Unexpected Origin Stories in Under the Influence 27:26
Your mind undoubtedly conjures up a pretty specific image when you hear the word “Lamborghini.” It is one of the most well-known supercars in the world, the product of Italian engineering and a passion for speed. However, a tractor part and an insult were actually the real starting points for the supercar.
Tractor manufacturing was a lucrative business for Ferruccio Lamborghini. He was an expert engine mechanic and served in the Italian Air Force. He started making tractors in his tiny garage using army excess that the Allies had left over after the war, in 1945.
He soon constructed a factory and rose to become one of Italy’s top producers of agricultural equipment as the demand for his potent Lamborghini tractors grew rapidly. Due to its success, a second business started producing heating and cooling systems. Ferruccio Lamborghini rose to prominence as one of the richest men in the nation.
Mr. Lamborghini had unlimited resources, and he had a passion for automobiles.
He possessed a white Ferrari for himself and a black Ferrari for his wife. He also owned a Jaguar, a Maserati, a high-end Mercedes, and two Ferraris. However, the Ferrari’s clutches continued to malfunction and required frequent repairs at the Ferrari plant.
Lamborghini had his own tractor mechanics examine the issue because it kept happening. In actuality, Ferrari was utilizing the identical clutch element that he had employed in his tractors. Indignant, Lamborghini was. While Ferrari charged him 1000 lire for the same item, he only paid 10 lire for his tractor’s clutches. Lamborghini was also horrified to discover that exquisite Ferraris were actually constructed from tractor parts.
After making that finding, he hurried to the Ferrari corporate headquarters and pushed for a meeting with founder Enzo Ferrari. Enzo Ferrari roared back at Lamborghini after he complained, claiming that the driver, not the car, was the issue. Lamborghini was admonished by him to return to his tractors and leave him alone.
Ferruccio Lamborghini was prompted to create his own high-end sports automobile by such slur.
He constructed a factory, employed several of Ferrari’s mechanics and engineers, and created an opulent, fast car with a top speed of 240 km/h.
The Lambourghini 350 GT was the name of the initial model that left his plant in 1963. The logo for Lamborghini’s new car is based on the bull of his zodiac sign, Taurus. On that day, a long-lasting and ferocious rivalry between Ferrari and Lamborghini began.
And that is how Lamborghinis came to be. It was a supercar that was created from an insult and a 10 lire tractor part.
In This Article...
Ferruccio Lamborghini’s ancestry
It’s interesting to note that both World Wars shaped the life of the renowned designer of high-end sports automobiles.
During the height of World War I, in 1916, Ferruccio Lamborghini was born. His parents owned a property where they raised wine grapes as viticulturists. Lamborghini’s life was significantly influenced by his family’s industry because he was raised in a farming family and, more crucially, surrounded by agricultural equipment. He had a strong affinity for mechanics, which brought him to the Fratelli Taddia technical institute outside of Bologna. Ferruccio served as an apprentice in a workshop when he was a student.
If World War II hadn’t occurred, things might have turned out differently. Lamborghini was ultimately enlisted as a mechanic in the Italian Royal Air Force. The Italians made the decision to end the fighting in 1943, over four years into the battle. This choice did not sit well with Germany, and shortly after that Italy’s military occupation started. In the same year that the British took over Rhodes Island, Lamborghini was kidnapped and assigned a mission to fix cars. After his return to Italy in 1946, his fortune quickly started to improve.
Lamborghini first started making and selling tractors. However, soon after, additional businesses emerged, including those that created and produced air conditioning and heating systems. Lamborghini finally found success, grew rich, and acquired expensive automobiles. He first experienced driving a Ferrari during this time. However, despite his reputation as a master mechanic, Lamborghini was regarded as a “poor driver.”
When Lamborghini discovered his 250 GT Ferrari had severe technical problems, he complained to Enzo Ferrari in person. This sparked the conflict between the two exotic car manufacturers and was the main driver behind Lamborghini’s bold choice to found his own automaker.
The Aspiration To Create “The Perfect Car”
In 1948, Ferruccio Lamborghini started a business making tractors, and it was an enormous success. His business swiftly rose to prominence as one of Italy’s leading manufacturers of agricultural machinery. He made sports vehicles the way he wanted them to be out of affection for them and aggravation with his Ferrari.
The most amazing automobiles in history have been produced by Ferrari and Lamborghini thanks to their poor temper control and intense competition. They both desired the ideal car, and if it weren’t for their conflict, the automotive industry might never have achieved the milestones it has now.
Colour
Since the 1920s, “race red” has been (and frequently still is) painted on Italian racing vehicles made by Alfa Romeo, Maserati, and later Ferrari and Abarth (Rosso Corsa). According to recommendations made between the World Wars by the groups that would later become the FIA, this was the traditional national racing color of Italy. It refers to the rival team’s country, not the car’s or the driver’s. In that scheme, French-made vehicles like Bugatti were painted blue, German vehicles like Benz and Mercedes were painted white (and, starting in 1934, bare sheet metal silver), and British vehicles like the Lotus and BRM from the middle of the 1960s were painted green.
Curiously, North American Racing Team (NART), a team based in the United States, entered the last two races in North America where Ferrari competed with John Surtees to win the 1964 World Championship. The cars were painted in the US-American race colors of white and blue, not by the Italian factory. This was done in protest over disagreements about the homologation of a new mid-engined Ferrari race car that had been occurring between Ferrari and the Italian Racing Authorities.
Ferrari (tractors)
One of the brands in the field of agricultural mechanization is “Ferrari” of Abbiategrasso, Italy. Founded in 1954 in Luzzara, it was one of the most innovative industries for agricultural machinery throughout the period of reconstruction and industrialization of the nation.
Ferrari unveiled its first agricultural machine in 1957, the tiller that bears the name of the year of birth: MC57. Its success continued until 1965, the year the first MT65 articulated tractor was introduced, after an initial phase devoted to the construction of dies for the production of irrigation pipes.
The BCS Group purchased Ferrari in 1988. Today, Ferrari produces a variety of machinery, from tractors for agriculture to professional maintenance and all in between.
Goldoni and Ferrari signed a contract in 2006 to produce certain tractors.
The lesson of the tale? The client you ignored today can turn out to be your rival tomorrow.
Who doesn’t enjoy a good tale of “revenge”? in the same way that Richard Branson founded Virgin Atlantic after American Airlines cancelled his flight to the British Virgin Islands. Or how Reed Hastings founded Netflix after forking over $40 in late fees to Blockbuster.
A family of grape growers gave birth to Ferruccio in 1916. He recognized an opportunity to use his experience to create a tractor manufacturing company after serving as an airplane mechanic in World War II and as an apprentice at a machine shop. Lacking funding, he pieced together his initial prototypes from leftover military vehicles.
Then he realized his chance: Ferruccio invented a mechanism that would enable an engine to be started using gasoline and then run on considerably less expensive diesel fuel because gasoline was so expensive.
Ferruccio amassed fortune, and as wealthy men frequently do, he began collecting sports automobiles. Fiats. Maseratis. Jaguars. Several Alfa Romeos, just to be safe.
He thought the car made a great statement. He didn’t, however, adore the car itself. It was just too loud. It was an overly stiff ride. According to Ferruccio, his Ferrari was essentially a racing car that had been modified with a very unpleasant cabin.
The clutch was another issue that necessitated regular visits to the Ferrari facility for maintenance. Ferruccio complained to Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari, about his situation. Enzo, often known as the Commander or il Commendatore, was not happy.
According to folklore, Enzo retorted, “You continue producing tractors. Cars will be made by me.”
Ferruccio made the decision to venture outside of the tractor business in the best entrepreneurial tradition.
and knew exactly who to contact for assistance in starting his business: Five important engineers, including a chief engineer and a legendary development manager, had been fired by Enzo two years prior for complaining about how choices were handled on the production floor.
The 350 GT, Ferruccio’s first automobile, had little success. However, his emphasis on excellence and invention quickly paid off: The Miura, the first mid-engine production car in history, became a success. After some time, Ferruccio sold his business and retired. Following the growth of the brand and the company under successive owners, the business generated record profits and close to $2 billion in sales in 2020.
But what is the story’s best element? The founder’s name was Ferruccio, after the customer whose suggestions Enzo Ferrari disregarded.
However, you should still pay attention because some of your clients are more knowledgeable than you about what your business offers. Your customer is aware of what your brand offers, and you are aware of what you promise.
And because the things you don’t do well—the quality and service problems you don’t know about or purposely choose not to address—might transform a client into a rival.
Because the founder of Ferrari insulted the owner of a tractor company, Lamborghini cars were created.
Ferruccio Lamborghini, who had a lifelong fascination with automobile engines, joined the Air Force mechanics corps during World War II and quickly earned a reputation as a master of mechanical invention and engine repair.
Ferruccio opened a tiny auto repair shop in northern Italy following the war. His first successful business venture was purchasing obsolete military equipment and turning it into tractors, which were in high demand in the rural region where he was living at the time. Beginning with abandoned military vehicles, Lamborghini produced one tractor on average every month. This company quickly had great success, enabling Lamborghini to extend his operations in 1960 and start producing air conditioners and heaters for buildings that burn oil.
Lamborghini was a wealthy businessman who loved vehicles. Among his collection of sports cars was the Ferrari 250 GT. Lamborghini eventually lost his cool due to clutch issues he was having with his Ferrari. After that, he visited Enzo Ferrari. Had Enzo Ferrari not responded to Ferruccio’s protests with “the problem is not with the car but with driver!” and then went on to urge him to take care of his tractors in place, the world might not have had the renowned Lamborghini super cars that were to follow. This kind of response was arrogant and an open challenge for an Italian mechanical genius.
Lamborghini decided to create his own automobile with a V12 engine and established an auto plant in the little town of Sant’Agata with the millions of lire left over from his prosperous tractor business. Gian Paolo Dallara, Franco Scaglione, and Giotto Bizzarini were hired by Lamborghini from Ferrari. The goal was to build an opulent and potent GT that could go at 150 mph on the Autostrada del Sole, a well-known Italian highway that connects Milan with Naples. The Lamborghini 350GT was the end product. What follows is history.
A bonus fact
- Ferruccio Lamborghini used the symbol of the bull, the sign of Taurus, as the emblem for his automobiles. Additionally, the majority of the automobiles bore names that alluded to bullfighting or a famous breed of bull: Muira is named after bullfighting breeder Don Eduardo Muira; Islero is named for the bull that killed renowned matador Manolete; Espada is the name of a matador’s blade, etc.
- Ferruccio Lamborghini admitted that he never really came up with anything original, preferring instead to replicate and refine other people’s ideas. For this reason, he enhanced the Ferrari 12-cylinder engine using two cams from an Alfa Romeo 4-cylinder, for instance.