Ferruccio Lamborghini

Behind every brand car or successful business there is always an incredible, visionary and passionate mind. Most times a successful business is the mirror of its owner and depending on how much the owner gets involved in the business it becomes more appreciated by others and well known in the entire world. That’s the case of the luxurious and famous Lamborghini brand.

Ferruccio Elio Arturo Lamborghini was the “man” who changed and improved the car industry. He was born in a village near Bologna, Italy in 1916. Ferruccio Lamborghini was born under the astrological sign of the Taurus, the bull. As a result, his cars were named after important bulls or fighting races at which the bulls were the main characters.  His parents were farmers, but Ferruccio didn’t inherit their love for the land. Instead, he became fascinated by technical issues and by his father’s tractor.

After graduating a technical university in Bologna, Ferruccio Lamborghini became part of the Italian Air Force through Earth War two and in 1944 he was taken prisoner by the British and assigned to work in the motoring department. That’s how his passion for cars started. When the war finished, Ferruccio Lamborghini returned home and because the Italian farmers needed tractors, Ferruccio started to develop vehicles for his neighbors in his garage. Having at disposal little space, Lamborghini started his “Lamborghini Trattori” in 1948 and became famous and prosper. He relocated his business in a bigger quarter and was known as the finest tractor manufacturer in Italy.

As a result, Ferruccio Lamborghini opened a second factory, the “Lamborghini Bruciatori”. At first, this was an oil heater factory and later it produced air conditioning equipment. But his fame as a luxurious sports car manufacturer started in 1963 when he created “Automobili Lamborghini”. He owned a lot of supercars such as Jaguars, Mercedes and a Ferrari and the last one had some clutch problems. Ferruccio went to Enzo Ferrari to complain. Some people say that Enzo didn’t want to see him and that angered Ferruccio. But others say that Ferrari met with him but refused to listen and told him to go back to his tractor business because he didn’t have the authority to criticize a company like Ferrari. That day, Ferruccio Lamborghini decided to solve its car problem all by himself and then started his new car business.

He employed Dallara and Bob Wallace, former engineers for Ferrari, to help him with a new project. This was the Lamborghini 350GT, which proved to be better than the Ferrari in each detail. Very quickly was revealed another model and then came the incredible and legendary Miura. As we all know, the name of the Ferruccio cars originated from Lamborghini’s astrological sign. The Miura was inspired by the Don Eduardo Miura-a European breeder of fighting bulls while the Islero was inspired by the name of the bull that killed Manolete, a famous matador. This tradition continued with the Espada which in Spanish represents the sword with which the matador kills a bull while the Jarama represented the region where bull fights were popular as well as motor races. The Countach stopped the legacy of the bulls, being considered a wolf whistle because it doesn’t have any connection with the bulls.

Ferrucio Lamborghini sold off many of his interests in the late 1970s and he retired in Umbria becoming interested in wine production. The name of his wine was known as the “Blood of Miura”. He died in 1993 from a heart attack but he is part of the car history and left an incredible legacy.

Post tags: Tags: Automobili Lamborghini, Countach, Ferruccio Lamborghini, Jarama, Lamborghini Trattori