For the Ferrari crest, Enzo chose black for the horse’s figure as “That was the color it had always been—and always would be." (When Ferrari made up his mind, that was the way it was.) The yellow field in the Scuderia Ferrari crest is Ferrari’s tribute to Modena, Italy, where he was born the 18th of February 1898. Officially, records say he was born on the 20th. This is because a snow storm delayed his father from getting to the register office until 2 days after his birth. (Enzo Ferrari died on the 14th of August in 1988 at 90 years of age. By his own request, and to honor his father, public notice of his death was postponed for 2 days.)

     First appearance of Ferrari’s prancing horse comes the 2nd of July, 1932. Interestingly, it's not on a Ferrari-made car at this point. Rather, it’s on an Alfa-Romeo 8C “Monza.” Ferrari is competing with this car in the 24 hour endurance race at Spa, Belgium. His team takes 1st and 2nd place in this race.

     Ferrari had joined Alfa-Romeo as a mechanic & driver in 1920. He rose through the Alfa-Romeo racing ranks to eventually form Scuderia Ferrari in 1929. This Ferrari-managed entity served as Alfa-Romeo’s unofficial racing division. When Enzo’s son Dino was born in 1932, Ferrari retired from driving to focus entirely on racing management, that focus being dedicated to his company, Scuderia Ferrari. ("Scuderia" in Italian means "stable". Or, "Team.")

     Departing from Alfa-Romeo, Ferrari needed capital to finance his insatiable racing passion. To generate the necessary capital, he started the production car company that bears his name. Ferrari’s measurable displeasure with production car making is the stuff of automotive lore. He only wanted to be involved with racing but put up with car making to fund what gratified him the most.

     First use of the prancing horse on a genuine Ferrari car appears in 1947, on the Ferrari 125 S. Exactly how Ferrari got away with taking the branding that first appeared on an Alfa-Romeo and moving it to his own product is a curiosity. Either he had an agreement with Alfa-Romeo in this regard, or, he just did it. If Alfa-Romeo did raise a concern, it’s possible Ferrari “suggested” they had more pressing matters to attend. Ferrari’s assertive charisma was such that he often got what he "asked"  for.

     Between Porsche & Ferrari, there was no conflict of note regarding their similar prancing horses. Bear in mind Porsche’s crest arrives 20 years after Ferrari’s. Ferry Porsche and Max Hoffman---the one who instigated Ferry to create a Porsche logo---both knew Ferrari well as they were all entwined by the competitive cord of racing. Given the sophistication of Ferry and Max as businessmen, they and whomever else was involved in the Porsche crest design, must have taken Ferrari’s existing logo into consideration when designing the Porsche crest. It is unknown whether they consciously decided to avoid being too close, visually speaking, to Ferrari’s horse design, or, Porsche’s much smaller horse + other elements were arrived at by design-default.

     Given Ferrari being a man of tremendous inner focus, his attention to what others were doing—racing aside—often seemed near non-existent. Keeping kings, princesses, dukes and others of supposed rank waiting until he decided it was time to meet them, that was Ferrari’s way, and people knew it. It’s no stretch of the imagination to conclude that after Porsche’s crest had become public, and when others drew Ferrari’s attention to it, Ferrari responded in his unabashed style…“E alora!” —"So what!”