Lamborghini History

Automobili Lamborghini was established in a small village between Modena and Bologna in 1963, by Ferruccio Lamborghini. Lamborghini hoped to make comfortable, powerful vehicles. He had worked as a mechanic during the Second World War, and afterwards built a business constructing tractors and agricultural equipment. He achieved great success, becoming one of the biggest manufacturers of agricultural hardware in Italy, and he used his wealth to pursue his lifelong interest in cars.

Lamborghini began by collecting luxury cars, including Alfa Romeos, Maseratis, Mercedes Benz and Lancias. He also owned a Ferrari, but he thought it was too rough and loud for a road car. Lamborghini was also displeased with the reaction he received from Enzo Ferrari when he visited the Ferrari factory in order to discuss a problem with his car. Enzo Ferrari did not want to make time to speak with Lamborghini, who he saw as simply a tractor maker.

Lamborghini founded his own car manufacturing company in order to fulfill his own vision of the perfect car. He began by commissioning the Societa Autostar to design a V12 engine that would be created specifically for use in road cars, rather than being a sports engine redesigned for the road. However, Giotto Bizzarrini, head designer at Autostar, created an engine that was too much like a racing engine, and Lamborghini refused to pay for it, until he was forced to do so in court.

Automobili Lamborghini was founded in 1963. The 350 GTV, the first Lamborghini car, was introduced in the same year and production of the 350 GT began in 1964. During the rest of the 1960s and the early 1970s, a number of other models were created: the Miura, Countach, Jarama, Islero and Espada.

Despite this early success, the oil crisis in 1973 struck Lamborghini badly and the company experienced some serious financial difficulties. Ferrucio Lamborghini sold 51 percent of his shares to Georges-Henri Rossetti in 1973. He sold the rest of his shares to Rene Leimer the next year. The Lamborghini company continued to struggle during the remainder of the decade. In 1978, the company entered receivership, but was able to maintain operations until 1980. In 1980, Lamborghini was declared bankrupt, and the company was liquidated. The Mimran brothers bought Lamborghini in 1980. During this period of financial turmoil, Lamborghini created a number of models, including the Urraco range and the all terrain Cheetah.

The Lamborghini company grew rapidly during the early 1980s, and it began to need additional investment in order to keep growing. US car maker Chrysler bought Lamborghini in 1987. In 1990, the Diablo replaced the Countach, which at the time was the most successful model to have been produced by Lamborghini, with 2000 cars of this model having been manufactured. Chrysler failed to make Lamborghini profitable, however, and Lamborghini was sold again in 1994.

The new owners were Megatech, a division of the Indonesian Sedtco Group. The company was sold yet again in 1995. V'Power bought 60 percent of the shares, while a Malaysian investment company, Mycom purchased the remaining 40 percent of the shares.

Audi AG began negotiations in 1998 in order to arrange some technical cooperation with Lamborghini. Later in the same year, Audi arranged a takeover of the entire share capital for Lamborghini. Audi finally managed to turn the Lamborghini brand around. After the continuing difficulties and poor sales that had dogged the company since the 1970s, Audi managed to boost sales by almost ten times during the first decade of the 21st century. However, Lamborghini was seriously affected by the world financial crisis at the end of the decade, as demand for its luxury cars decreased and sales were halved.