Thanks to what looks like an original from Ferrari himself, here’s the exact angles that the famous Ferrari Horse are prancing at.
Most Ferrari fans know that the horse on the Ferrari logo originates from the plane livery of one of Italy’s most famed pilots but most don’t know off the top of their head at what exact angle the Ferrari horse is prancing at. Wonder no further. According to a tweet from @FAFBulldog form earlier yesterday (Aug. 14, 2018) the Ferrari horse prances at 58 degrees when measured from a horizontal plane and 32 degrees from a vertical plane. Confused? Check out the tweet for yourself below.
— ??Fast&Ferocious (@FAFBulldog) August 14, 2018
Wrapped around the measurements of the Ferrari horse prancing is the story of how the logo came to be. The story goes that after a race in Northern Italy, Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari, met with the mother of WWI Italian Air Force Ace Francesco Baracca. His Mom told Enzo that he should use his son’s prancing horse emblazoned on his planes as a logo that will bring him good luck. So, Enzo did. Enzo later added a yellow background in honor of his birth hometown of Modena.
For whatever reason, probably to standardize the logo forevermore, measurements were taken of a sketch of the logo so it can be used exactly in perpetuity. Hence, you can see that the measurements are as mentioned, 58 degrees from a horizontal plane and 32 degrees from a vertical plane.
As per Ferrari’s article, the prancing horse first got used on company stationery in 1929 and was placed on Enzo’s racing Alfa Romeos in 1932.
The prancing horse isn’t exclusive to Ferrari and is most notably used as the logo for Avanti, an Austrian gasoline company with filling stations in Europe. A handful of other smaller companies use the prancing horse. Ferrari hasn’t gone after these companies as they don’t compete directly with the Italian exotic car maker.
So, the next time you really want to impress your exotic loving friends, whip out this bit of bar trivia and take the protractor out of you pocket to prove them wrong at the next Cars and Coffee.
