Lamborghini – From Tractors to Sports Cars

Automobili Lamborghini S.P.A or simply Lamborghini is an Italian luxury car manufacturer headquartered in Sant’Agata Bolognese. Its production facility is also located in Sant’agata Bolognese.

Found by Ferruccio Lamborghini, a wealthy Italian manufacturing magnate in 1963 with a goal to design and produce high performance and refined GT cars and to compete with the well-established sports cars manufacturer Ferrari.

Ferruccio Lamborghini was born into a family of grape farmers in 1916 and while growing up he did not want to farm like his family did; on the contrary, he was more inclined towards mechanics. Lamborghini served in the Air Force during World War II. Later, he took old military machines and re-purposed them as agricultural equipment such as tractors.

A brief history of Automobili Lamborghini have we gathered here to help everyone understand the efforts and struggles of people behind this magnificent sports car manufacturer.

  1. Lamborghini logo

The company’s logo features a golden bull on a shield with black background and yellow/golden outline. The logo is actually a reference to its founder – Ferruccio Lamborghini’s zodiac sign – Taurus.

  1. 1963 – 1970s, Lamborghini’s start of business and rivalry with Ferrari

The official history of Lamborghini sports cars start in 1963.  After WWII, Ferruccio Lamborghini started to salvage old military machines and re-building them as agriculture supplies such as tractors. His business was skyrocketing and by 1960s he was already a wealthy man. And, as any wealthy man he bought several luxury cars. His fleet of luxury cars included Ferraris. He started racing it and, as he had some knowledge about car mechanics, found some major problems with it. He made it his motive to improve the cars he raced. When it came to his Ferrari, he noticed its excessive noise, and its need for frequent interior clutch repairs.

In 1960s Enzo Ferrari’s cars were considered to be as top of the line sports cars. And, when Lamborghini told Mr. Ferrari about the minor problems he saw in his cars. Ferrari, not wanting advice from a tractor mechanic and manufacturer, told Lamborghini that he doesn’t know anything about cars. It triggered a passion for cars in Ferruccio Lamborghini and a rivalry with Ferrari began.

He decided to build a factory of luxury sports cars. In late 1962, Lamborghini started working on his project, and by May 1963 ‘Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini’ was established. Lamborghini bought a large plot of land in Sant’Agata Bolognese, about 25 kilometres from Bologna. There he built a new large and ultramodern factory. On 30 October 1963, Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini S.P.A was officially incorporated.

The company debuted its first car in 1963, a two-seater coupe named 350 GTV, powered by a V12.

In the mid-1960s, first models of Lamborghini sports cars were introduced and were noted for their refinement, power, luxury and cosiness.

In early 1970s, Lamborghini traded his interest in his sports car business because of the problems his tractor business was experiencing. Lamborghini sold the company to Georges-Henri Rossetti and René Leimer and after that Lamborghini retired to his vineyard in 1974.

  1. 1970s-1990s – Changing of ownerships and introduction of new models

In 1978, Automobili Lamborghini went bankrupt and in 1980 was placed in the receivership of Jean-Claude and Patrick Mimran. They acquired the company for US$3 million and renamed it to Nuova Automobili Lamborghini SpA. Patrick Mimran is known for saving and resurrection of Lamborghini. As CEO and owner, he invested huge amounts of money in Lamborghini and during his time in management, Lamborghini’s line was expanded from Countach. So, Jalpa sports cars and the LM002 high performance off-road vehicles were included.

On 23 April 1987, ‘Nuova Automobili Lamborghini SpA’ was taken over by the US Chrysler company. Patrick Mimran sold the company to US Chrysler for US$ 25 million. The American company replaced Countach with the Diablo and also discontinued Jalpa and LM002, Chrysler sold Lamborghini to Malaysian investment company Mycom Setdco and Indonesian group V’Power Corporation in 1994.

Automobili Lamborghini changed hands several times and in the 1998 was purchased by German automaker Volkswagen from Mycom Setdco and V’Power Corporation. The company continued to build high performance sports cars like Murciélago (which could go up to 403kmph) and Gallardo.

  1. 2000s – Stability and growth

Lamborghini, in 2003 followed up the Murciélago with the smaller, V10-equipped Gallardo, intended to be more accessible and more liveable than the Murciélago. The Gallardo came out with different variants in the coming years which included the Spyder (convertible version), the Balboni (a low cost, RWD variant) and the Superleggera (a lighter and powerful track focused version).

Lamborghini found stability that it had not seen for some decades, under German ownership. The Murciélago was updated in 2005, equipped with a more powerful engine capable of generating 640 PS (471 kW; 631 HP) and being named the LP 640, marking the return of LP (Longitudinal Posteriore) naming convention. Mucilage was never meant to compete in racing events but many racing teams would create their own racing variants which proved successful in motorsports.

The world premiere of the new Huracán LP 610-4 at the 2014 Geneva Auto Show opened a new era for Automobili Lamborghini and the entire segment of luxury super sports cars. And, in 2015 Lamborghini launched Aventador with two variants – Aventador SV and Aventador SV roadster. The Aventador SV roadster was equipped with high performance of a sports car but the elegance of a roadster and 2016 was the year of the Huracán Avio, a special series inspired by aeronautics.

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