Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., commonly known as Lamborghini, is a manufacturer of high performance sports cars based in the small Italian village of Sant'Agata Bolognese, near Bologna. The company was founded in 1963 by Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916–1993) as a spin-off from his very successful tractor factory, Lamborghini Trattori S.p.A..

Ferruccio Lamborghini was an enthusiastic owner of sports cars, including a Ferrari. There are several versions of why Lamborghini started his company, all of them involving a conflict between himself and Enzo Ferrari. The most likely version, one that has been corroborated several times, is that Ferruccio Lamborghini met Enzo Ferrari at a party, and, naturally, the talk drifted to sports cars. Lamborghini pointed out a few things in Ferrari's designs which he did not agree with. Ferrari, a notorious hothead, got apoplectic. "If you don't like the way I build my cars, why don't you go build one in that tractor factory of yours."

Featuring bodies designed by Franco Scaglione, Touring of Milan, Zagato, Mario Marazzi, Bertone, ItalDesign, Marcello Gandini and Luc Donckerwolke, Lamborghini's cars are not only amongst the most expensive and powerful road-going vehicles made, but are also amongst the most stunning and impressive in appearance. Contrary to a frequent misunderstanding, Ferruccio himself never was a bullfighting supporter but loved Bulls and was a Taurus, which explains why most models have a name somehow related to bulls.

Models

Lamborghini's products include the 350GTV (1963), 350GT (1964), 400GT 2+2 (1966), Miura (1966), Espada (1968), Islero (1968), Jarama (1970), Countach (1974), Silhouette (1976), Jalpa (1981), Diablo (1990), MurciГ©lago (2001) and the Gallardo (2003) as well as the Lamborghini LM002 (1986) off-road vehicle. While Lamborghini has had engineering success with more civil designs such as the 350, 400, Islero, Espada, Uracco, Jarama, Jalpa, Silhouette and Gallardo, it is the "Bad Boy Super Car" spotlight that has kept the public keenly interested for Lamborghini's entire 40+ year history. The Miura, the Countach, the Diablo, and the MurciГ©lago continue to be the most desired sportscars of all of their peers.

The current (2006) range consists of the MurciГ©lago, the MurciГ©lago Roadster and the smaller, less expensive Gallardo and Gallardo Spyder. All are very fast, mid-engined 2-seaters with four-wheel-drive as standard. The styling is largely the work of Belgian designer Luc Donckerwolke.

Model List

Ownership

Lamborghini has had a number of owners, as shown in this simplified list:

• Ferruccio Lamborghini 1963–1972
• Georges-Henri Rossetti & RenГ© Leimer 1972–1977
• bankrupt 1977–1984
• Patrick Mimran (managed 1980–1984) 1984–1987
• Chrysler 1987–1994
• Megatech 1994–1998
• Volkswagen group (Audi) since 1998

Foreign operations

Automovil Lamborghini de Latin America was set up by a Jorge Antonio Fernandez Garcia in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1994, It is officially licensed to produce two handbuilt variants of the Diablo called the Eros and the Coatl. They were first produced in 2001 and are available only in Latin America since 2003.

See also

• List of Italian companies
• Ferrari

External links

• Lamborghini official web site
• SuperCarNews.com High Resolution Lamborghini Images
• Lambo Cars fan site
• Lamborghini by KLD Concept (Photos , vidГ©o , etc ..)
• The International Lamborghini Registry
• Lamborghini Owners and Enthusiasts forum
• TODOLAMBORGHINI fan site
• Timpelen.com - a website dedicated to Automobili Lamborghini
• Lamborghini of Latin America based in Argentina
• Vintage Lamborghini Owners Forum
• Lamborghini Miura Technical Reference