The Lamborghini Brand
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. is unrivalled worldwide as a manufacturer of extreme and uncompromising super sports cars.
Lamborghini cars are incomparable through their blend of:
• fascinating design
• supreme driving dynamics
• technological capability
• sophisticated workmanship
• extremely high level of quality
A sports car from Lamborghini is exclusive, sensual, provocative and
always unmistakably Italian. Its DNA is characterized by its origin,
Sant’Agata Bolognese, in the midst of “engine country”: no other region
in the world is as intensely formed by the passion for the fine sound of
high-performance engines as the region of Emilia Romagna in the north
of Italy. Hardly anywhere else have so many car legends been created in
the past few decades.
Today Lamborghini embodies the highest degree of technological
capability and not just in the construction of engines with
extraordinary performance. Thoroughly lightweight construction in
aluminium and carbon fibre, superior traction through the 4-wheel drive,
and running gear that offers both high precision and safety are also
among the main qualities of this brand.
The design of a Lamborghini is always unique. The expression of its form
is ahead of its time, it sets form trends and, like the entire car, is
uncompromising. Even when it is presented for the first time every new
Lamborghini intrinsically bears the destiny to become a future legend
and a sought-after classic.
Lamborghini cars are created from a combination of exact production
engineering on ultra-modern production lines coupled with the best
craftsmanship in terms of workmanship and finish. This ensures the high
degree of satisfaction of Lamborghini customers and value retention for
the vehicles. With a wide range of possible personalization options,
each Lamborghini can be adapted perfectly to what its future owner has
in mind.
Lamborghini is extremely successful with its current products. While an
average of 250 cars per annum were sold between 1963 and 2002, by 2007
this number had increased by more than nine times. Last year’s record
sales of 2406 super sports cars worldwide signifies at the same time a
growth of 15 per cent in comparison to the previous year (2006: 2087
cars).
Lamborghini is more than just a manufacturer of incomparable super
sports cars, Lamborghini has been a legend in the world of luxury for a
long time. Ever since Ferruccio Lamborghini presented the first car with
his name in the form of the 350 GTV in 1963, sports cars from
Sant’Agata Bolognese have been part of the lifestyle of car connoisseurs
all over the world. The Miura, Countach and Diablo are just three
examples from the rich history of this brand. They are among the most
desirable sports cars in motorcar history – as is every Lamborghini.
Ferruccio Lamborghini – the Founder
He was a man from the country, a lover of fast cars, a sober businessman
and a visionary at one and the same time. Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916 –
1993), the founder of the sports car brand, is regarded as being o
ne
of the great Italian entrepreneurial personalities of the 20th century
and as a person with many facets; a man as fascinating as his cars.
Ferruccio Lamborghini came into the world on 28th April 1916 on a farm
in the rural town of Renazzo di Cento near Modena. As a boy Lamborghini
already had a burning interest in all mechanical objects. He graduated
with an engineering degree from the technical university in Bologna.
During the Second World War he was stationed on the Greek island of
Rhodes as ground crew member of the air force.
1946: Start as an Entrepreneur
After his release from British captivity as a prisoner of war in 1946
Lamborghini opened a workshop near to his hometown in which he assembled
vehicles similar to tractors from ex-military vehicles. He is said to
have had the idea on his honeymoon. Post-war Italy, including the region
of Emilia Romagna, which was extremely agricultural, suffered from a
serious lack of agricultural machinery and Lamborghini threw himself
into his new business with ambition, great will-power and a lot of
energy.
From the workshop a company arose in 1949 which produced self-developed
tractors with two, three and four-cylinder diesel engines. These were
modular constructions with numerous interchangeable components. An
engine with direct injection was added to the range in 1954. The company
Lamborghini Tractori SpA then moved to a new plant. With an output of
400 vehicles per month it was one of the biggest agricultural machinery
manufacturers in Italy in the late sixties.
1960: The Selfmade Man Experiences a Rapid Ascent
Following a journey to the USA Ferruccio Lamborghini broadened his
business segment in 1960. A new company, Bruciatori SpA, was formed to
manufacture heating and air-conditioning units for private and
industrial purposes. This second company also flourished. With the
profits from the two business segments Lamborghini attempted to realize a
dream, the manufacture of helicopters. The government denied him
approval for this project, though.
In 1962 Ferruccio Lamborghini was 46 years old. A self-made man, he had
risen to being one of the richest entrepreneurs in Italy. This stocky,
energetic man still had both feet firmly on the ground, though. His
fellow travellers and employees valued his intelligence and his sincere,
cheerful and sometimes rural direct nature.
The Passion for Fast Cars
Lamborghini enjoyed his success and the good things in life: good food,
fine wines and fast cars. In 1948 he had already built an open sports
car on the basis of a tuned Fiat Topolino and took part with this car in
the Mille Miglia road race, which was extremely popular in Italy at the
time. However, the race ended for car number 427 after about 600 miles,
as Lamborghini reported himself, “in a bar which I entered with the car
through the wall”.
The story of how Ferruccio Lamborghini decided to make sports cars
himself at the end of 1962 has been circulated often and with many
variants, legend and truth having become inseparably mixed. Essentially
this is what seems to have taken place: Lamborghini owns a collection of
powerful Jaguars, Mercedes, Ferraris and Maseratis, but no car
completely satisfies him. In one case the luxury is insufficient for
him, in another case the ventilation is too weak or the quality inferior
or the power transmission noise seems to be too loud for him.
Lamborghini is not even happy with the workmanship on his new Ferrari
250 GT. He requests a meeting with Enzo Ferrari in nearby Maranello, but
is refused. He has the GT taken to pieces by his engineers and
recognizes that many of the parts used are standard items. Lamborghini
thinks that he could build such a sports car very much better himself
and, if he were to do without his expensive motor sport, he would even
be able to open up a new, profitable business segment.
1963: The Sports Car Brand is Created
Ferruccio Lamborghini established his own motorcar company, Automobili
Ferruccio Lamborghini S.p.A., in Sant'Agata Bolognese in May 1963. Its
location in the small town between Modena and Bologna was chosen
carefully. Typical for Lamborghini. The ultra-modern plant in green
meadow land with an area of 50,000 m2 had plenty of space to grow, the
tractor and heating factory not being far away. And it was in the middle
of the “Terra di Motori”, engine country, home to the factories of
Ferrari, Maserati or Ducati, and now Lamborghini as well.
Although a highly qualified source of skilled workers from the sports
car industry existed, the wage level was low because the region was
otherwise relatively structurally weak. Lamborghini gave the
municipality an employment guarantee for his workers and in return he
received a long-term interest-free loan. The impatient boss exerted
considerable pressure during erection of the factory and after just a
year it was complete.
The aggressive bull on the corporate coat of arms already decorated the
first Lamborghini sports cars. The head of the company, himself born
under the zodiac sign Taurus, loved this symbol - he saw in it an
expression of his forward-urging and occasionally impetuous character.
1972/73: Lamborghini Retires
The sparkling success of the sixties was followed by the crisis of the
seventies, triggered by a slack economic situation, strikes and
intensified regulations on the U.S. market. A big tractor transaction
that had been agreed with the Bolivian government failed at the last
moment in 1972. To support his agricultural machinery company, Ferruccio
Lamborghini sold 51 per cent of the shares in the motorcar company to
the Swiss national Georges Henri Rossetti. One year later he sold off
the remaining 49 per cent to René Leimer, a colleague of Rossetti. At
roughly the same time he lost confidence in the tractor business and
sold it to the competing Italian Same group, which continues to manage
it up to the present day under the old brand name.
Lamborghini kept only the heating segment as well as another newly
formed company by the name of Oleodinamica, which produced hydraulic
valves; he appointed his son Tonino as the manager of this company. The
patriarch retired to a 32 hectare estate by the name of La Fiorita,
which he had purchased in 1971. He led the life of a prosperous
winegrower in Panicarola/Umbria near to the Trasimenic Lake and set up a
small private museum.
Feruccio Lamborghini, who all his life had always felt best in shirt
sleeves, returned to his roots. He planted the traditional grape types
Sangiovese, Gamay, Ciliegiolo, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. His red
wine came onto the market with the name “Colli di Trasimeno”, however,
quickly acquired the colloquial name “Sangue Di Miura”, Miura blood.
Lamborghini’s wines have received many awards. They are well established
in the international high-end segment due to their exceptional quality.
Ferruccio Lamborghini, who was awarded the title “Commendatore” and
knighted “Cavaliere Del lavoro” (knight of work), died of a heart attack
on 20th February 1993. He was buried in his hometown Renazzo.72936|2153