How An Insult Drove Ferruccio Lamborghini To Create The World's First Supercar
Almost everyone has heard the Lamborghini song... but did you know that if there was no Ferrari, there would be no Lamborghini. And then the world would never had the world¡¯s first-ever supercar, the Lamborghini Miura.
But if you think Ferrari helped Lamborghini build a car, Of course not! Ferruccio Lamborghini, the founder of Lamborghini intending to produce a refined Grand Touring car, a better Ferrari so to speak.
Here's the sweet revenge story between two of the best sports car companies in the world:
Who was Ferruccio Lamborghini?
Ferruccio Lamborghini was born in 1916 to a family of farmers in Italy. His father grew grapes in his fields. From early childhood, Ferruccio was fascinated with engines and his interest in engines evolved from his father¡¯s equipment with which he would experiment. During World War II, he joined the army in the Regia Aeronautica, which was an isolated area with no car or truck repairing facility, He learned to repair broken down cars, motorcycles and trucks with reused parts. He became popular as an expert at mechanical improvisation and fixing engines. Lamborghini was taken prisoner when the island of Rhodes fell to the British at the end of the war in 1945 and was not able to return home until the next year.
A journey from farm vehicles to supercars?
Soon after the World War had ended Ferruccio started to build tractors and his tractor company became one of the largest agricultural equipment manufacturers in Italy. During 1947 the Agricultural and Industrial Revolution was growing rapidly in Italy. In the following years, he successfully produced revolutionary tractors like the range of Carioca. The Carioca tractors used military surplus engines with 6 cylinder diesel engines and it was the first tractor manufactured entirely by Lamborghini.
Ferruccio had never thought to shift his business from farm vehicles to supercars, but his destiny had found a way to draw him into this business.
The experience which led to the establishment of Lamborghini
In a few years, Ferruccio Lamborghini became one of the largest agricultural equipment manufacturers in Italy, so Ferruccio could afford dozens of luxury cars such as? Maseratis and Mercedes-Benz. He also decided to purchase several Ferraris and this is where the success story of the Lamborghini begins and started to evolve to one of the most successful luxury car manufacturers in the world.
When Ferruccio Lamborghini bought a brand new Ferrari he considered it to be more a repurposed track car than a regular road car, as the Ferrari was too noisy and rough to handle. Lamborghini was fond of the Ferrari but was not completely satisfied with it, so he decided to make several suggestions to Enzo Ferrari (founder of Ferrari) including design changes that could help him to improve his luxurious Ferraris.
Ferrari was one of the few companies that made the best sports car in the 1960s and Ferrari had a big brand name. Due to this pride, Enzo Ferrari?s response to Lamborghini?s suggestions was not positive at all but insulted him also by commenting that "The problem is not in the car, but in the driver who drives it. It is better to focus on your tractor business than paying attention to his cars.
Sweet revenge story of Ferruccio Lamborghini
Ferrari¡¯s comment encouraged Lamborghini to prove him wrong. Lamborghini decided to pursue his vision of a perfect sports car. In 1964 Lamborghini manufactured the first versions of the Lamborghini 350 GT, which exceeded the performance of a Ferrari considerably. His new car attracted a lot of sports car enthusiasts and thus Ferruccio laid the foundation of Lamborghini¡¯s success.
Ferrari Vs Lamborghini
After the success of the Lamborghini 350 GT, Ferruccio also produced a sports car which included the Jarama, the Espada, the Miura and Islero that gave tough competition to Ferrari sports cars.
Ferruccio Lamborghini has shown us how incredibly successful you can become in life and what kind of a mythos you can establish only by facing a problem in his daily life, a vision that evolved out of this problem and a competitor that truly spurred Lamborghini.?
