Lamborghini is a car manufacturer founded in 1951 by the industrialist Ferruccio Lamborghini and installed in Sant’Agata Bolognese in Italy.
The company is primarily specialized in the construction of agricultural tractors (it still produces some) to meet a growing demand from a war-ravaged and rebuilding Italy. Soon, she became the third industrial tractor manufacturer in Italy, behind Fiat and Ferguson.
Having made a fortune in just ten years, Ferruccio Lamborghini decided to satisfy his passion for “beautiful mechanics” and Italian GT. Desiring to produce more efficient, more sophisticated and more reliable cars than Ferrari and Maserati, he founded, on October 30, 1963, the firm Automobili Lamborghini specialized in the production of prestige sports cars.
In 1971, the agricultural equipment company Trattori Lamborghini was sold to the group Same Deutz-Fahr Group, Lamborghini devoting itself then only to the design of automobiles. Many companies will acquire the Italian firm until 1998, when Lamborghini is taken over by the German Audi (Volkswagen Group), the current owner.
Despite the lack of references to the competition, the Lamborghini – the 350 GT Huracan – have managed to climb alongside exceptional cars. With the genius of the bodybuilder Nuccio Bertone and the talent of the artist Marcello Gandini, the Lamborghini have shown “an avant-garde spirit, a great capacity for innovation and exceptional design
History
The history of the Italian manufacturer starts with its eponymous founder, Ferruccio Lamborghini, child of the picker of the municipality of Cento, in Emilia-Romagna, province of northern Italy2,3. After completing his studies at the Fratelli Taddia Technical Institute near Bologna, Ferruccio Lamborghini joined the Italian Air Force in 1940, where he worked as a mechanic in the island-based garrison. Rhodes, before becoming the supervisor of the vehicle maintenance unit.
The war ended, Ferruccio Lamborghini opens a garage in Pieve di Cento, his hometown. While discovering huge stocks of abandoned military equipment on his honeymoon, he has the idea of building tractors with salvage parts from surplus6,1. His knowledge of mechanics and the strong demand for a war-ravaged Italy are rapidly gaining traction in the tractor-building industry. In 1948, Ferruccio Lamborghini founded “Trattori Lamborghini” 7, and by the mid-1950s, produced close to 1,000 tractors per year5 thus becoming one of the main players in the market8.
Owner of several Ferrari 250s, Lamborghini found them certainly powerful but too uncomfortable.
A Lamborghini C 603 tractor from the years 1970-1980.
Now wealthy, Ferruccio Lamborghini can finally indulge his passion for luxury cars. In 1958, he acquired several Ferrari 250 GTs. He considers that Ferrari are high-performance cars9, but too noisy and uncomfortable, marked by sparse interiors, to become successful automobiles8. But the most boring thing was the clutch; Ferruccio Lamborghini had to constantly return to Maranello, where Ferrari is installed, to replace the defective clutch of his 250 GT. Frustrated by the recurrent nature of the problems, he does not hesitate to complain to Enzo Ferrari6.
According to the 1991 Thoroughbred & Classic Cars magazine, reporting on an interview with Ferruccio Lamborghini, the latter had gone to Enzo Ferrari to give advice on how to improve his cars. Ferrari, furious, would have answered him then: “You know how to drive a tractor, but you do not know how to drive a Ferrari10. Ferruccio Lamborghini, aware that no one would be able to offer him the perfect car, then decides to design it himself8,11. A few years later, he confessed, “If Enzo Ferrari had not given me that pettiness one day when I complained about insurmountable problems on my own Ferrari, I might never have built my cars10. “
According to the Italian manufacturer, a luxury car must provide its driver with high performance without compromising on traction and handling but also on the quality of the passenger compartment. Confident in his ability to outclass Ferrari, back in his garage in Pieve di Cento, Ferruccio Lamborghini and his workers decide to “shell” his Ferrari 250 GT. The engine head is replaced by a cylinder head designed by the industrialist while six dual-body carburetors are installed on the 12 cylinders in V. According to Ferruccio Lamborghini, tests have shown that the modified car was able to reach
