Ferruccio
Lamborghini was born 28 April 1916 in a small village in
northern Italy called Renazzo. From childhood he had always
had a big interest in motors. When he was old enough his
parents arranged for him to go to an industrial college
in Bologna. After a couple of years he graduated with a
degree in industrial engineering and started to work at
a repair workshop.
In
his twenties the second world war started and he served his
country by working at an Italian air force base at Rhodes
repairing vehicles. At the end of World War 2, he was more
or less forced to continue work on allied vehicles until 1946.
When he finally got home he began to repair broken tractors
in Italy using parts from military vehicles. This was how
he started his tractor factory which soon made him a very
successfull buisnessman. He was the first to construct a "cheap"
tractor that almost everybody could afford. But there was
another problem, which was the price on fuel, so he constructed
the engine so it could run on diesel. Now his tractor for
the people was ready.
Over
the years he produced many different tractors, and he was
the first to produce a 4WD tractor in Italy. As Ferruccio
was very interested in design, the design of the tractors
was also much improved to the regular tractors at the time,
and he was the first to produce a tractor in the coulour yellow.
Over
the years he started to built heating, hydralics and aircondition
units, and become a very succesful buisnessman.
Ferruccio
had always had a big interest in automobiles. But in the biginning
when he did not have a lot of money. So in 1947 he bought
a Fiat, and upgraded the engine so he could participate in
"Mille Miglia", after his alterations the Fiat could
go 260 km/h. On this car you can also see the first logo of
Lamborghini. It had the letters "FLC" in it, "Ferruccio
Lamborghini Cento", (Cento was the city where he had
his tractor factory).
He
also built a go-kart for his kids, not the normal type with
pedals, but one with a motorcykle-engine.
His
interest for cars, especially fast ones resultat in the purchase
of several Ferrari's during these years. .
But
back in those days the Ferrari's roadcars (like many other
supercars from that time), were not build very well. Many
Ferrari owners were unsatisfied with their cars but they did
not dare to complain because they then might not be allowed
to buy one again. The reason for the poor service was that
Enzo Ferrari spent most of his energy on his racingprogram
and that the roadgoing cars were primarily built to raise
money for the development of his racingcars.
In
the early sixties Ferruccio Lamborghini owned a Ferrari 250
GT and there was a lot of problems with the clutch. Though
he had had it repaired at the Ferrari factory several times,
they were never able to fix the problem. And this was where
the legend of Lamborghini began.
One
time when Ferruccio Lamborghini had just gotten his Ferrari
back from the factory where they should repair the clutch
but since they still hadn't solved the problem Ferrucio decided
to fix it himself. He fixed the problem by installing a clutch
from one of his tractors, and was very pleased with the new
clutch which work perfectly.
He
then went to pay Enzo Ferrari a visit and show him how he
could fix the clutch problem on his Ferrari's. Even though
he came and in a friendly tone, to explain how it could be
done Enzo was not happy at all.
The
got into a little discussion and at the end Enzo told Ferrucio
that he was just a simple peasent with no knowledge at all
about fullblood exotic sportscars and should go back and drive
his tractors.
Ferruccio
Lamborghini told Enzo that he would not buy any more Ferraris
but from now on built his own cars.
So he found the best men he could and began his adventure
of building the perfect GT car. Not only would he make them
better and faster but he also wanted to listen to his customers
and help them with any trouble they might have with their
cars.
He
started by building up hia new factory and the company "Lamborghini
Automobili" only 15 km. from the Ferrari factory. He
started on his new car in a corner of his tractor factory,
before his car factory was ready, spending almost all his
time developing his super GT car. He worked very close with
his emploies because he wanted to be a part of every aspect
in the development and was often the last man to turn off
the lights.
Late
in October 1963 he first car was ready - it was the Lamborghini
350 GTV. The first prototype was just a chassis but not a
real car, which you could also see on the finish of the car,
where they had used aluminum folie instead of chrome.
The
second prototype was introduced in xxxx. But they did not
have time to get it ready for the motorshow, so the second
prototype was displayed without an engine and instead with
200 kg. of bricks to keep the front down. The engine was displayed
next to the car. It was the first roadcar with indepent suspension
on all 4 wheels, and the race-engine produced approx. 357
bhp.
The
first productioncar did not arrive until March 1964 and was
then changed into the 350
GT, and even though the engine was detuned to 270 bhp, it
still showed the whole world that Ferruccio could built a
high-tech GT, superior to anything else on the road.
After
starting his Automotive adventure he also bought a speedboat,
and since he was not wery satisfied with the american engine
in the boat he decided to installe his own 4 liters V12 in
the boat to increase speed. This worked very well and this
was how he entered the powerboat industry, and for many years
delivered engines and transmissions to the "Off Shore
Race" (the Formula 1 of the sea). With his first powerboat
engine from 1967 he set 2 records in december 1968.
Fastest
average speed for 1 hour: 109,00 km/h.
Fastest
average speed for 24 hour: 96.99 km/h.
The
engines were later much improved to approx. 1000 bhp a piece
and there was now 2 engines per boat, and Lamborghini won
6 World Championships.
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