Archive for category Lamborghini
Ferruccio Lamborghini – A Famous Taurean
Posted by in Lamborghini on June 21, 2011
Ferruccio Lamborghini was born in a village near Bologna, Italy in 1916. His astrological sign was Taurus the bull. Although his parents were farmers young Ferruccio did not inherit their love for the land. Instead, he was fascinated by things technical and enjoyed working on his father’s tractors.
He graduated from a technical university in Bologna and went into the Italian Air Force during World War 2. He was stationed at Rhodes, Greece where he was in charge of the transport section. In 1944, Lamborghini was taken prisoner by the British and assigned to work in the motoring department.
At the end of the war, Lamborghini was released and returned to his hometown. At this time, he saw that Italian farmers were desperately in need of tractors. Using war surplus materials, he started building tractors for his neighbors in his garage. However, his business prospered and he soon needed to relocate to larger quarters. He was now known for building the best tractors in Italy. He then opened a second factory, which produced air conditioning and heating equipment.
In addition to becoming a wealthy man he was also developing an interest in and love for fast cars. Among others, he owned a Mercedes, a Jaguar and a Ferrari. However he had clutch problems with the Ferrari and went to Enzo to complain. At this point there are some discrepancies among the reports. Some say that when he approached Enzo, Enzo refused to see him, which angered Lamborghini. Other sources report that Enzo did see him but refused to listen and told him something to the effect that a tractor manufacturer had no business criticizing a Ferrari and he should return to tractors. However, whatever story is true, the episode angered Lamborghini and he determined to get even with Enzo.
First, he solved his clutch problem by installing a Borg and Beck clutch on his Ferrari. Then he decided to start manufacturing automobiles with the goal of surpassing Ferrari and proving that a super car did not have to be as temperamental as the Ferrari.
He employed Gianpaolo Dallara and Bob Wallace who had originally been engineers for Ferrari to help him with his new project. The first model to be produced was the Lamborghini 350 GT, which proved to be superior to the Ferrari in every detail. Another model soon followed and then came the legendary Miura.
The Lamborghini crest originated from Ferruccio’s astrological sign, the bull and the Miura’s namesake was Don Eduardo Miura, a famous European breeder of fighting bulls. The Islero was then named for the Miura bull that killed Manolete, the famous matador. Espana means sword and the sword is the matador’s weapon. Jarama was an area that was famous both for bull fighting and motor racing.
The Countach put an end to the legacy of bulls. Countach is not literally translatable but the closest meaning is wolf whistle and it has no connection to bull fighting. Read the rest of this entry »
The Evolution Of Automobili Lamborghini
Posted by in Lamborghini on June 21, 2011
As the story goes, a tractor manufacturer sometime before 1963 went to get service on the clutch of the new Ferrari he had recently purchased and thus began the evolution of Automobili Lamborghini.
Completely insulted by the complaint of the clutch quality, Enzo Ferrari at the Ferrari factory told Ferruccio Lamborghini to go home and drive his tractors because he sure knew nothing about driving cars.
This was the catalyst to set Lamborghini on a path to develop his own sports car … which he vowed would be much superior to the Ferrari …. and he also vowed he would never own a Ferrari again. He fixed the clutch on his Ferrari by installing a much stronger clutch from his tractor warehouse when ….. upon taking apart the Ferrari clutch he found out it was made by the same manufacturer that supplied his tractor clutches.
After rounding up the men he needed in the design of his new sports car … he introduced the prototype of the Lamborghini 350GTV in 1963 at the Turin Auto Show with the bull as the mark of his car, the sign of the Taurus under which Lamborghini was born.
Lamborghini produced several models of the sports car through the years until 1978 , when Lamborghini declared bankruptcy as a result of the oil crisis that presented itself in the 1970′s. The Swiss auto company Mimran ran the company while it was in recievership and subsequently bought it… keeping it solvent and producing new models.
It was a surprise move when Mimran sold Lamborghini to Chrysler in 1987, who in turn was forced by slow economic times to sell it to an Indonesia based group in 1994.
Due to economic problems of their own, this group sold to AudiAG, the German company which is a subsidiary of Volkswagon… making Audi the sole owner of Automobili Lamborghini… and with the long reaching arm of Audi able to touch endless resources… they have been able to produce the latest most sophisticated cars of all time.
Audi in turn has given special permission for Automoviles Lamborghini Latinoamerica of Argentina to build Lamborghini sportscars in Latin America … offered only to people in South America.
It seems the evolution of Automobili Lamborghini has gone full circle and is now comfortably riding its reputation with its name exuding exotic class and prestige. Read the rest of this entry »