Do you believe in Love at first sight? (No! This is not an article about relationships and blah blah :P. Don’t close the browser window. Continue reading) This article is about the Love for Automobile. Especially an Italian one. Especially a Lamborghini.There is always a first time to everything. Let me tell you about my version of Love at first sight with this Italian Automobile manufacturing company.
Back in 2008 when my dad brought me a Sony PlayStation 2, the first game I played was Need For Speed Most Wanted. I raced my way up through the blacklist. But when I had to race this Hector “Ming” Domingo, this guy turns up in his black car with gray trim at the rear and I keep looking at his car. Well that was the Lamborghini Gallardo. The car that made me fall in love with Lamborghini. As my game progressed and I became richer, I could soon buy the great Lamborghini Murcielago ( my now dream car 😀 ).Soon after I topped the blacklist, all I would do was, take out the V12 Murcie for a spin around Rockport. All the Lamborghini’s have some peculiarity which make them stand apart. Well, the Italians are artists and this reflects in their vehicles too. Be it Ferrari, Fiat, Ducati, Alfa Romeo and so on.
As long as the story goes , it is said that it was Enzo Ferrari that indirectly led to the inception of the brand Lamborghini. Back in the 60’s , Ferruccio Lamborghini used to roll in the Ferrari 250 GT. By then , he has a wealthy businessman owning companies manufacturing tractors and other industrial enterprises primarily making central heating and air-conditioning equipment. His Ferrari used to have a clutch problem which made him make frequent trips to Maranello which pretty much annoyed him. Also he used to complain about the build quality of the Ferrari’s manufactured those days. Not only him , many others too had the the same complaint but were afraid that they wont be allowed to buy a Ferrari again.
In those days, Enzo Ferrari was more interested in the Car Racing Scene that was developing that time and would not devote proper time to production cars. So Ferruccio himself took to fixing the clutch problem by installing one from his tractors. The problem never appeared again. With this solution that he found out he decided to visit Enzo Ferrari and talk about it. However things did not turn out to be as expected. Enzo Ferrari put him down by saying that the problem was with Ferruccio and not with the cars. He also told him that a man like him should concentrate on manufacturing tractors only because he had no knowledge about a sportscar. This miffed Ferruccio and he decided to not buy a Ferrari anymore; instead build his own supercar. When people heard about his ambitions, they laughed and mocked at him. But he was very much determined and adamant and in the 1963 he came out with prototype that pumped 370 horses.
He set up the factory at Sant’Agata Bolognese, about 25 kilometres from Bologna and named it “Automobili Lambroghini”. His aim was to not only build sportscars but also to help the customers with the problems they had with their cars. He had the perfect team for the same. The first production car was a 270 bhp Lamborghini 350 GT.
Soon after their first car was out, Lamborghini launched the Miura in 1966. A crazy mid engined car that played a gamechanger for the Lamborghini and gave the Maranello people ( The guys at Ferrari 😛 ) a run for their money. (Well , Lamborghini even today continues to do so 😉 😛 ) The idea of naming it Miura came to Ferruccio after he visited the Miura Ranch in 1962. Miura continued to be a raging success for Lamborghini and kept a check on Ferrari. None of the Ferrari’s could beat it until they came out with the flat-12 Berlinetta Boxer in 1973.Howeve Lamborghini continued rolling out more powerful and lighter versions of the Miura. Before the Miura went out of production, powerpacked version of it was made known as the Miura SV(SuperVeloce).It was soon replaced by the Countach as soon as Lamborghini was brought by German Automaker giant Audi.
It was the first Lamborghini to be made with an SV badging. Wondering what an SV mean?? It means Super Fast.Lamborghini has been absolutely correct in its nomenclature. The SV’s are steroided and pumped up versions of their normal version. This is includes more horses, including the use of carbon fibre, significant weight reduction and last but not the least- more aggressive stance. All said, stating the but obvious, the SV’s came with a bigger price tag which was totally value for money ( If you are billionaire 😉 ) Till now , few of the cars have been lucky enough to be made with this badging.
The first one being the Miura followed by Diablo. Next came the mighty Murcielago and now the recent addition to the list was the stunning Aventador. Lamborghini has followed this policy of making Superleggera versions of its small(comparatively small :P) yet powerful cars such as the Gallardo. A Hurracan Superleggera can be expected anytime in immediate future 🙂 ). For the bigger beasts it has the SV badging ready. Until the production of the Aventador, the Lamborghini Murcielago SV LP 670-4 was the fastest Lamborghini ever built. With a 6.5 L V12 beast roaring and 670 horses running wild, it could punch the competition harder than ever. The SV’s came with a limited number and stayed in production for a less time before eventually going out of production.
The Murcielago was precedded by the Diablo and is succedded by the Aventador.Same goes with the recently launched Hurracan. It has proved to be a worthy successor to the best selling Gallardo.
Apart from making powerfull production cars, Lamborghini has successfully made exclusive hypercars with the likes of Sesto Elemento, Reventon and Veneno. There have also been rumours about a Lamborghini bike named Caramello. The list of recent concept cars by Lamborghini include – Egoista, Urus, Estoque, Asterion.
All thanks to Mr Ferruccio Lamborghini for doing what was impossible. Challenging the old player(Ferrari) in the market and giving it a run for its money is what Lamborghini has been doing since its inception. No matter who all are competing, in the end, the competition doubles up between Ferrari and Lamborghini; each trying to outrun the other.
And in this competition, people like us get to witness their marvellous production cars that keep us drooling over and over and again. Both Enzo Ferrari and Ferruccio Lamborghini must be competing in heaven too. Who knows. :D. May the legends live forever.
BTW Ferruccio’s favourite car was the Lamborghini Miura which stands with pride in his private museum at Dosso di Ferrara till date. 😀
