what does it remind you of? (don't know how to post a poll) here's my offerings, in no particular order, add your own: 1. Maserati 2. God of Water 3. Arial 4. Sea Monkeys (if you want my opinion, it's actually #4, as when i was 5 my mum got me sea-monkeys, and they were the best pets i ever killed.)
I always thought it was kind of a Poseidon thing, but I have no basis for that. I would be interested in the origin of the symbol. In fact a thread about the origin of other symbols might be truly interesting. I do know the Lambo story (I think) but I would like to hear where these come from: Ferrari Lotus Ford Chevy Mercedes BMW (Heard its from the aero engines they make a million years ago- true?) Alfa Audi (Auto Union) Porsche.
In the Piazza de Nettuno, near the center of Bologna, stands a fountain topped by a statue of Neptune (Poseidon) holding his trident-capped staff. It was this statue that was Mario Maserati's design inspiration for the Maserati logo. The Lotus emblem features the initials of company founder Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman. While travelling in France in 1913, William C. Durant came across the "bowtie" pattern on the wallpaper of his hotel room. He tore off a section of the paper and brought it back, using the design as the new emblem for Chevrolet. While staying in Cologne, Gottlieb Daimler decided to send a postcard of the city to his children back home. On the postcard, he marked the exact location where he was staying with a 3-pointed star. Alfa's emblem pays tribute to the coat of arms of the car maker's hometown, Milan. BMW's emblem does, indeed, represent a spinning aircraft propeller. Audi's four interconnected rings symbolize the merger of the four automobile manufacturers (Horch, DKW, Wanderer, and Audi) into Auto Union in 1932. The Porsche emblem is the coat of arms for the city of Stuttgart, where the company is headquartered. For details on Ferrari's Cavallino Rampante, do a search here and on the old F-Chat board for "Francesco Baracca."
Here is DeTomaso's emblem origin: Alejandro DeTomaso was an Argentinian expatriate, having gone to his father's home of Itlay after fleeing due to heated friction between he and Juan Peron. DeTomaso's blue and white stripes are from the Argentine flag colors, and the T-like symbol is that of the brand his family used on their ranch in Argentinia.
Regarding Wayne's explanation of the origin of the Mercedes emblem, there is a different story in "Car Badges of the World", which states: "The three-pointed star of the emblem had been adopted by Daimler in 1909 as their trademark. The house of the late Gottlieb Daimler, who had given the company its name, had borne a star, and the father had told his son Paul, now in charge, that 'a star shall arise from here, and I hope that it will bring blessings to us and to our children.' " Also, regarding the De Tomaso emblem, the "Pantera Buyers Guide" says that the logo was taken from the ancient hyroglyphic letter "Isis", the first initial of Isabelle De Tomaso's name. I don't know the true story of either of these, just posting what I found. And of course the Ford emblem is a blue oval, not a blue circle.
Found elsewhere on the Web: Recently, the popular automotive media has been devoting an unusual amount of attention to the cars of De Tomaso. After languishing in the shadows of the automotive world for year, De Tomaso automobiles are beginning to gain respectability in the eyes of the automotive cognescenti. This is obviously a good thing for all of us, but when ill-informed journalists spread erroneous information and label it as fact, they are (in my view) performing as much harm as good. Just last month, Sports Car International magazine featured a short article detailing the history and meaning of the De Tomaso logo. They repeated the oft-told tale that says the squiggly black symbol is actually a stylized hieroglyphic I in honor of Isabella De Tomaso; they also stated that it stands for Isis, the first De Tomaso car. (In fact, people routinely refer to the logo as the Isis logo.) While I applaud the magazines efforts to help publicize the DeTomaso marque, theres just one problem. The story they told is complete hogwash! I can only speculate as to how that story originally came to be. The first book published on DeTomaso automobiles was written by Jan Norbye and is a textbook example of how not to write a marque book. Throughout the book, Norbye showed a tendency to generate his own facts when he was unable to determine them through more traditional means. Many of his statements are absolutely ludicrous, including his description of the meaning of the DeTomaso logo. Subsequent books on the marque by Wallace Wyss and Matt Stone unfortunately relied far too heavily on the flawed Norbye book, and both incorporated this fanciful and highly improbable tale. Unfortunately, as a result it has now become the accepted story, appearing regularly in Pantera International, and sad to say, undoubtedly appearing previously in these august pages as well. To get the straight scoop, I merely picked up the telephone and called the DeTomaso factory in Italy and spoke with Georgia Ferrari, the Assistant Manager. (I had previously spoken of this with both Santiago and Isabelle DeTomaso, but wanted to confirm my recollection before committing myself in print.) The true story is rather straightforward. Alejandro De Tomaso was born in Buenos Aires to a powerful family with a strong ranching heritage; his mother belonged to one of the oldest families which controlled Argen-tinian agriculture, and his father was an eminent politician who had been appointed Minister of Agriculture in the 1930s. The De Tomaso family had a very distinctive cattle brand used to mark the horses and cattle in their estancia, shaped like a stylized T. During the early 1950s, Alejandro became a political activist against the dictatorship of Juan Peron. It soon became apparent that his life was in jeopardy, and he was forced to flee the country. At the age of 27 he fled to Italy, and armed with a reasonable amount of money, began devoting his life to racing automobiles. In 1959 he formed his own company, with the intent of manufacturing small racing cars. Needing a corporate logo, he simply combined his ardent family pride (the T) with his staunch Argentinian nationalism (the flag of Argentina), and that is how the DeTomaso logo was created. So the next time you hear somebody parroting the ridiculous story of the Isis logo, please take the time to straighten them out. I figure it should only take about 20 years or so before everybody gets it right!
