As the story goes, a tractor manufacturer sometime before 1963 went to get service on the clutch of the new Ferrari he had recently purchased and thus began the evolution of Automobili Lamborghini.
Completely insulted by the complaint of the clutch quality, Enzo Ferrari at the Ferrari factory told Ferruccio Lamborghini to go home and drive his tractors because he sure knew nothing about driving cars.
This was the catalyst to set Lamborghini on a path to develop his own sports car … which he vowed would be much superior to the Ferrari …. and he also vowed he would never own a Ferrari again. He fixed the clutch on his Ferrari by installing a much stronger clutch from his tractor warehouse when ….. upon taking apart the Ferrari clutch he found out it was made by the same manufacturer that supplied his tractor clutches.
After rounding up the men he needed in the design of his new sports car … he introduced the prototype of the Lamborghini 350GTV in 1963 at the Turin Auto Show with the bull as the mark of his car, the sign of the Taurus under which Lamborghini was born.
Lamborghini produced several models of the sports car through the years until 1978, when Lamborghini declared bankruptcy as a result of the oil crisis that presented itself in the 1970's. The Swiss auto company Mimran ran the company while it was in recievership and subsequently bought it … keeping it solvent and producing new models.
It was a surprise move when Mimran sold Lamborghini to Chrysler in 1987, who in turn was forced by slow economic times to sell it to an Indonesia based group in 1994.
Due to economic problems of their own, this group sold to AudiAG, the German company which is a subsidiary of Volkswagon … making Audi the sole owner of Automobili Lamborghini … and with the long reaching arm of Audi able to touch endless resources … they have been able to produce the latest most sophisticated cars of all time.
Audi in turn has given special permission for Automoviles Lamborghini Latinoamerica of Argentina to build Lamborghini sportscars in Latin America … offered only to people in South America.
It seems the evolution of Automobili Lamborghini has gone full circle and is now comfortably riding its reputation with its name exuding exotic class and prestige.
Ferrucio Lamborghini's faulty Ferrari clutch was the start of something great indeed …. the evolution of Automobii Lamborghini.