Lamborghini

Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., commonly referred to as Lamborghini, is an Italian manufacturer of sports cars, based in the small Italian village of Sant'Agata Bolognese, near Bologna. The company was founded in 1962 by businessman Ferruccio Lamborghini, who owned a successful tractor factory, Lamborghini Trattori S.p.A..

Lamborghini is now a subsidiary of the German luxury car manufacturer, Audi AG, which is in turn a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group. The Reventón, a limited special supercar, is one of the fastest and most expensive of the Italian supercars.

History

Origin

Ferruccio Lamborghini went to meet Enzo Ferrari at the Ferrari factory to complain about the quality of the clutch in his Ferrari 250 GT. An infuriated Enzo Ferrari sent him away telling him to go drive his tractors because he was not able to drive cars. Lamborghini went back to his factory to have the Ferrari's clutch dismantled and found that the clutch in the Ferrari was a product of the manufacturer who supplied the clutches used in Lamborghini tractors. Lamborghini installed a stronger clutch from his factory's warehouse into his Ferrari and solved the clutch failure.

Furious with Enzo Ferrari's arrogant and aloof manner, Ferruccio Lamborghini promised himself he would never own another Ferrari, and would beat Ferrari at his own game, by creating a superior sports car of his own[citation needed].

Ferruccio decided that his car was to have a V12 engine. Giotto Bizzarrini, a former Ferrari engineer with experience with the development of the Ferrari V12, was contracted to design the engine. The engine featured aluminum construction, a short stroke, a seven main bearing crankshaft, forged aluminum pistons, two big bore valves per cylinder, and two overhead camshafts per cylinder bank, each camshaft having its own half-engine-speed sprocket with silent chain. The engine developed 350 horsepower (260kW). The body was designed by Franco Scaglione.

Born under the sign of the Taurus, Ferruccio Lamborghini used the bull as the badge to mark his new automobile.