Design Details: Lancia's HF Badge

"If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent" (essextee) 01/10/2017 at 21:57 • Filed to: design details

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Have you ever taken a close look at the badge Lancia applied to their top-end driving machines? Did you notice the elephant? No? Well, now you have. What is an elephant doing on a performance vehicle? That’s an amusing story really...

The apocryphal story goes that Lancia were looking for an animal mascot for their hardcore models, like Ferrari’s Prancing Horse or Lamborghini’s Bull. During a creative meeting to determine a mascot, Gianni Lancia (son of the founder) proposed the elephant. The team fought it, asking why an elephant of all animals should be on a fast car, as it is not fast or agile at all. Gianni responded with “ Yes, but once an elephant starts running nothing can stop it. ”

Whether this is the true story is up for debate. The official reasoning for the Elephant was that it was a symbol of longevity, strength, prosperity and victory. An elephant with outstretched trunk is also considered good luck in some cultures.

As for the “HF”, supposedly it stands for High Fidelity. This is to communicate the pure, unfiltered, uncompromised driving experience of the cars. It comes from the HF Squadra Corse, a privateer racing team that was absorbed by the factory when Lancia decided to re-enter racing in the 60's. It first appeared on the Fulvia.

bob and john > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 01/10/2017 at 22:00

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might be some merit to that. took forever to chase down the electrical issues plaguing them. but once they got going. aint no one who could keep up with an S4 Delta.

d15b > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 01/10/2017 at 22:11

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An elephant with outstretched trunk is also considered good luck in some cultures.

Yep!

Orange Exige > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 01/10/2017 at 22:46

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The acronym HF from an Italian automaker is two English words...?

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Orange Exige 01/10/2017 at 22:52

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HiFi, specifically. Which is sort of it’s own non-languaged word.

E90M3 > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 01/10/2017 at 23:11

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#MackBait

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > E90M3 01/10/2017 at 23:52

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Who now?

E90M3 > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 01/10/2017 at 23:54

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This dude , from back in the day.

Noodles > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 01/11/2017 at 00:46

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Good post

Scouting For Zen > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 01/11/2017 at 01:52

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Ironic that they’ve forgotten the real story, eh?

Great post. I’d heard that the HF badge had an animal on it, but I couldn’t find the details anywhere.

Orange Exige > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 01/11/2017 at 08:12

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Fair enough - I could more understand that.