Cars were once just a tool. Today, it is a "statement". A show of wealth, which magnetizes the eyes of men, women and tax collectors! Or at least that is how the few who have this opportunity see it, since for most they are and will remain tools for moving to and from work, instead of any family outing on the weekend.
Behind every car there is a whole story. To be precise, there is this story behind the car industry that created them.
Perhaps the most famous of these stories is hers Volkswagen.
Adolf Hitler always had a family car in mind. Cheap in production, which can transport family members without having high operating costs for it. So he designed something that looked like a functional car. He then called the Austrian engineer and designer Ferdinando Porsche, showed him the plans and asked him to build a "car for the people".
Porsche told him how it was done and so the Nazi state used every legal and illegal means (on the production line during World War II they were used as slaves, people arrested in the countries occupied by the Third Reich) to turn into a state-owned enterprise. For this reason, after all, in its first signal Volkswagen, the swastika also appears.
This, as has already been said, is the most well-known and well-told story about the creation of an automobile industry.
Below you will find 10 short stories about how badges were created and how names were given to an equal number of car manufacturers:
We start with the easy. Its name is the car industry Ferrari, took it from its Italian founder, Enzo Ferrari, who was the official Alto race driver in 1924. In 1939, he left the races and decided to build his own company.
As for its symbol, the famous black horse on a yellow background, usually accompanied by the letters SF (Scuderia Ferrari), the inspiration for the emblem came from Count Francesco Baracca, the legendary pilot of the Italian Air Force in the First World War. World War II, who painted it on the side of the planes of the "Battaglione Aviatori" team that was leading.
Founded in 1963 by the Italian Ferruccio Lamborghini! The brand shows a golden bull on a black background with also a gold border. THE Lamborghini was born on April 28, 1926. That is, he was a bull in the zodiac sign. And he believed a lot in the signs. At the same time he was a fan of bullfights. Well, that's how we got to one of the most famous emblems.
The Rolls-Royce company based in England started operating in 1906. It was created when two demonic businessmen joined forces. They are Henry Royce and Charles Rolls.
As far as the emblem is concerned, it is a statue with the female figure on the hoods of cars and is called "the spirit of ecstasy" also known as Silver Lady or Flying Lady. The model was actress Eleanor Velasco Thornton, who was the secret mistress of Lord Montague of Beaulieu. The lord instructed the sculptor's friend Charles Robinson Sykes to make a statuette for him to put on the front of it. Rolls-Royce which he had just bought. This move created fashion and everyone put what they wanted forward. The company, therefore, decided to commission Charles Robinson Sykes to create an emblem that all cars will henceforth have. He made it again inspired by Eleanor Velasco Thornton.
The name of the industry, in terms of its second half, came from its founder Karl Benz. This is easy. The complicated part is about Emil Jellinek. Businessman. Engineer. Speed racing guide. Diplomat. He loved cars, and when at some point he crossed paths with Benz's parent company, Daimler Motor Group, he wanted a fast car to run in speed racing. With this vehicle, then, he won many races. The point is that because it was not right for a diplomat to be a realist, he used the pseudonym Mercedes which was actually his daughter's name.
Of the many victories, however, people talked about the miracle of Mercedes. So Benz and Jellinek found themselves without realizing it with a great brand. And that's how the story started.
In terms of signal, it depicts a star with three peaks, which shows the power and dominance of Daimler engines on land, at sea and in the air.
The businessman and the general manager of the company from 1915 onwards, Nicola Romeo, "clicks" next to his last name the Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili (ALFA) which was the name of the company since 1910 when it was founded and το was made Alfa Romeo.
As far as the emblem is concerned, the most probable version (because there are 2-3 more) is that it is the coat of arms of the Visconti family which was, at that time, the strongest and most respected family in Milan. The most famous interpretation, however, concerns Otone Visconti, the founder of the family and knight, who fought against a noble knight of the Saracens and defeated him. And in the tradition of the time, he took the symbols that Saracen brought to his shield: a snake with a man in his mouth.
The initials BMW, mean Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, and the company began operating in 1912 after the merger of three German companies.
As for the logo now, here too there are various interpretations.
When the company was founded, it was illegal for a trademark to include "coats of arms or other symbols of national sovereignty".
Her people BMW They made the emblem and said that it shows a rotating propeller while the choice of colors was for the blue of the sky and the white of the clouds (or silver from the color of the propeller).
Now that the colors are the same as those of the Bavarian flag and the mark seems to be taken from some detail of the flag, it is probably a completely random fact.
In 1904 the German Engineer August Horch founded the company August Horch & Cie. Motorwagenwerke AG. One the prisoner. In 1909 he "broke up" with his associates, left and founded August Horch Automobilwerke GmbH.
His former associates, however, are suing him because he continued to use the same brand name. August Horch loses the lawsuit and renames his company to Audi.
The idea belongs to his son who thought the following: Horch in Greek means "listen". Audi also means "listen" but in Latin. And that's how the fledgling car industry got its name.
As for the emblem with the four joined circles, each of them represents the four companies that came together to make Audi and each made something different (bicycles, motorcycles and small passenger cars).
The resemblance to the Olympic emblem forced the Olympic Committee to sue AUDI for trademark infringement, but lost the court battle.
The case of Andre Citroën is perhaps the most interesting. In 1900 he completed his studies at the Technical University of Paris and until he entered the production process he visited his mother's relatives in Lodz, Poland, where they maintained a textile factory. There he got ideas from how the machines work and when he returned to France he made the double helical gear, which was a cut in the car.
During World War I he had set up his own company, which supplied military equipment to the French army and employed 12.000 personnel!
After the end of the War, in 1918, his business was left without object and Citroen decided to turn to car manufacturing. As a sign of his new company, he adopted the double gallon (the insignia of the Greek sergeant inverted).
There are three versions, with the first being the most prevalent. He chose it in remembrance of his own discovery of the double helical gear. The second version is that he wanted to honor in this way his service in the army and the war industry. The third and most drawn version is that it is a Masonic symbol, as Citroen was a select member of the Stoa of Paris!
It is one of the oldest car companies in the world as it was founded in 1899 by three brothers Louis, Marcel and Fernand Renault. So the issue of naming the car industry was a rather easy one.
As for the emblem, which has undergone various variations over time, it may look like a rhombus but it is actually four diamonds. One for every brother and a quarter for the car industry itself!
The company was originally named after the founder of Kiichiro Toyoda. But when, over the years, it became more and more famous in the ends of the world (today, based on economic data, it is considered the number one) it became Toyota as the first name literally means "fertile rice crops", and the company's shareholders only did not want the company to be associated with… rice!
As far as the emblem is concerned, it looks like it forms a "T", the initial letter of the brand and the outer circle symbolizes the world that embraces Toyota. Another interpretation says that if we look at the logo in more detail we will recognize each letter separately from the word "Toyota".