The Story of Lamborghini

    In this episode, we discuss an Italian legendary sports car brand, Lamborghini. What impression does Lamborghini evoke? First, my impression is that it is a very low sports car with very wide rear wheels, extremely powerful acceleration, and an unbeatable exhaust note. Compared to German supercars, the sound is louder and sexier. You can also find the unique character of this brand from its body design. The body lines have no smooth transitions, consisting entirely of sharp angles, with a very bold style.

You can see from its hood emblem that it is an angry bull. It is said that the emblem also represents its founder, Lamborghini, whose personality throughout his life was challenging limits, arrogant, unconventional, and unrestrained. Lamborghini's brand fate can be described as twists and turns, more bizarre than any brand discussed before. It developed rapidly in the early days with the Miura sports car launched in 1966, but sales declined due to the 1973 global financial crisis and oil crisis. Founder Ferruccio Lamborghini retired and sold the company in 1974. Since then, the company's fate has been unlucky: bankrupt in 1978, taken over and invested in to expand product lines by the Mimran brothers in 1980; acquired by Chrysler in 1987, resold to MegaTech in 1993; finally acquired by Audi under the Volkswagen Group in 1998, becoming one of its brands. This founder was born in 1916, in an Italian farming family. He loved mechanics from a young age, so later when he went to middle school, his major was mechanical engineering. After graduation, he joined the army, very similar to Andre Citroen we talked about last time. Studying mechanics during school, joining the army. However, after joining, he was assigned to a high-end department, the Italian aviation base. He was mainly responsible for car maintenance and testing work. After World War II, Italy lost, he was captured by the Allies and imprisoned on Rhodes in the Aegean Sea. During the cruel World War II, the Italian army actually brought quite a few laughs to the whole world.

Italy brings the most fun to people, if Germany's combat power is compared to 100, Japan is 0, then Italy is -100. Ha, it's on this level. At that time, Mussolini of Italy mobilized a million-strong army to attack Greece with all national strength, because he saw that Germany had basically pushed across the whole world in Europe, dominating the scene. He felt that as the 'little brother' of Germany's 'big brother', he also wanted to try his hand. He thought Greece was easy to bully, but ended up deep in the quagmire of war. After being stuck, he told his big brother, 'Brother, save me quickly, I'm stuck.' Germany originally didn't want to help him, but later considered the situation and believed support was necessary. You said that Japan was so far away from him that it couldn't help, so his only European ally was Italy which couldn't support him effectively. As a result, Germany mobilized 17 armies and 17 divisions to go to Greece to relieve the siege. As a result, they took Greece in a week. You can see how strong Germany's combat power is.

After finishing Greece, he felt something was wrong, because his troops were originally supposed to be deployed to the Soviet Union to attack Moscow. It went around a big circle, delaying for a long time. Finally, in autumn, he arrived at Volgograd. It started fighting before reaching Moscow. Not long after fighting began, winter came. Finally, because the Italian army was not up to standard, leading to ultimately failing and sinking, losing in this distant Siberia.

This anyway gives us some joy for future generations. If there was no Italian army, the end of World War II might not have ended at a certain time, maybe not everyone would have lost their country. This is quite an interesting thing about the Italian army. After World War II, Lamborghini returned to Italy. At that time, Italy and Japan faced similar situations: countries urgently needed reconstruction, needing production tools and material transport vehicles, etc. Vehicle performance at the time was difficult to meet demands. Lamborghini found a business opportunity here. He purchased a large number of abandoned military vehicles from the army and converted them into tractors.

The earliest product of the Lamborghini company was this tractor. The tractor was its pioneering work. There are anecdotes circulating about disputes between Lamborghini founder and Ferrari founder Enzo, actually this grudge really exists, not fictional rumors. Lamborghini founder encountered a clutch failure while driving a Ferrari 250 GT, proposed improvement suggestions to Enzo Ferrari but was looked down upon. The other party thought he was just a tractor manufacturer, not worthy of instructing on sports car manufacturing. This arrogance prompted him to determine to build a top-tier sports car brand, finally the Lamborghini brand was born. Enzo, the early Ferrari founder, he was a racing enthusiast. He devoted all his energy and funds to racing cars, did not pay attention to civilian versions, leading to mediocre performance of civilian vehicles, triggering numerous complaints from car owners. Lamborghini founder Ferruccio Lamborghini was a senior sports car enthusiast, owning many famous cars such as Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati, etc. In 1958, he bought his first Ferrari 250 GT. When driving this car, he once encountered a clutch failure, causing the race car to lose control and accidentally injure spectators. For this reason, he complained to Ferrari company many times. However, Enzo Ferrari did not value his feedback, but contemptuously stated that Ferruccio was just a person who made agricultural machinery, not worthy of pointing out how to make sports cars, even implying he had no ability to drive Ferrari 250 GT. Finally, Ferruccio found suitable spare parts in his company warehouse and solved the vehicle failure on his own.

Lamborghini also had some background, he served in the army, then opened his own factory, which was making tractors. He met Enzo Ferrari, proposed to him: Your cars are unreliable, can the transmission be improved? I can't even shift gears. Enzo responded with one sentence at the time, this sentence drove Lamborghini crazy directly — Enzo said, I don't need a tractor maker to teach me how to make sports cars. It was this sentence that spawned the birth of a supercar brand. The angry Lamborghini returned home.

Vowed I must create a sports car brand, this company of mine has only one purpose, fighting to the death with Ferrari, not giving up until the goal is reached, until today, now Lamborghini is under the Audi brand, the current packaging is also fighting against you Ferrari for this lifetime, until death, still to this day, this is the only purpose of Lamborghini founder to create this company.

So in the very beginning stage of Lamborghini establishing the company, he actually had no talents, although he himself knew some mechanical knowledge, but independently designing supercars was not easy. So he started poaching. He went to Ferrari, Maserati to poach various engineers. He poached a very heavyweight figure. This heavyweight figure was Ferrari's chief designer, precisely the engineer who designed Ferrari 250 GT at that time, named Bazzini. Why did this person leave Ferrari? Regarding the specific reason for his leaving Ferrari, there are different stories.

Many versions. Some say at that time Bazzini told Enzo we want to design an independent rear suspension, Enzo immediately vetoed, believing he could not complete the design. Then the second version is because Enzo dismissed his good friend Guantini for no reason, who was then the manager of the Ferrari automotive department at that time, they were buddies, fired this buddy for no reason, this Bazzini left in anger, after he went to Lamborghini.

This move made Ferrari extremely regretful. He went to Lamborghini and designed a model for Lamborghini. A product that could confront Ferrari immediately, what car is it? 3.5-liter 12-cylinder engine, has 360 horsepower, directly challenging Ferrari. This car is called 350 GT, Lamborghini's first supercar. This car was designed successfully in 1962, and in 1962 Lamborghini registered the Lamborghini Automobile Company, started producing its own cars in 63, opened a factory, so from then on. A tractor brand became a supercar brand. The story of a legendary figure from a farming family, starting from scratch, struggling tirelessly, unfolded, still revered by people today.

Everyone can check relevant records from various eras. The Supercar Yearbook will mention Lamborghini's two classic supercars without exception. One is called Countach, one is called Miura. These two sports cars are very classic, both products from after the 1970s. Although Lamborghini did not proclaim to stand opposed to Ferrari to the death, in body design and technology R&D, it has always targetedly made up for Ferrari's weaknesses. For example, he made improvements. On his 5-speed transmission, reverse gear, he actually designed a synchronizer for you, which didn't exist in those days. At that time Ferrari's reverse gear had no synchronizer, which would cause the engine to stall very easily when parking, moving front and back, and it was hard to shift gears, often causing gear grinding phenomenon. Lamborghini after improvement, added the synchronizer, making the car more stable, easier to park.

A characteristic of Ferrari, its horsepower is very powerful, but often criticized by owners for poor braking. Lamborghini from then on adopted very large brake discs, improving braking efficiency, effectively controlling the car, this is Ferrari's weakness. In 1966, at the Geneva Motor Show, Lamborghini launched a legendary sports car, called 400GT. 400GT has 320 horsepower, instantly defeated Ferrari, Maserati, Aston Martin, etc., this is called the Demon. This car's top speed can reach 270 km/h, in 1966 this was the top speed record. In 1971 it launched the second generation P400SV, max horsepower 385, top speed 300, this was the fastest car in the world at that time. At that time, the company was at the peak of rapid development.

In 1973 an event happened, this founder Lamborghini left his company dejectedly, went to northern Italy to find a vineyard, lived a pastoral life, handed over the enterprise he had struggled to run for more than 20 years to others. The root of this matter lies in himself. In 1971, at that time, some countries in South America purchased tens of thousands of tractors from Lamborghini. At that time Lamborghini did not have enough funds. To invest in production lines, including buying raw materials, equipment, etc., you need a loan, so he borrowed a large amount of money from the bank. Unfortunately, after the tractor orders were completed, the countries in South America did not pay. And coincidentally came the 1971 coup, this money basically got whitewashed, completely clean, nothing left.

Unable to repay the bank's huge loan, what to do? As a result, in 1973, there was a Swiss person named George Henri, he bought 51% of Lamborghini shares. In 1974, he acquired the remaining 49% shares. At that time BMW was cooperating with Lamborghini. BMW wanted Lamborghini to help design a sports car for them, that was BMW's M1. But after a few months of cooperation, BMW directly terminated the contract, not cooperating with you anymore. Why? Because when you develop a car model, the R&D cost is very high. At that time, Lamborghini couldn't sustain livelihood at all, could only rely on government support, days were very hard. So at that time BMW and Lamborghini quarreled and split up, stopped making it.

1977, for Lamborghini can be called disaster strikes twice. At that time, it was deep in the aftermath of the first oil crisis — this crisis changed the structure of the European and American automobile industry drastically. High fuel consumption models were neglected by the market, while Lamborghini focusing on large displacement sports cars took the first hit. Added to poor management, the brand was then on the brink of bankruptcy. Originally the government did not want it to go bankrupt, so invited the founder back, stating willingness to sell the brand at 65% of the price, letting him continue operations. But Lamborghini founder had a concept, a good horse does not eat returning grass, very stubborn, finally gave up. Until 1980, the Mimram family acquired Lamborghini, the purchase price at the time was 3.8 billion Lire (equivalent to 3 million USD). Under Mimram's leadership, Lamborghini company achieved unprecedented huge development. But this family had some problems in management. They launched a plan called 132 plan. He wanted to abolish all previous models. We mentioned before Lamborghini multiple sports cars in all world yearbooks you can find, as a result he wanted to wipe out all those past things, rename, establish new system. You are like now Infiniti, wiping out what past G37 etc., FX35 are all gone, all renamed. But new car R&D requires a large amount of capital investment. Finally, related attempts ended in failure. After that, Lamborghini company was acquired by Chrysler.

After the acquisition in the 1990s, Chrysler helped Lamborghini develop a model. This model is extremely legendary, perhaps you have played the game 'Diablo' — the pronunciation of this name may not be completely accurate. In February 1993, Lamborghini founder Lamborghini himself passed away. He was 72 years old when he passed away. Between 1993 and 1995. It changed three owners. This brand, early November 1993, after Lee Iacoca retired at Chrysler, suddenly signed a contract with Mega Tech group registered in Bermuda belonging to Indonesian conglomerate SETCDO, transferred Lamborghini manufacturing plant and technology department to the other party for 41 million USD. Before that, in 1991 the Diablo model reached sales peak, helping Lamborghini get rid of deficit, but after 1991 the world economy was down again. This transaction happened at the node of founder Ferruccio Lamborghini's death (February 1993), brand launching Diablo VT and 30th anniversary special edition of the factory, quite the meaning of guests leaving and tea cooling. In 1995 there was a president, the former Indonesian president was called Suharto, he had a son who was idle all day called Tommy. Tommy bought 60% shares, becoming the first generation head of Lamborghini. But Tommy was not a suitable operator. Suharto was deeply involved in political and economic scandals after the Southeast Asian financial storm. Went to prison. And this son Tommy also went to prison in 2000 respectively. Should be 2000, not 2002 also went to prison.

So until 1998, Lamborghini's future was lit up. That is to say, 5 years after the Lamborghini founder passed away, this brand was targeted by Audi company, acquired all its assets, became Lamborghini's new owner. So in 1999, June. Who did Audi hire? Former Ferrari General Manager named Greg, appointed as Lamborghini new President, continuing the Lamborghini founder's entrepreneurial purpose, fighting to the death with Ferrari, not giving up until the goal is reached.

Audi's strength in the industry is eye-catching. Lamborghini can continue to develop supercars. He basically doesn't need to worry about funds at all, no need to worry. So in 2001 launched a model called Murcielago. Murcielago's front face headlights were trapezoidal design, its senior brother Gallardo's headlights were long strip shape. The two cars are called 'Big Bull' and 'Small Bull' respectively by car fans. Gallardo's headlight is a long strip, respectively called this Big Bull and Small Bull. At that time, in 2007, Lamborghini developed a historically most expensive model, called Reventon. At that time, how much was the selling price? 1.4 million USD, everyone know? Buying a BMW X5 only needs 50,000 USD, this thing 1.4 million, compared to Ferrari top production sports car Enzo at that time. 600,000 USD expensive by almost half. Recently in Feng Xiaogang's movie 'Old Boys' his son scratched someone's car. Enzo, remember Enzo was only 600,000 USD, this Reventon 1.4 million is off by half plus.

In 2011 developed a new model called Aventador. The full code of this model is LP700-4. This car is still the eye-catching focus on the road to this day, the return rate is very high. Its color is a bit like who? A bit like Ford Fiesta ST that color. Rose color, salmon pink model, very beautiful. One person's spiritual world can push the birth of a sports car company, seemingly fierce and invincible, in reality weak, production and sales volume is always the way. Personal art, in the end you cannot resist large-scale industrial production. Fortunately Audi was able to recognize its unique value. You can still feel the anger of this bull's muscles tensed. Good, thank you everyone.