you're Enzo Ferrari, you can pretty much do anything.

The Commendatore, an essence of the brand itself, passed away in 1988.

I just don't know if he'd be on board with PuroSangue.

But, times change.

Brands evolve.

And so has Ferrari.

Copyright 2024, Paul Fioravanti. All Rights Reserved.