10 car logos you probably never knew the meaning of

The Alfa Romeo logo is arguably the best badge in the automotive industry. It’s elegant, clean and filled with mystery. Until now, It is…

You see, the red cross on the left is the symbol of Milan, while on the right you will see a dragon / snake to eat a man. The meaning behind this is pretty convoluted, so here’s the “simple” explanation: An important guy in Milan called Otone Visconti fought a Buckwheat knight and killed him. He then brought the symbols on the Buckwheat shield back to Milan, which is why he made his way onto the Alfa badge.

Although it looks like the serpent / dragon is eating a man, Alfa’s official line is that the man is in fact emerging out of the mouth of the beast a new and purified man.

The more you know …

The Audi logo is simple and clean; no snakes, no fuss. The four rings of the logo represent four car manufacturers (Audi, Horch, DKW and Wanderer) which merged in 1932 to create Audi’s predecessor company, Auto Union.

The central blue and white circle is often by mistake thought to represent a rotating airplane propeller. In fact, what the blue and white quadrants represent the colors of the Free State of Bavaria – but in the opposite order – because it was illegal to use national symbols in a trademark.

The reason for the airplane propeller connection dates back to a 1929 advertisement in which a photo of the front of an airplane was used with BMW written on top.

There are four theories behind the origin of the Chevrolet bow tie …

The first theory is that it comes from a wallpaper design that Chevrolet co-founder William C. Durant saw in a Paris hotel. The second theory says that Durant sketched the design at the table one night between soup and fried chicken, while the unproven third theory is that the logo was inspired by an existing logo for Coalettes, a refined fuel product for fires.

The fourth and final theory is that the bow tie is a stylized version of the Swiss flag cross, since Louis Chevrolet was born in Switzerland.

As Enzo Ferrari once described it, the story behind the world’s most recognized automotive logo is:

“The horse was painted on the fuselage of the fighter plane of Francesco Baracca – a heroic aviator of World War I. In ’23 I met Count Enrico Baracca, the hero’s father, then his mother, Countess Paulina, who once said to me, “Ferrari, put my son’s prancing horse on your carriages. It will bring you luck. “The horse was and still is black, and I added the canary yellow background which is the color of Modena.”

The reason behind the iconic Lamborghini bull is that the animal is the zodiac sign of Ferruccio Lamborghini (he was born on April 28, 1916, which makes him a Taurus). He was also a fan of bullfights, which is why the bull seems ready to ruin someone’s day.

The Merc logo is a bold statement of intent, not a romantic ideal or some wild beast ready to spoil someone. The three-pointed star simply represents the brand’s dominance over land, sea, and air. It’s unbelievably German.

The Mitsubishi logo is probably another ‘cool, I didn’t know that’ One for you. The origin of the logo is reflected in the name of the company. “Mitsu” means “three” in Japanese, while “hishi” (pronounced “bishi”) means water chestnut, and it is also the same word that the Japanese have long used to denote a diamond or diamond shape. .

According to Mitsubishi:

Yataro Iwasaki, the founder of the former Mitsubishi organization, chose the three-diamond brand as the emblem of his company. The mark evokes the three-leaf coat of arms of the Tosa clan, Yataro’s first employer, as well as the three stacked diamonds of the Iwasaki family coat of arms.

The Porsche logo is a clear case of the use of the coat of arms of the Free People’s State of Württemberg (formerly Weimar in Germany), of which Stuttgart was the capital (where cars are made).

The meaning of the Subaru logo is pretty obscure, but cool once you know it. Subaru ways United in Japanese and is also the name of the Pleiades star cluster (aka Seven Sisters which is one of the closest star clusters to Earth and most obvious to the naked eye at night) .

The reason for the use of the cluster in the Subaru logo is to represent the six companies that merged to create Fuji Heavy Industries.