Ferruccio Lamborghini has never been one to mince words, but never before has he put them down on paper. Now he does. For the twentieth anniversary of the bull, he has chosen to relate in his own words the story of the golden age of the car that bears his name. His personal favorite: Miura.
'You know how to drive a tractor, but you’ll never learn to drive a Ferrari'
If Enzo Ferrari hadn't made that crack - one day early in the 1960's when I was complaining for the nth time about the insoluble clutch problems I was having with his car, I might never have built my Lamborghinis.
I liked my Ferraris. but I was sick and tired of spending so much of my time burning out their clutches And every time I went to Modena, everyone there seemed to take a malicious pleasure in making me hang around waiting. Ferrari's answer to my complaint on that score was that one day he had kept the King of Belgium waiting, so Mr Lamborghini, the builder of tractors and boilers, really had no cause to object. As for the technical drama, he just wasn't willing to listen to my suggestions, and I was never able to obtain a reinforced clutch for my Ferrari. Finally I'd had enough. I slammed the door and vowed I would build my own car. The way I wanted it. And sturdy!
Everybody who knows me will tell you that this decision didn't come as a surprise to them. Mechanics was in my blood. It's in the blood of everyone who is born in Emilia, the province that was blessed by the gods of the automobile, and where I was born in 1916 into a family of modest farmers. After the Second World War I managed a small factory that manufactured exercise equipment for Italian beauties who yearned to keep their figures. Business wasn’t good, however, because at that time Italian beauties were yearning chiefly for enough food to fill their stomachs - and thus I found myself with plenty of free time to spend on my souped-up Fiat 500 race car, which no longer looked much like a standard Topolino, and to which I owe my first commercial success. I had installed an overhead valve, high compression Lamborghini cylinder head in it, baptized the result the Testa d'Oro, then sat back and waited for all the owners of wornout Topolino sports cars to beat a path to my door. That cylinder head was their salvation.
I entered by little Fiat barnstormer in quite a few races after the war. In 1948 I even attempted the Mille Miglia, in the 750cc class, with Baglioni as my teammate. Everything went like a dream for three-quarters of the race-until we ran off the road. In 1949 I made the transition from sports to agriculture when I established my tractor factory. Italy was then in the throes of reconstruction, and she needed us. We turned out six tractors a day. Subsequently, in the 1960s, I changed course again and invested my profits in a plant that manufactured boiler burners.
But, in the back of my mind, I had never stopped thinking about the Ideal motor car. By 1963 it was ready. All I had to do was construct a plant to build it. You know the rest of the story: ten golden years during which wealthy customers lined up to purchase a Lamborghini. I had never imagined I could sell so many. When we launched the Miura for example our plan was for fifty cars. But, by the time the model was discontinued almost eight years later, one hundred Miuras had rolled off the Sant'Agata line And its customers had paid cash for a jewel which they knew on the day of purchase would not be theirs until after a long year of patient waiting. What better proof of their confidence?
In 1963 I wasn't the only one who was dreaming about the Lamborghini. An entire team of engineers, as brilliant as they were opinionated, was also dreaming about it. They included Gianpaolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani, Giotto Bizzarrini and others whose names would remain associated with the car for some time to come. Almost all of them were former Ferrari employees. This was no accident, since Modena is the real cradle of the automobile - or perhaps cauldron is a better word, a broth of engineers being concocted there who loved their trade and who plied it in an environment where competition was so keen that in a very short time the best had left the others behind. I didn't hire them, I merely offered them an opportunity. The opportunity came with a five-year contract attached. There was nothing really wonderful about those conditions, but that did not stop these engineers from putting in long workdays which rarely ended before ten o'clock at night. That's what you call enthusiasm. During these golden years we also benefited from the advice of an engineer who worked days in the testing department of Alta Romeo while moonlighting for us. I'm not going to tell you his name because he's still working for them.
If I had to catalogue my engineers, I'd say that Dallara was tireless and extraordinarily brilliant, but utterly unaware of the business aspect of our adventure. The fact that a crankshaft required a day’s work at the forge, for example, didn't faze him at all. Stanzani, in contrast, was a great engineer, too, but one who watched the pennies. He shaved always expertly - wherever he could shave.
At the outset my demands were as clear as they were simple. I wanted a compact, elegant car with twelve cylinders of high cubic capacity, four carburetors and large valves. A sturdy machine, with drysump lubrication. And that's how the first version of the 350 GT was born. In all objectivity, I feel it was superior to the Ferrari sedan of the same period. It was more powerful and, above all, more flexible.
1963 Lamborghini 350GTV prototype-- A modern, clean, efficient machine, without concession to tradition --
All this was due, perhaps, to the fact that we had no 'a priori’ technique. We started from nothing, in a factory designed like a laboratory for scientific experimentation and which incidentally, was far more modern than the Maranello plant was at that time!
I called upon Franco Scaglione to build the body of the very first Lamborghini. I liked his execution, but I recognized that his bodies were largely for show. For the assembly line 350 GT we went to Touring Zagato who built the bodies for three or four cars. He was followed by Nuccio Bertone.
I don’t know whether Bertone embodied the Lamborghini spirit better than the others but I know for sure that, thanks to us, he found “a shoe that fit him," as he told me on the day we introduced the Miura at the 1965 Turin Automobile Show.
-- I Still miss the Miura --
The Miura was six years in production, and it surpassed our wildest hopes. I know sports enthusiasts all over the world who would have paid a king's ransom for a racing version. But I always refused to build one. This was not to avoid doing battle with Ferrari, as people have claimed, but out of a father's concern. My son Tonino was sixteen years old when I created the Lamborghini and I knew that a competition environment would attract him irresistibly toward racing which was a circumstance I feared, so I included in the company's bylaws a prohibition against race participation.
When people ask me nowadays to describe my ideal car. I still answer with one word: Miura. The career of this extraordinary berlinetta should never have ended. Its premature demise was caused by American legislation. In 1970, when the first anti-pollution laws were passed in the United States, we realized that the poor Miura was condemned to death. At the plant we had brainstormed the problem from every possible point of view. But finally we had to admit that it was impossible to house that devilish device known as a catalytic converter and the bag of other required American gadgets in the limited space under the Miura’s hood which was just large enough to hold the carburetors and their filters.
I've often been asked why I named the car Miura. To answer that question I have to go back to the birth of the company. In 1962, I visited Eduardo Miura’s ranch in Seville where he raised bulls for bullfighting, and I was so impressed that by the time I got home I had already selected my future emblem. The fact also that I was born under the sign of Taurus sort of ratified my decision.
I still miss the Miura. No on has ever equalled it.
When the pendulum swung against that car, it was already too late. The 1973 oil crisis was about to shake the automobile world. At Sant Agate the golden age was over. To survive we launched the Countach and the Urraco. In 1970 I had chosen to sell fifty-one percent of my stock. I sold the rest in 1972.
Subsequently I became interested in vine growing, studied the subject and invested in a vineyard that I created from nothing on the banks of Lake Trasimeno in Umbria. My son and I produce Sangue di Miura (Blood of Miura) a wine that is our pride and joy. My friends tell me that I've grown younger. One thing is certain, I've never lost any of my enthusiasm. But times have changed.
Today I would not adventure alone. It’s too difficult and too risky. Still, if I could find nine partners as determined as my son, I’d forget my age and start from nothing. And I bet the glory days of the 1960’s would rally round us again very quickly. Meanwhile, I’m enjoying the peace and quiet of my vineyard. And when I miss the sound and the fury, I take refuge in my garage and turn the key in the ignition of my Miura. Just long enough to make the needle move.
When shall we meet again? Soon, and in a museum that a now being built under my son's supervision. A museum dedicated to the dream Lamborghinis. It will shortly open its doors in Bologna.”
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Ferruccio on his cars:
“For the rest of my life I'll feel happy whenever I look at my Miura. This car left its mark on its age, and I say that nobody has built anything better since. It was the first car of our wildest dreams, a car for absolute fanatics. We refused to make a single technical compromise in the Miura. Mounting the engine transversely in the center was a daring step in itself, one that no one had ever dared to try. As for its appearance, you can judge for yourself nineteen years later.”
“The 350 was my first creation - It dates from 1963, but you have to admit that it has aged much better than many of its competitors. Especially in the coachwork designed by Touring. One kilometer in 27 seconds, start to finish! It was comfortable and luxurious but, thanks to its traditional architecture, it was also reassuring. For me, it was the best reliability-performance compromise of its day. It was superior to the GT of my Maranello competitor.”
“The 400 model was merely a logical development of the 350. Touring succeeded magnificently in lengthening the body without making it heavier. With the 400, our customers had a real 2 + 2 with very healthy behavior. The engine of the 400 resembled that of the 350 for line, but it had a 4-liter capacity instead of the 3.5 liters of our first creation. It's a shame that Touring closed its doors shortly thereafter - we liked its work very much.”
“The Islero as a logical successor to the 400 GT a great classic and very traditional in its body, designed by Marazzi.”
“The Espada was the Lamborghini of the mature man, the next step after Miura.”
History of the activities of F. & T. Lamborghini's family
1947 - 1972 TRACTORS
1960 BURNERS, AIR CONDITIONERS
1963 - 1974 SPORT CARS
1969 HYDRAULIC EQUIPMENT
1972 WINES DOC
1980 HOLDING COMPANY
1981 TONINO LAMBORGHINI STYLE AND ACCESSORIES
1993 GOLF CARS
1994 DELICATESSEN
1995 POLIFUNCTIONAL CENTRE FERRUCCIO LAMBORGHINI
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