Car Culture: Prancing horses and Wild Bulls

Cars. The most innovative piece of technology that has completely changed our lives. It has created a new lifestyle as we can live farther from work and go farther and explore new places. It also created a new type of sport and was a sign of social status. What I mean by that are sport and supercars such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mclaren, Bugatti, and Porsche. These brands have changed what a car really means as each brand has a specific meaning behind each car.

Ferrari, probably the best-known car manufacturer when someone thinks of a sports car or supercar. Many people don't understand the roots of Ferrari and why people admire them but here's the truth. Their patented color, Ferrari red, is unlike any other red shade and it makes it pop among other cars. Their logo, the prancing horse, was taken from an Italian WW1 hero who had a black prancing horse on the side of his plane. Enzo Ferrari took that logo and put a yellow background from his birthplace. The symbol was to have been believed as good luck. The story of Ferrari began as a racing team first and a car manufacturer second. They started out as Scuderia Ferrari or Team Ferrari. To fund the expensive costs of racing cars, they built and sold sports cars. They were initially only made for privateers but it was eventually released to the public and became very popular. Time went on and the brand kept on making sports cars except instead of focusing only on the track, they also devoted a lot of time to their road-going cars. Many of their hundreds of thousand dollar cars have technology carried over from their F1 team and their hypercars are essentially road-legal F1 cars. The Ferrari Enzo dedicated to the founder of Ferrari, Enzo Ferrari, was built in limited numbers because it was special and only specific people could afford and buy them.

Lamborghini is another famous brand for supercars. Their cars are known for their V12 engines and their high pitched exhaust notes. (V12 is the number of cylinders in the engine, so 12 cylinders total, 6 on each side arranged in a V shape). The brand was known for mounting the engine in the rear of the car, behind the driver. This aids performance and traction but surprisingly the car manufacturer did not actively participate in motorsport. It made engines for F1 teams in the 1980s through the 1990s but never formed an official team. The company thought it would drain too many resources. The company would go on to create some insane cars such as the Aventador, Huracan, Centenario, and their newest, the Sian.

Supercars are a sign of social status as the rich and wealthy own many of these cars. The supercar used to all be about speed and performance but recently, it has been more of a symbol of wealth and a glimpse of the person's personality based on the car.

Sources:
https://www.fastcompany.com/1665054/the-insane-story-behind-ferraris-famed-prancing-horse-logo-video
https://www.businessinsider.com/ferraris-history-2016-2#ferrari-was-hesitant-because-his-companys-main-purpose-was-to-win-races-at-that-point-the-only-cars-ferrari-sold-were-for-privateers-chinetti-started-racing-and-winning-in-ferraris-cars-around-the-world-12
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamborghini