History Of Lamborghini

Lamborghini was founded in 1963 by Ferrucio Lamborghini, a former army member who established his own company specialized in building tractors. The tractor business developed as years passed and in 1970 a second factory was founded to produce air conditioners and heaters for buildings. The incredible success was celebrated in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy where the company established its headquarters.

But everything changed when he met Enzo Ferrari. This was the moment when his desire to build high-speed supercars with luxurious interiors revealed itself. Ferrucio complained to Enzo about a clutch problem that the Ferrari he owned had. Enzo told him that “the problem is not with the car but with the driver…” and he was asked to take care of his tractors and leave the problem for those who know what to do.

Disappointed by the answer received, Ferrucio dismounted the transmission of his car and found out that his car used the same transmission as his tractors. Because of this discovery, he asked some talented men who worked for Enzo Ferrari including Franco Scaglione, Giotto Bizzarini and Gian Paolo Dallara to give him a hand. As a result, the team created the perfect competitor for the Ferrari cars, the Automobili Lamborghini.

Ferrucio was inspired by its birth sign, Taurus, and started using it as an emblem for his cars. In fact, even nowadays the Lamborghini cars are named after bulls. The Italian company also recruited Giotto Bizzarrini, an employee who used to work for Ferrari and asked him to design and manufacture a V12 engine for Lamborghini. This engine was soon built and was able to produce 400 horsepower. But because Ferrucio wanted a GT car and not a racing car, the power was reduced to 280 horsepower.

The first car manufactured by Lamborghini was the GTV prototype while the first production car was the Lamborghini 350GT manufactured in 1964. After the Lamborghini 350GT, the history of Lamborghini continued with the manufacture and release of the Miura, a real supercar named after a well known bull race. But the success didn’t stop here. In 1968 Lamborghini manufactured the Lamborghini Espada 400GT which was a big hit, more than 1,200 cars being built at Sant’Agata.

In 1970, the race driver Bob Wallace worked to transform his Miura S into a race car. He redesigned the suspension, reduced the weight and placed new spoilers obtaining a fast race car which could go from zero to 62 mph in 3.6 seconds. But Ferrucio wasn’t interested in the race proposal of Wallace and decided to sell the prototype of the Lamborghini Miura Jota to an Italian enthusiast. In the 1970s, the Italian company suffered because of the economic crunch and Ferrucio sold his shares to a Swiss car lover, George-Henri Rosseti. But the company went on without its founder. After some dark days and only one car produced (the Coutach 400S in 1980), Lamborghini was sold to the French brothers Patrick and Jean-Claude Mimran who produced the off-road LMA series and the Coutach Quattrovalvole. In 1987, another page of the Lamborghini history was written when Lee Iaccoca bought the company for $33 millions.

During the Iaccoca era, in 1990 the Lamborghini Diablo was released. But in 1998 Audi bought Lamborghini and things started to change for the better. Because of a large infusion of cash and technological innovations, the company built the Murcielago in 2001. Its success was followed by the 2003 Gallardo, which proved this was a company focused on fast, luxurious supercars designed for modern drivers. In 2010, the Gallardo was considered the most successful car with 10,000 units produced.

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