Lamborghini Tractori By 1948 Ferruccio had established Lamborghini Tractori which he operated out of his garage Within two years the company produced over 1,000 tractors By 1960 Lamborghini Tractori was one of Italy’s largest manufacturers of agricultural equipment and Ferruccio was one of the richest men in the country Not fast enough Ferruccio Lamborghini loved fast cars He had enough Alfa Romeos and Maseratis to drive a different one every day of the week The cars were the best on the market but none of them pleased him They felt heavy and did not really go very fast he said Ferruccio wanted a grand tourer or gran turismo in Italian a vehicle to speed the driver across the countryside in luxury with controls that responded quickly to the driver’s command In search of perfection In an interview with Sporting Motorist magazine in 1964 Ferruccio said I have bought some of the most expensive gran turismo cars and in each of these magnificent cars I have found some faults Too hot Or uncomfortable Or not sufficiently fast Or not perfectly finished Now I want to make a GT car without faults Ferruccio bought a Ferrari 250 GT in 1958 Putting the car through its paces he would often grind the gears forcing him to take the car back to Ferrari to be fixed 6 Lamborghini’s founder Ferruccio with one of his supercars and one of his famous tractors
On water Although Lamborghini saw himself as a car builder in 1968 he couldn’t resist installing a four-liter V12 engine on a powerboat Lamborghini prototyped a boat called the Quetzal but decided instead to supply the engines for offshore racing In 1984 Count Renato della Valle used a Lamborghini engine to win the round Britain race More recently an 8 2-liter V12 Lamborghini engine powered the boat Spirit of Norway to victory in 2002 7
Modified Ferraris Enzo Ferrari was secretive about the manufacture of his cars Garage mechanics would take cars to the back and not let their owners watch the work being done something that angered mechanic Ferruccio He took matters into his own hands modifying his Ferrari 250 GT with parts from his tractors When he found that his modified car could outperform Ferrari’s stock models he took his concerns to Enzo Ferrari himself Lamborghini vs Ferrari To hear Ferruccio tell it the first meeting between Lamborghini and Ferrari did not go well I had to wait for him a very long time he explained Ferrari your cars are rubbish I complained Il Commendatore was furious Lamborghini you may be able to drive a tractor but you will never be able to handle a Ferrari properly According to Lamborghini this was the moment he decided to make a perfect car 8 The rivalry between Ferrari red and Lamborghini yellow started in the 1960s Even today supercar fans are often loyal to one make or the other
The Lamborghini legend Did it really happen that way Skeptics point out that Lamborghini knew he could make more money building his own cars than helping Ferrari improve his But the confrontation between Lamborghini and Ferrari is part of the Lamborghini legend Whatever the case by 1963 Ferruccio was committed to entering the auto making business But he also knew that he was challenging the giants of the Italian auto industry To stand out among such names as Ferrari Maserati and Fiat his car would have to be perfect A crowded field Several carmakers were already well established by the time Ferruccio set up Lamborghini These formed the competition Some of the main companies were Alfa Romeo established 1910 Casalini established 1939 Ferrari established 1929 Fiat established 1899 Lancia established 1906 Maserati established 1914 By 1963 Ferruccio Lamborghini was ready to step up to the challenge of creating a better car than his rival Ferrari 9
