Ferruccio Lamborghini is the namesake of the Italian exotic sports car company that bears his name. In this article, we take a quick look at his biography. 

Ferruccio Lamborghini as born on April 28, 1916. This made him a Taurus, which may seem an odd thing to mention in this article. It isn’t. In fact, it is very significant. Why? The bull is the symbol associated with Taurus. Ferruccio like the idea so much that he made the bull the symbol of Lamborghini as well and it is prominently displayed on the ornament. 

Ferruccio did not start out as a car designer. Instead, he was an industrialist who built a variety of products. The most notable was indeed a vehicle – a tractor. Lamborghini tractors were the leading brand in Italy and are still prominent today. They are even on You Tube:

Italians are known to have volatile tempers and it would appear Ferruccio was no different. The story of how he decided to launch a car company is so bizarre that few people would believe it if it wasn’t well documented. The story starts with a man who loved sports cars. As his business grew, he continued moving up to better sports cars. Eventually, he purchased a Ferrari 250GT, one of the leading cars of the time. In fact, he ended up buying three. 

Here’s where it gets good. The Ferraris kept having clutch problems. Ferruccio eventually drove the headquarters of the venerable company and ended up complaining directly to Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the company. Enzo suggested the problem was not the car, but the lack of driving ability being exhibited by Ferruccio. The meeting did not end well and Ferruccio decided to launch his own company to challenge Ferrari. 

Launching a sports car company is no easy thing. To make it happen, Ferruccio took a shortcut. He hired Gianpaolo Dallara and Bob Wallace to design and develop the cars. They were former Ferrari engineers. The legendary Lamborghini 350GT was launched in 1963. 120 were produced over the next three years and the car was seen as superior to the Ferraris then on the market. 

Ferruccio slowly sold off his ownership of the company over the years. The fiery inspiration that gave rise to the competition with Ferrari was simply not sustainable over time and Lamborghini generally started to have production and design issues. The cancellation of a large order from South America nearly bankrupted the company. By 1973, Ferruccio had lost the fire and sold out of the ownership position. He lived a peaceful life until 1993 when he passed on. 

Lamborghini carries on today even with the passing of Ferruccio Lamborghini. The company is now owned by Audi of the Volkswagen Motor Group, but still produces astonishingly beautiful and exotic sports cars. One has to think Ferruccio would be proud.