As car enthusiasts, we love cars—that’s a given. But it goes so much deeper than that. We love race tracks, we love old gas pumps, heck—some of us have a jonesing for taillights. And yes, some of us go crazy for badges. So what’s your favorite?
I’m not immune to this. I’ve always had a taste for good design, though unlike Adrian, I’m not particularly good at it myself. I like typefaces and logos and nice swooshy lines. More than all that, I like it when they’re used tastefully to perfection. I’m detail-oriented. The little flourishes on a car can make it or break it for me.
My favorite badge is a classic of the Rad era. It’s from the Volvo 740 Turbo, of which I was lucky enough to own one myself. It was a beautiful wagon with exquisite proportions and clean lines. But more than that, the badges were absolutely on point.
Just look at these things! A sleek, modern typeface that said this thing was from the near future. A great number paired with the best automotive word of them all – TURBO. When that wasn’t enough, they slapped INTERCOOLER on there as well so you really knew this car had the works.
It wasn’t just limited to the rear end, either. Volvo scattered additional Turbo badges around the body, on the fenders, and on the front grille to boot. Hilariously, the model is joking referred to as the Jurbo, because of the shape of the T used on the script-format badges.
If you asked me for my favorite brand badge, though, I certainly wouldn’t say Volvo’s. It always came across a bit old-hat to me. Instead, I’m a fan of the lions. I dig the Holden roundel, but the marching lion of Peugeot really does it for me.
I’ll also give honorable mentions to the griffin of Vauxhall, and the scorpion of Abarth. Carlo Abarth chose the yellow field for the Italian town of Merano, and red as the traditional color of Italian motorsport. The scorpion was because that was his Zodiac sign, and because it fit the brand’s philosophy—”small but mean.” That’s just rad to me.
Of course, this isn’t Autopian Tells. It’s Autopian Asks. We want to know what your favorite badges are. Maybe you love Skoda’s little round thing, or the way Nissan puts that special S on the Skylines. Sound off, and lament the fact that you can’t post images in the comments. We’ll use our imaginations. Go!
Image credits: Lewin Day, Peugeot, Abarth
Gordon-Keeble gets a mention but nobody remembered the Rover longship?
I’m a big fan of grille badges (aside from the corporate logo), so I dig the Audi S/RS/Quattro badges. Not many cars say the model on the grille.
My father had a ’64 Thunderbird with the name arrayed across the front of the hood in separate blocky letters. It’s ridiculous and extravagant, but I’ve always liked it.
For car badges, I like heraldic designs, such as Alfa Romeo’s. Plus it’s got a snake with a crown. Hard to beat that. BMW’s is especially elegant.
Least favorite: Toyota’s. Bland, unimaginative.
The wide bird with its turquoise insert was pretty fine, too.
Model: Superbee, then Roadrunner (“runner” up, ha ha)
Make: Ferrari, then Bugatti as runner up (was gonna say Alfa Romeo, but I don’t like their badge as much as I absolutely love how they did their name on the engine heads on the classics; add to that the chrome inlet pipes and it looks amazing…but that doesn’t count)
The fender emblems for the Squarebody Chevy’s because it reminds me of my home county
The first gen MR2 screaming chicken is really awesome: A chicken. Screaming.
The Datsun 240 and 280z rear hatch emblems.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/314543167276
I really just love the elegance of it. Also, I really the way the Datsun emblem is slanted when it is installed on the hatch.
This one.
I’m amused by a good Jurbo badge…
This is entirely a personal reason but I aspired to getting an Ion Red Line, so I’m gonna say Saturn’s square chrome badge with the red stripe in the middle appended to the end of the model name. I like how they repurposed it for the Green Line hybrid vehicles, too, and could have seen it being used to demark numerous different things, namely EVs if they had survived to the present day.
Again, Saturn (or Pontiac) instead of Buick would be such a more interesting timeline.
I’m a fan of all the different chrome script badges commonly used for model/trim identification in the ’60s and ’70s. A friend has been sporadically updating the chromeography tumblr for years (there are a couple pix of my Corvair on there); one of my favorites of the genre for pure funkiness is the VW Automatic Stick Shift badge.
The Gilbern Welsh dragon is pretty cool.
Because it is so obscure and few people know of it, I love the Volvo Lambda Sond grille badge.
https://cdn.actronics.nl/image/lambdasonde-volvo_5e9828153dd27.jpg
Lancia Stratos, no contest
So many great badges out there, hard to choose the top 10 favorites, heck, the top 100 favorites, but a particularly charming one is for the 1957 BAG Spatz: https://roarington.com/media-house/directories/manufacturers/spatz
https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/spatz-1957/
And Denzel, an old German tuning house, which built some of their own sports cars as well as providing speed parts for air-cooled VW engines, had a seriously cool and excruciatingly Brutalist art deco logo where they did an impressive job of somehow conveying the letter E without using three crossbars: http://photos.imageevent.com/mrokrasa/vwcarscoachbuilts/vwlowlightghia1959/giant/20150925_133054%20a.jpg
Ferrari!
Instantly recognizable by 98% of the world’s population.
Yep, but the one they put on the front fender. It’s gorgeous.
I like bold mathematical assertions and two-stoke engines so I’ll have to go with 3=6:
https://live.staticflickr.com/4529/23903986267_84497b5844_c.jpg
My immediate reaction was anything with cursive writing.
Like the Cimarron.
I’m fond of the early Citroens with the huge, skinny chevrons covering nearly the entire grille. Also, the early Mazdas with a lowercase m in a rotor.
Cloisonné emblems bring joy, especially 80s/90s and even the first bit of the 00s Pontiac emblems (like my 92 SSE), and of course the GN emblems.
I always thought Buick also picked a great font for the trunk emblem of 90s 3800 supercharged cars, the upright font that just said “SUPERCHARGED”.
Also on my Cutlass Ciera International fenders there’s the emblem with all the various flags on it, which I always thought was cool since I was a kid.
I’m not sure what my single most favorite is, but I did draw this years ago:
Alex On Net – Alex Arrow (cwaboard.co.uk)
I also like the Dodge “Adventurer” of the 70s:
Typical Team Transport by Alex-Arrow on DeviantArt
“Power 6” badge on 1983 Regal T-Type with the 3.8 Turbo. Orange and yellow goodness that evokes the operation of a turbo. Imagine turning an arrow with a point into a number 6. https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/ZdwAAOSwjbxiImNd/s-l1600.webp
It never clicked for me that it was also a “6”. I just always saw “turbo”.
This isn’t my real (which is to say serious) answer, but my cheeky answer is the ‘Ride Engineered’ badge that Ford used to use ca. the late 70s on the dashboard. I want to put one on everything.
Oooh dash plaques! My two all-time favorites have to be the Ford Thunderbolt’s “this is an experimental purpose built vehicle so the interior may not be up to our usual standards” and the Shelby “warning – competition brakes” one.
The coolness can’t be overstated.
Any vintage Alfa Romeo badge. Nothing beats a man being eaten by a snake !
The “TURBO” on the Saab 99 Turbo where the “O” looks like a turbo turbine.
When can I post pictures? Because this needs a picture.
I signed up to say the same thing but my comment must have been in limbo
Peak 70s there (love boat font…) and definitely deserves a picture
This is an excellent piece to sign up for, for sure – welcome!
Thanks!
Pasting a direct image link is the best way.
https://live.staticflickr.com/8399/8683657093_d2157d844d_b.jpg
https://www.autosmotor.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Saab-99-Turbo.jpg
But I want in-comment images. Not links.
Don’t hold your breath. It’s been addressed more than a few times.