Was the creator of the Lamborghini insulted by Enzo Ferrari and so decided to come up with his own race car? This is a historical look of how the Lamborghini came to be.
At 46 years a charismatic Ferruccio Lamborghini had reached the height of success in his career which had chosen him during World War II, this career was agriculture because he was born on a farm. He first started messing around with his father‘s equipment on the farm. Later he was drafted to serve in the Italian Air Forces’ mechanics corps where he became an expert with rugged air engines. He converted surplus military equipment into tractors in post war when Italy was desperate for tractors.
After the war, Lamborghini built himself a race car by enlarging the side-valve Fiat 500 motor to 750 cc, he then added his own overhead valve cylinder head which was made out of bronze, his car was fast enough to draw in a lot of orders.
Along with air engines and good wine, fast cars remained his passion, and it was around the 1950’s when Lamborghini went to Modena to tell Enzo Ferrari that the clutch on his car was unsatisfactory, Enzo dismissed his complaint with a comment which he took as an insult to his tractor making background, leaving Lamborghini with no option but fixing it himself with a tractor clutch. This inspired him to take his money and build himself a state of the art auto factory, not far from Ferrari’s Maranello with a vow to beat Ferrari at his own game.
He built his first car in 1964, a 13 350 GTs, which soon impressed journalists around the world, with some race drivers viewing it as the race car that would give Ferarri a migraine due to its speed and body. With the tremendous exposure and success of his first car, his production and orders increased, his cars underwent different transformations to the latest models in Lamborghini cars.
Because he was unable to hold on to his company due to financial constraints, he relinquished the control to a Swiss industrialist. So did this mean that Enzo had won after all even after Lamborghini joking at Enzo’s funeral that he would die at 91 but he died at 78 instead, as opposed to Enzo’s 90 at the time of his death? That is the answer for you to decide.
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