History of Lamborghini Car
By: Abby Hindle, Halal Incorp
The Italian company renowned for its flashy supercars, Lamborghini was founded by Italian manufacturing magnate Ferruccio Lamborghini in 1963. The first car models were produced in the mid-sixties and received repeated positive responses from car critics. Unfortunately, the oil crisis and economic troubles of the seventies impacted the company’s profits heavily, resulting in Ferruccio Lamborghini selling off 51% of the company to a friend, Swiss businessman Georges-Henri Rossetti, in 1974 for USD$600 000 and the remaining 49% to a friend of Rossetti’s, Rene Leimer, the following year.
Selling off his business allowed Ferruccio Lamborghini to retire, and he remained at his estate in Perugia for the rest of his life. After being sold to Rossetti and Leimer, the company underwent bankruptcy in the ’80s and was sold to brothers Jean-Claude and Patrick Mimram in 1984. They invested in expanding the model line, introducing the LM002 and the Jalpa. They then sold to Chrysler corporation in 1987.
The company changed hands twice more, being sold to Malaysian investment group Mycom Setdco and Indonesian group V’Power Organisation in 1994, then to Volkswagen. It was placed under Volkswagen’s Audi subdivision where it remains today.
History of Lamborghini Car
When someone is asked to describe what they associate with the name Lamborghini, a few common ideas should come up. Flashy, exciting, flamboyant, expensive, and fast, are all associations that should spring to most people’s minds. The beginnings of the company, however, were very different. Ferruccio Lamborghini was a mechanic in the Italian army. After World War Two he decided to turn his hand to constructing tractors out of unused military equipment. The tractor business expanded by the mid-fifties until Lamborghini became a well-known industrialist, expanding into creating air conditioning systems and boilers as well as tractors. The financial success drove Lamborghini to buy his own fleet of sports cars, including a Ferrari 250GT.
Lamborghini was less than pleased with the Ferrari, regarding it as too loud and rough for a supposedly high-quality road car. His solution was to create his own competitor to Ferrari, an improvement on their supposedly flawed creations. His first design, the 350GTV was built in time for the 1963 Turin motor show – a remarkable feat, given that he had only been given four months to finish. Reviews were good and Lamborghini took the design and refined it into the 350GT. The 350GT was displayed at the 1964 Geneva auto show and was hugely impressed by the standards of the time, being capable of 0-62 mph in 6.8 seconds and maximum speeds of 158 mph.
The 350GT was further refined into the 400GT, a stretch version of which (the 400GT 2+2) was presented at the 1966 Geneva auto show. Both models received positive reviews. The company grew, employing 170 workers at its factory in Sant’Agata. Its three top engineers, Gian Paolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani and Bob Wallace would help shape the company for years to come.
History of Lamborghini Car: In 1965, Lamborghini designed the P400, envisioned as a road car capable of being driven day to day but also with capabilities suitable for the racetrack. It debuted at the Geneva motor show, and the positive reception resulted in the model going into production under the name Miura, a nod to Ferrucio Lamborghini’s interest in bullfighting. 764 were made in all.
The bullfighting naming convention continued with the Islero, so named for a bull famous for killing matador Manuel Rodriguez Manalete. The Islero was intended as a replacement for the 400GT but was unsuccessful, selling only 125 between 1968-69. Fortunately, this failure was followed by Espada. A two-door coupe, it was designed by Marcello Gandiri and went on to become the most successful model for this era of Lamborghini. 1217 models were built. In 1970 the Jarama and the Urraco coupe were unveiled, the Urraco being intended as an affordable (at least comparatively) alternative to Ferrari’s Dino.
History of Lamborghini Car
In 1973, misfortune struck in the form of an oil crisis and a global economic downturn. The sales of luxury cars were affected drastically and Lamborghini ended up selling his company and using the money to retire.
In 1974 Bertone, an Italian design house that worked with Lamborghini designed the Countach. The design was intended as a replacement for the Miura. It incorporated the elements of the Miura that it was felt had made it such a success as well as new innovations to modernise the design and keep pace with the competition. In 1981 the much less expensive Jalpa was produced and remained in production until falling sales ended it in 1988.
The first Lamborghini four-wheel drive was put out in 1986. The LM002 SUV, nicknamed the ‘Rambo Lambo’, was a success, with 328 being made until production ended in 1993. In 1990 the first Lamborghini car capable of speeds over 320 kmph was brought out, the aptly named Diablo. The design brief stated the car must be able to achieve speeds in excess of 315 kmph. It was intended as a replacement for the Countach.
Designer Gandini was infamously unimpressed with redesigns of his initial idea, so much so that he later reworked his initial design as the Cizeta-Moroder V16T. The Diablo was in turn replaced by the open-top roadster the Murcielago, created by Dutch designer and head of design Luc Donckerwolke. It was the first new design from Lamborghini in eleven years and the first new design from new owners Volkswagen. During its time in production, over 4000 Murcielago’s were made and sold.
In 2003 Lamborghini saw the possibilities in the (as yet untapped by them) baby supercar market. The all-wheel drive Gallardo was swiftly brought out to rectify this oversight.
In 2009 the first rear-wheel drive from Lamborghini since the Diablo was released in the form of the LP550-2 Balbori. It was a limited-edition Gallardo, put out to pay homage to Valentino Balbori, a famous test driver for Lamborghini. It became incredibly successful, selling over 13000 cars.
After this Lamborghini decided to test the waters with limited-run cars. They put out the Reventon. With only 20 models built in total and each holding a hefty price tag of £840 000, it was the most expensive car to come out of Lamborghini in their entire history thus far. Every single one sold, proving the experiment a resounding success. This was followed by the 2011 release of the Aventador and the Sesto Elemento.
The Aventador was revealed at the Geneva motor show as the replacement for the Murcielago and featured the first new V12 engine in a Lamborghini in almost fifty years. The Sesto Elemento was a follow-up to the limited-run experiment. It was track-use only, each cost USD$2.5 million and again all twenty of the cars made sold out.
History of Lamborghini Car
The Sesto Elemento was followed by the Lamborghini Veneno, revealed at the 2013 Geneva motor show to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Lamborghini’s founding. Only three were ever made, each sold, and each cost USD$ 3.1 million.
Limited run cars are appealing to brands not only for the money-making opportunity they represent but also for the appearance of brand exclusivity. Clearly, Lamborghini saw the benefits of this as they followed the Veneno with the Centenario, brought out to commemorate one hundred years since their founders’ birth in 2016. Twenty coupes and twenty roadsters were made, costing £1.64 million each. They also commemorated Ferdinand Piech, who helped bring Lamborghini into Volkswagen, with the release of the Sian FPK 37.
Obviously only selling limited-run hypercars wasn’t on the books. The Urus, Lamborghini’s bid for the popular SUV market, was unveiled in 2017 and became the fastest-selling non-Tesla SUV on sale as well as Lamborghini’s best-selling car of 2020.
Lamborghini has a long and interesting history, which can only be briefly captured in a single article. For a more in-depth look, the Lamborghini Museum is open in Santa’Agata, Bolognese, Italy. It tells the full history of the company from the first designs of Ferruccio Lamborghini to new designs like the hybrid Asterion. For the luxury sports car enthusiast, or the merely curious, it provides a fascinating day out to explore the history of one of the most famous names in motor history.
Disclaimer: The view of the author does not necessarily represent the views of Halal Incorp