History of the Lamborghini
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. is an Italian brand and manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese and tractors Lamborghini Trattori in Pieve di Cento, Italy. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its subsidiary Audi.
Ferruccio Lamborghini, an Italian manufacturing magnate, founded Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini S.p.A. in 1963 to compete with established marques, including Ferrari. The company gained wide acclaim in 1966 for the Miura sports coupé, which established rear mid-engine, rear wheel drive as the standard layout for high-performance cars of the era. Lamborghini grew rapidly during its first decade, but sales plunged in the wake of the 1973 worldwide financial downturn and the oil crisis. The firm's ownership changed three times after 1973, including a bankruptcy in 1978. American Chrysler Corporation took control of Lamborghini in 1987 and sold it to Malaysian investment group Mycom Setdco and Indonesian group V'Power Corporation in 1994. In 1998, Mycom Setdco and V'Power sold Lamborghini to the Volkswagen Group where it was placed under the control of the group's Audi division.
Lamborghini grew rapidly during it's first decades, but sales plunged in the wake of the 1973 worldwide financial downturn and the oil crisis. Ferruccio Lamborghini sold ownership of the company to Georges-Henri Rossetti and Rene Linnner and retired in 1974. The company went bankrupt in 1978 and was placed in the receivership of brother, Jean-Claude and Patrick Mimram in 1980 who purchased the company for US $3 million, renaming it Nuova Automobili Lamborghini SpA. As CEO and President, Patrick Mimram invested heavily in the company's expansion and was later credited as being the man who saved Lamborghini. Under his management, Lamborghini's model line was expanded from the Countach to include the Jalpa sport car and the LM002 high performance off-road vehicles.
Some Interesting Facts About Lamborghini
There are alot of amazing facts about the Lamborghini but we will be talking about eight (8) of them
1) Lamborghini is named after the founder of the company Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916 - 1993). Ferruccio Lamborghini founded the company in 1963 when he was 47years old. The factory is located in a small itallian village called Sant' Agata Bolognese near Bologna.
2) Ferruccio Lamborghini was a successful tractor manufacturer before he got interested in sport cars. His interest in sport cars made him buy many different high performance cars including both Maseratis and Ferraris, but was never really happy with any of them and therefore, decided to built his own, a perfect sport car.
3) Cars are named after Bulls. Just as how different car manufacturer has its own way of finding the perfect name for every models of its car, with its unique names that distinguishes it from others, Ferruccio Lamborghini was no different. He was a big fan of the Spanish bullfighting. He enjoyed the drama and entertainment of the bullfighting and likened such power to his vehicles. For this reasons, he decided he would use the names of famous Spanish fighting bulls for his cars.
4) Lamborghini was made as a result of a challenge from Enzo Ferrari. Lamborghini is now a direct competitor of the Ferrari in the field of luxury cars. Curiously, it is because of Enzo Ferrari that Lamborghini even exists. Lamborghini was running a successful agricultural vehicle business at thesame time that Enzo Ferrari had established his car as a top brand.
5) Lamborghini was a huge fan of sport cars and owned a Ferrari 250GT. One problem he had with this car was the clutch which often needed repairing. Ferrari used agricultural clutches and Ferruccio did not like this, especially when it broke down. He turned directly to Enzo about the problem and the two clashed. Enzo had a fiery temper and his response was that "Ferruccio should concentrate on tractors rather than concern himself with the workings of sport cars". As legend has it, Lamborghini took this as a personal challenge and decided to create his own sport car.
Accepting the challenge was a risk that paid off.
6) They Have Some Unusual Models. When people think of Lamborghini, it is usually the high-performance, luxury grand tourers that come to mind. However, this is not the only style of car that Lamborghini have manufactured over the years. In fact, they have created quite some unusual models. As the company had experience in producing tractors, it seems a natural progression to manufacture a car with off-road capabilities. The first SUV they built was the Lamborghini LM002. It combined off-road capabilities with speed and luxury. At the time, only Landrover could really compete with what this car had to offer. Unfortunately, this model was not well received and those looking for an off-road car opted for companies who were already established in this field. Despite this, they still received orders from the armed forces of Libya and Saudi Arabia, but only sold a total of 301 vehicles.
7) The first Lamborghini were tractors. After World War II, Ferruccio Lamborghini started a business of making tractors from reconfigured surplus military machines. Lamborghini tractors are still in production even to this day and are very popular, although Lamborghini Trattori is no longer affiliated with Automobil Lamborghini.
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