Ferruccio
Lamborghini was born in Italy in 1916. He was fascinated with engines
from an early age. During World War II he joined the army and was
stationed on the island of Rhodes. Fortunately there was little going
on there during the war. The island was essentially isolated from
the rest of the world. Any cars, trucks or motorcycles that broke
down had to be repaired on the spot with reused parts. Lamborghini
became known as a wizard at mechanical improvisation and became very
much in demand at fixing engines.
After
the war he returned to his home near Modena in northern Italy and
setup a small car and motorcycle repair shop. He soon realized that
there was a desperate need for tractors in the agricultural area in
which he lived. He found he could build about one tractor a month
from derelict military vehicles. As Italy's economy grew demand for
his high quality tractors started to grow. He began building his own
tractor engines. His tractor business became very successful reaching
a rate of over 400 a month in 1960. He soon looked at expanding the
business and in 1960 began manufacturing heaters and air conditioning
units for buildings as well as maintaining the tractor business. This
too became very successful.
About
this time Lamborghini started to get interested in developing a high
performance car. He had owned Oscas, Maseratis and Ferraris but was
always disappointed with them. Particularly their engines. There is
a now famous story about how he was frustrated with problems he had
with a clutch in a Ferrari (a Ferrari 250 GT), and went to visit Enzo
Ferrari who's factory was nearby. Enzo had no time for a tractor
manufacture and simply dismissed him. Lamborghini decided there was
nothing Ferrari was doing he could not do better. He decided too
build his own car with a V12 engine. For the design he found a very
talented engineer named Giampaolo Dallara who had previously worked
on a Ferrari V12 engine
The
new engine had 4 cams, a short stroke and 4 big bore valves per
cylinder. It developed a surprising 350 HP. It was an all aluminum
engine with a crankshaft supported by seven main bearings. These
crankshafts were machined from SAE 9840 steel. The connecting rods
(12) were of SAE 4340 steel. The pistons were of forged aluminum.
Each pair of camshafts were driven by their own half engine speed
sprocket and silent chain. This engine was really the prototype for
all future Lamborghini engines. A body designed by Scaglione-Touring
was used to house the engine.
The
Lamborghini "350 GTV" prototype was shown to the public on
the Turin Auto Show of 1963. Sales started the following year. The
car was called the 350 GT. It was a complete success. Over 130 were
sold.The future of Automobili Lamborghini looked very bright during
the sixties. The 350 GT was succeeded by the 400 GT and then the 400
GT 2+2. The 350 GT and 400 GT 2+2 made the Lamborghini name known
throughout the world. With the funds coming in from these cars and
his successful tractor business Ferruccio allowed his engineers to
design and construction a new car - the Lamborghini Miura. The Miura
made the Lamborghini name legendary. It was a car truly ahead of its
time. It shocked even companies like Ferrari and Maserati.
The
Miura was first shown on November 1965 at the Turin Auto Show by
Ferruccio Lamborghini himself. Only the chassis was shown at the
show, the engine was transversely mid-mounted, something up to then
only seen in real F1 race cars. The design of the body was executed
by Marcello Gandini in less than a year, and on the March 1966 Geneva
Show it was completed and on display. It looked even better than in
Turin. The car was very aggressively styled, and an appropriate name
was chosen for it, the Miura, a name taken from the ferocious Spanish
fighting bulls. Again the car was a complete success.
This
was followed in 1973 at the Geneva Auto Show when Lamborghini shocked
the world again with his revolutionary LP400 Countach. Only a
prototype was shown. Today it is difficult to realize the impact that
car had on everybody at that time. Even now the car is a show
stopper! The car at the show was painted in a bright red and with a
black suede interior. It showed for the first time, the by now,
famous, Lamborghini signature swing up doors. It also displayed
unique vertically mounted rear air intakes to go with its powerful 4
Liter engine.
In
1974 disaster struck. The Lamborghini tractor business received a
major setback. A massive order for tractors to a south American
country was cancelled. Lamborghini anticipating the demand, had
previously upgraded the tractor factory to be able to build the
numbers of tractors required. The company lost a lot of money over
it. Compounding things also at this time was a series of labor
problems at the factory. While his personal fortune was still
considerable he decided to sell part of his share in the factory.
Eventually the factory was taken over by Fiat.
During
the seventies the company survived on sales of Miura's. The car
business started to be self sufficient and make money. However
Lamborghini eventually sold all his remaining stock in the company to
a Swiss investor. The company to this day still retains his name
however. Ferruccio Lamborghini died in February 1993 at the age of
almost 76
The
oil crisis of the 70's started to made sales of high performance cars
difficult. Production art the factory was plagued with budget and
parts supply problems. People gave up waiting for cars with two year
back orders. A wealthy Canadian, Walter Wolf, played a major role is
supporting Lamborghini and developing the Countach during these
difficult times.
In
1978 the company declared bankruptcy. An Italian court was appointed
to find a buyer. A Swiss based group called the Mimran brother's
were able to save the factory. Patrick Mimran (one of the brothers),
in 1980 started to turn the company around. The Countach was
developed further under him from the LP500 S right up to the
impressive QuattroValvole. .
Just
as things were going well, the Mimran brothers sold the company to
Chrysler Corporation. This was a big surprise at the time. Chrysler
support however was just what the company needed at that time. They
were working on a Countach successor -- the Diablo. Chrysler kept
the winning team together in Italy. While the cultures of the two
companies were different and things got stressful between the
management groups, they did succeed in bringing the vast resources of
Chrysler to bear on the design, pollution controls, and new
manufacturing techniques etc. for the new car.
Again
the result was an outstanding success. The new Lamborghini Diablo got
rave reviews everywhere it went. However in another twist of faith,
in 1994 Chrysler fell upon hard times and had to sell the company. It
was bought by an Indonesian investment group headed by Tommy Suharto
of the well known Suharto family. Unfortunately in the late 90's an
economical crisis started to hit the Indonesian owners hard and the
much needed money for research on a successor to the Diablo started
to dry up.
Fortunately
the German company Audi had an interest in Lamborghini. On August 4
1998, in a complex series of transactions Audi AG became the sole
owner of Automobili Lamborghini. As in the case of the Chrysler
buyout, this could not have been a better time for Lamborghini. Audi
took an active role in designing the Murcielago and brought to the
table again the vast resources of a major automobile company to
develop and produce another exotic car.
Lets
hope this is the last chapter of ownership changes in this unique
little Italian car company. It is to the credit of the people there
that they have hung in to all the changes of ownership they have
experienced over the years and yet produced such exciting cars.
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