"The story of the great Ferruccio Lamborghini, of his friendship and competition with the great Enzo Ferrari went around the world and it remains an unforgettable example of the mechanic genious, of tenacy and entrepreneurial ability typical of Emilian people. Meanwhile the tractor factory grew, in 1959 Lamborghini was already an established manufacturer and, as a successful man, could afford a Ferrari. He chose a “250 GT” designed by Pininfarina, it was white as his second wife Annita liked. She was a hard-worker like him, but in her free time she liked driving. She found the clutch rather hard to use. She was right because that type was thought to be used by racing drivers with athlete’s calves. In 1961 Ferruccio, to meet his wife’s wishes, changed his “250GT” with the new “250 GTE 2+”, a new model, conceived for sports drivers, who liked comfort as well. There was even a very comfortable back seat. The controls, however, were always the same, that is hard to be used. The legend says that the rivalry with Enzo Ferrari took origin when Ferruccio Lamborghini went to Maranello to ask to remove the clutch defect. Enzo Ferrari sent him away telling him to go and drive tractors because he was not able to drive cars. Ferruccio Lamborghini went back to his factory, had the “2+” clutch dismantled and realised that the clutch manufacturer was the same who supplied the clutches of his tractors. In his spare part warehouse Ferruccio found a spare part which he thought suitable, he installed it and solved the problem. That success made him want again to improve all that he, very hard to please about mechanics, did not think it was up to the situation. By modifying cars he thought he could make a car by himself, faster than a Ferrari to spite Commendator Enzo Ferrari."
(part2)
Ferrucio Lamborghini did in fact buy an early Ferrari which was delivered by the Ferrari Factory to his Villa. Mr. Lamborghini was quite a wealthy entrepenour in those days, and the perfect type client for El Commandantore (Enzo Ferrari) because he was buying a Touring Car rather than the pesky street racers.. As lore has it....Mss. Lamborghini took delivery of the car after a considerable delay (of which he was not happy about) and somewhat soon after delivery took the car for a spirited drive thru his nieghborhing countryside......at some point during this "drive" the fuel pump either quit or the clutch went out...depending on which version of this unhappy experience you prefer....which caused Mss. Lamborghini to have the car "towed" back to the Ferrari Factory(and no doubt some walk to a phone to call for a ride home, no cell phones in those days )...."for adjustments/refinements/warranty"....???
After a few phone calls and quite some disappointment on Mss. Lamborghinis part, he told Enzo Ferrari to shove TFPOSUHA (in Italian)...and Lamborghini Automobili was born!
I have never seen or heard of "the serial number" of the car in question & I doubt very seriously if it exists today. I would also doubt that even the Ferrari Factory could or would divulge the Serial # of such an infamous car. Ferrari in those days kept records on 3x5 cards and "very many" were "misplaced" due to many reasons....Italian Taxes of the day being just one of many factors amoung hundreds.
ps: there is also a historical footnote of which I can't verify personally...that Mss. Lamborghini actually ordered the car in person at The Factory, after being kept waiting in an outer office by El Commandantore for approx. 3 hours...which additionally added to his unhappiness when the car was appox. 3 months late showing up and then crapped out on one of his first few drives.
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