Ferrari's prancing horse came from a World War I fighter pilot.

The Cavallino Rampante, or prancing horse, was the personal insignia of Francesco Baracca, a decorated Italian fighter pilot killed in 1918. Enzo Ferrari met Baracca’s parents years later, and his mother, Countess Paolina Baracca, urged Ferrari to put the horse on his cars, telling him it would bring good luck.

Ferrari added a canary-yellow background, the colour of his home city of Modena, and first raced with the badge in 1932. Contrary to a common assumption, it is not a reference to engine horsepower.