Lamborghini

Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., commonly known as Lamborghini, is a manufacturer of high performance sports cars based in the small Italian village of Sant'Agata Bolognese, near Bologna. The company was founded in 1963 by Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916–1993) as a spin-off from his very successful tractor factory, Lamborghini Trattori S.p.A..

Ferruccio Lamborghini was an enthusiastic owner of sports carss, including a Ferrari. The standard tale goes that he took this car back to the Ferrari factory when its clutch failed. Enzo Ferrari refused to meet him, saying that 'A tractor manufacturer could never be expected to understand high-bred sports cars'. So—after fixing the clutch with surprising ease—he decided to go into business, building the perfect GT (Grand Touring) car. (Another version of the tale holds that Ferruccio was incensed when he found out that the bum clutch on his Ferrari was the exact same model that he used on his tractors, only far more expensive.)

Featuring bodies designed by Franco Scaglione, Touring of Milan, Zagato, Mario Marazzi, Bertone, ItalDesign, Marcello Gandini and Luc Donckerwolke, Lamborghini's cars are amongst the most expensive, and also most powerful, road-going vehicles made. As Ferruccio himself was a bullfighting afficionado (not to mention a Taurus), almost all models have a name somehow related to bullfighting.

Lamborghini's products include the 350GTV (1963), 350GT 1964-1966, 400GT 2+2 1966-1968, Miura (1966 - 1971) Espada (1968 - 1969), Jarama (1970 - 1973), Silhouette (1976), Countach (1974), Jalpa (1981), Diablo (1990) and the Murciélago (2001) as well as the Lamborghini LM002 (1986) off-road vehicle of which Road and Track magazine said, "With the 5.2 litre V-12, the LM002 can pass anything on the road—except a gas station".

The current (2004) range consists of the flagship Murciélago and the smaller, cheaper Gallardo. Both are very fast, mid-engined 2-seaters with four-wheel-drive as standard. Styling for both cars is largely the work of Belgian designer Luc Donckerwolke.

Lamborghini has had a number of owners, as shown in this simplified list: