auto news desk, On hearing the name ‘Lamborghini’, a picture of a very stylish looking sports car comes to your mind. Lamborghini is one of the most famous car companies in the world and is known around the world for its fast super cars. However, Lamborghini was not always as it is known today. The story of how this company came into being is an interesting one and is full of an engineer’s passion for cars.
Lamborghini as a car company was founded in 1963 by Ferruccio Lamborghini in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy. Ferruccio was fond of supercars and was famous in Italy for owning expensive luxury vehicles at the time. But the story of what made Lamborghini a sports car brand isn’t about his hobby, but about a man’s humiliation of him.
Not a car… this company used to make
Yes! The company we know for its sports cars, did not make cars but tractors. In fact, after the end of World War II in 1945, many military vehicles and equipment were left in Italy by the Allied countries. Although Ferruccio Lamborghini was the son of a farmer, he was always interested in machines. During the war, he joined the Italian Army and became a mechanic repairing fighter planes and vehicles.
After some time, Ferruccio started a business of making tractors from vehicles left over from the war. Gradually the powerful tractors made in his factory became famous in Italy and the demand for them increased so much that he had to open a new plant and recruit many new people. Within a few years, his work had become a big company.
Revenge of insult ‘car brand’
There could hardly be a better example of how to turn humiliation into opportunity than Ferruccio Lamborghini. Please tell that Ferruccio was fond of sports cars. He owned a Jaguar, a Maserati, a top-end Mercedes and two Ferraris. All cars ran well, but Ferrari’s car’s bad clutch was troubling him repeatedly, due to which he had to go to the Ferrari factory several times to get the car fixed.
When the car’s problem was not fixed, he got his tractor’s mechanics to check it. Turns out that Ferrari is actually using the old tractor clutch which is not good for the car. Ferrari used to charge 1000 lire to repair this clutch, whereas in Lamborghini’s factory it was fixed for only 10 lire.
Angered by this, Ferruccio Lamborghini himself went to meet Enzo Ferrari, the owner of Ferrari, and narrated his ordeal. However, Enzo Ferrari gets angry after listening to Ferruccio and starts shouting at him that the problem is not with the car, but with the driver. He told Lamborghini that he made tractors, so he didn’t understand cars. This insult inspired Ferruccio Lamborghini to build his own sports car. He then built a factory, hired some of Ferrari’s engineers, and designed an amazing high-speed car that could reach a top speed of 240 km/h.
Lamborghini named the first model to roll out of its factory as the Lamborghini 350 GT. Lamborghini chose his zodiac sign – Taurus, a bull – as the logo for his new car. It is also called ‘Raging Bull’. Sports cars from both the brands have been competing with each other in every aspect for decades since the launch of Lamborghini.