Zooming in on Car Badges Trivia Quiz

Answer: A snake

Milan is the birthplace of the Alfa Romeo. The symbol of Milan is known as the Biscione. The Biscione is a large grass snake, which is also known as the vipera, that appears to be swallowing a human. Above the Biscione is a crown. These have been the symbols of the Milanese family, the House of Visconti for a thousand years. Legend has it that Ottone Visconti slayed Saracen Voluce during the Crusades in Jerusalem and then took Voluce's family crest as his own. Whilst Voluce's crest showed the serpent swallowing a man, the Visconti version indicates that it is a child emerging from the snake, renewed and purified, as a symbol of goodness.

The Milanese flag has a white background and bears a red cross. Many mistake this to be the cross of St. George but, in reality, it shows the link between the city and St. Ambrose. The badge has endured numerous changes over the years including, at one time, having a laurel wreath around the edges of the badge to symbolise the car's victory in the very first Automobile World Championship.

This question zoomed in from Phoenix Rising's pollucci19.

Answer: Stuttgart

The Porsche badge features the coats of arms of the Weimer-era Free People's State of Wurttemberg and its capital Stuttgart. The former is a quartered crest with a trio of black antlers at top left and bottom right signifying the region of Swabia in southwestern Germany and red and black stripes at top right and bottom left representing the Duke of Wurttemberg. The Stuttgart crest is a canting symbol of a black horse shown rampant and is situated in the middle of the logo as an inescutcheon (a fancy word for small shield within a larger one). 'Stuttgart' comes from 'Stutengarten' which translates to "stud [or horse] yard".

This question brought to you by Phoenix Rising stud, JCSon. (Just horsing around).

Answer: Red

Rolls-Royce was created in 1904 and was named after its founders Henry Royce and Charles Rolls. The double-R motif remains fairly unchanged since then, although in 1933 the main colour changed from red to black. It is wrongly believed to be because of the death of Henry Royce the same year.

The Rolls-Royce brand is one of the best known car brands in the world and is synonymous with wealth and luxury. As well as the RR emblem the hood mascot is instantly recognisable. A young woman in diaphanous robes leaning into the wind, is known as the Spirit of Ecstasy. Not all Rolls-Royces have this mascot though. Queen Elizabeth II has a custom-made 'Saint George Slaying the Dragon' on hers.

smpdit has never owned a Rolls-Royce, but has been in a few. Her grandfather was a Rolls-Royce mechanic and chauffeur.

Answer: Bowtie

The easily identified bowtie shape has been Chevrolet's logo since 1913, introduced by company co-founder, William Durant. One story is that Durant was inspired by wallpaper he saw in a Parisian hotel. Some say it was simply a doodle on some scrap paper. Maybe it was a doodle of something he saw in a hotel!

The logo, today, is typically gold with a silver border and in the past (before 1940) it had "Chevrolet" written inside.

An actual bowtie has never been seen on Phoenix Rising's member mike32768 since some grammar school pictures, but he has driven many Chevys.

Answer: Roaring Lion

Peugeot can trace its history back over 200 years but in 1923, it adopted the logo of a lion carved as a statue on the front of the bonnet/hood of its 201 model. The logo was incorporated into the bodywork in the next model and has has many variants but always they have featured a lion. In 2010, the 10 version was released which showed a silver lion on his hind feet roaring.

Holden can trace its history back to 1856 as a coach making firm. It produced Australia's first mass produced car in 1948. Holden produced its logo in 1948 which also features a roaring lion but it also showed the lion pushing a wheel. The logo references an ancient fable, which describes lions rolling stones which led led to the invention of the wheel. The logo has been modernised several times but has always featured a roaring lion and a wheel.

This question was driven into the quiz by unashamed Holden fan 1nn1.

Answer: The ancient chemical symbol for iron

The symbol is known as the 'Iron Mark', and indicates strength and durability. The word Volvo is not actually Swedish, but was instead adapted from the Latin word 'volvere', which means 'to roll'.

Like so many instances in the volatile car business, Volvo has changed hands a couple of time. The company came under the Ford umbrella in 1999 before being sold to the Chinese multinational group, Geely Holdings, in 2010. The company also makes trucks, in partnership with UD, Mack, and Renault.

Question submitted by Phoenix Rising member ozzz2002, whose high school motto was 'Onwards and Upwards'.

Answer: Audi

Audi is now a member of the Volkswagen Group of companies, but its own history and origins are so complex that they probably deserve a quiz in their own right. The key player at the start was August Horch who'd started his own company, A. Horch & Cie, in 1899. In 1904 he began a new enterprise which involved a merger with the stock company Motorwagenwerke. Not too far down the track there was a falling out between the two and the inevitable split. However, the sad outcome for Horch was that his name was part of the previous venture's name and he could not use it for his new company. His son, who was studying Latin at the time suggested the name "Audi". In a similar way that "audi" was the Latin term for "to listen", "horch", in German, meant "hark" or "hear".

Long story short, by 1932, there was a merger between four car brands - Audi, DKW (Dampf-Kraft-Wagen), Horch and Wanderer, to form Auto Union (and as mentioned above, it would take too much time to show how it became just "Audi"). The four rings were drawn up to represent the four brands that formed the merger. Their interlocking signified "union" and they were stylized in silver, which represented Germany's racing colour.

This question was presented by Phoenix Rising's pollucci19 who, as a junior cricketer, once made six scores of zero in succession... he still brags that he's better than an Audi.

Answer: Ford

In 2006 the Ford Motor Company pledged a whole range of assets, which included its badge, headquarters and factories, in a bid to qualify for a $23.5 billion bail-out loan to enable it to survive the recessional conditions that prevailed at the time. As part of the conditions the company was required to raise two "investor rating points" before any of those assets could be returned. In 2012 ratings agencies Moodys and Fitch both provided those upgrades, thanks to the operation's strong return to health in North America, and the badge was returned.

Ford's original logo (1903) was a cumbersome affair that carried the full name of "The Ford Motor Co, Detroit" on its badge. The first signature based logo (and no, it is not Henry Ford's signature, that is purely a myth) was designed by the company's chief engineer Childe Harold Wills, and it appeared in 1907. In 1912 it was placed inside its now familiar oval and the royal blue colouring was added in 1927.

Contrary to popular belief, this question, Founded on Researched Data, was not mass produced, but lovingly crafted by Phoenix Rising's pollucci19.

Answer: Pleiades

The Subaru logo is a stylised version of the Pleiades star cluster in the constellation of Taurus. There are six hot blue stars inside the dark blue background, which represents the night sky. One star is bigger than the others, the large star on the left also is a metaphor for Fuji Heavy Industries, while the five smaller stars stand for its FHI subsidiaries, including Subaru, the automobile division.

Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster M45, also known as "The Seven Sisters" (one of whom traditionally is invisible - hence there are only six stars in the Subaru logo).

The colours in the logo are important: Blue represents "excellence and reliability of the Subaru vehicles", the silver and black colours stand for "sophistication, elegance, creativity and perfection".

This question "starred" Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1.

Answer: Skoda

The green colouration of the logo is designed to represent a new start when Skoda was taken over by Volkswagen. The wings represent freedom, the arrow shows how the brand is in motion and the central 'eye' indicates precision.

Skoda is one of the oldest car manufacturers in the world. Dating back to 1895 in the Czech Republic, the firm were originally a bicycle manufacturer called Laurin and Klement and their cars first bore a badge with an interlinking L and K. In 1925 Laurin and Klement were taken over by Skoda Works, an industrial company. They were privatised and sold to the Volkswagen group in 1990 and this increased sales in other parts of the world.

Lada is a Russian company. SIN is from Bulgaria, Rimac originated in Croatia

smpdit reflects that the reputation of Skoda cars has changed dramatically over the years. She herself has never owned one though.