Short Biography
Ferruccio Elio Arturo Lamborghini was born in April 1916 in a small village Cento in Italy in the family of grape growers. From his early years, he had exposed a great predisposition towards industrialism and machine building. When Ferruccio Lamborghini was a little over thirty years old, his passion for mechanics and industrial skill presented him with a favorable opportunity to infiltrate the industry of tractor construction; at that time, Ferruccio Lamborghini established a company named ‘Lamborghini Trattori’, which evolved into a valuable producer of rural machinery in the core of the Italian after-war agricultural reforms over short period of time (Lamborghini cars, 2011).
Ten years later, Ferruccio Lamborghini had initiated the work of an oil heater corporation named ‘Lamborghini Bruciatori’; however, the association afterward infiltrates the commerce of manufacturing the machinery and equipment for the air conditioners. At last, in 1963, Ferruccio Lamborghini established the most well-known industry that belonged to him – Automobili Lamborghini, a company that produces one of the most sophisticated sports cars in the world (This day in history, 2012). The establishment of the company, the reason for its initiation and the history of car production of Ferruccio Lamborghini is the main theme of this essay.
Involvement with Cars
As the fortune of Ferruccio Lamborghini had been growing rapidly and stably, he had granted himself with numerous opportunities of purchasing speedy, high-priced, and extravagant cars than the ones he owned in the years of his early period of life, such as miniature Fiats, etc. Ferruccio Lamborghini “owned cars such as Alfa Romeos and Lancias during the early 1950s, and at one point, had enough cars to use a different one every day of the week, adding a Mercedes-Benz 300SL, a Jaguar E-Type coupé, and two Maserati 3500GTs” (Ferruccio Lamborghini, 2015, para. 9). One of the factors that prompted him to create his own type of car was his dissatisfaction with all the cars that he ever had.
For example, when he owned a Maserati, he mentioned a few words about the car and the owner of the company: “Adolfo Orsi, then the owner of Maserati, was a man I had a lot of respect for: he had started life as a poor boy, like me. But I did not like his cars much. They felt heavy and did not really go very fast” (Ferruccio Lamborghini, 2015, para. 9). Around 1960, Ferruccio Lamborghini had bought his first Ferrari 250GT; however, he thought that “Ferrari’s cars were good but too noisy and rough to be proper road cars, categorizing them as repurposed track cars with poorly built interior” (Ferruccio Lamborghini, 2015, para. 9).
The Rivalry between Lamborghini and Ferrari
At the time of the purchase of Ferrari 250GT by Ferruccio Lamborghini, Enzo Ferrari, and his production were the leaders among the manufacturing of high-priced luxury sports cars. Nonetheless, Lamborghini thought that the cars on Enzo could use some improvements; that is why he decided to bring his complaints to the great maestro himself. Without any doubts, Enzo Ferrari could not allow a simple young tractor builder to give directions and instructions to his work; that is why he expressed the irrelevance of the technical notes of Ferruccio Lamborghini. From that moment, the competition between two great car manufacturers was born (How the Ferrari, 2014).
The First Car and Further Development
Compelled by the blasphemy of Enzo Ferrari, Ferruccio Lamborghini started the work over the construction and design of his first own car. Only four months passed, and the Lamborghini 350 GTV was introduced to the world as the first car ever designed and built by Ferruccio Lamborghini in 1963. Then he decided to establish the production of his cars; as a result, Ferruccio Lamborghini sold thirteen identical cars within a year and gave them a new name Lamborghini 350 GT. However, the real glory and expansion of the company came with the introduction of the Miura sports coupé. This model of the car had represented elegance, sophistication, amenity and potential on a new level that was previously unknown to the world of sports cars.
The Bankruptcy of the Company and New Models
The first decade of the company existence was outstanding both in sales and in popularity. Nonetheless, with the advent of the financial and oil crisis in the 1970es, the Lamborghini Company began to dissolve. In order to save the name of the association and to prevent its shutdown, Ferruccio Lamborghini decided to sell the possession of the company to Georges-Henri Rossetti and René Leimer and left it. Notwithstanding, this move was not able to save the Lamborghini Company from bankruptcy.
During many transmissions of the company rights, the car line has gone under some changes. For example, “under the Mimrans’ management, Lamborghini’s model line was expanded from the Countach to include the Jalpa sports car and the LM002 high-performance off-road vehicle” (Lamborghini History, 2013, para. 4). After the company was sold to the Chrysler Enterprise, they have restored the Countach with the Diablo; moreover, the company stopped the manufacturing of the Jalpa and the LM002.
The final sale of the Lamborghini Company was conducted in 1998 when the Volkswagen Group acquired the rights to the company, which had almost nothing in common with the original production. Under the direction of the Audi division, the model lines were expanded significantly; thus increasing the recognition and profitability of the Lamborghini label.
The Lamborghini Brand in the 2000s
The sales of the sports cars have dropped significantly due to the global crisis at the beginning of the 2000s. Within the last year, the car spectrum of the brand narrowed down to the two model lines, which include mid-engine vehicles with two seats: the V10-powered Huracán line and the V12-powered Aventador line. Moreover, the first line, in contrast to the second, includes not only the coupé but the roadster as well.
Throughout its long history of existence, the Lamborghini brand has developed, contemplated and introduced a great diversity of concept cars. The records of the concept cars had its origins back in 1963 when the first precursor of the Lamborghini 350GTV had been introduced. After that, “other famous models include Bertone’s 1967 Marzal, 1974 Bravo, and 1980 Athlon, Chrysler’s 1987 Portofino, the Italdesign-styled Cala from 1995, the Zagato-built Raptor from 1996” (Concept vehicles, 2015, para. 4).
Another concept car that executed in the retro fashion is Lamborghini Miura, and was introduced in 2006. President and CEO Stephan Winkelmann denied “that the concept would be put into production, saying that the Miura concept was a celebration of our history, but Lamborghini is about the future. Retro design is not what we are here for. So we won’t do the new Miura” (Concept vehicles, 2015, para. 5). However, these concept cars hardly could be considered a legacy of Ferruccio Elio Arturo Lamborghini, who has started a whole new era of sophisticated sports cars.
References
Concept vehicles. (2015). Web.
Ferruccio Lamborghini. (2015). Web.
How the Ferrari & Lamborghini rivalry began. (2014). Web.
Lamborghini History. (2013). Web.
Lamborghini cars were a result of a tractor company owner being insulted by the founder of Ferrari. (2011). Web.
This day in history. (2012). Web.