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Ferruccio Lamborghini created the first Lamborghini car
After all, at the time, Lamborghini's passion ran more skyward--he was building helicopter prototypes and hoping for a government license to build them commercially. But when Enzo dismissed his complaint with something along the lines of, "What does a tractor maker know about super cars? Go back to your farm and leave the supercars to me," Lamborghini was insulted. He took his Ferrari home and fixed the problem himself using a tractor clutch, then took a long, hard look at the car's engine. Whe -
Ferruccio Lamborghini created the Lamvorghini car
Lamborghini's requirements were straightforward: He wanted a luxurious and powerful GT that would reach 150 mph on the Autostrada del Sol (Highway to the Sun). He would not be distracted by the expensive exigencies of racing but required his engine to benefit from all that racing had taught others. In fact, later in life, he laughingly told an Italian reporter, "I am the first Japanese in Italian history: I never invented anything, but I always copied the best. To make my motor I asked, which is -
Ferruccio Lamborghini created the Lamborghini car
Before the factory walls were up, Lamborghini had one of Italy's premier engine designers on contract. Engineer Giotto Bizzarrini had only recently left Ferrari in the famous walkout of November 1961. In Maranello he'd been instrumental in the design of the powerful 250 GTO, and since then he'd worked with a number of smaller concerns like ATS, ATA and Iso Rivolta. Bizzarrini agreed to build Lamborghini's first 12-cylinder. Ferruccio required 350 bhp from the proposed 3.5-liter V12, and the cont -
Ferriccio Lamborghini created the first lamborghini.
So the engine did not fall short. Lamborghini's crew, which now included the 24-year-old engineer Gianpaolo Dallara, bench-tested the new engine and verified that it produced 360-370 bhp at 9000+rpm from its 3464 cc. Bizzarrini took his money and left, leaving Dallara in charge of preparing the engine for production. Lamborghini had hired young Dallara on Bizzarrini's recommendation, as the elder engineer remembered Dallara from his first days, right out of technical school, at Ferrari. Despite -
Ferruccio Lamborghini created the Lamborghini car
To produce the car's first body, Lamborghini chose Sargiotto, a small carrozzeria in Turin with a famous designer: Franco Scaglione, author of the Alfa Romeo BATs in his days as Bertone's design chief. The resulting Lamborghini 350 GTV prototype appeared at the Turin Auto Show in late 1963, only a few months after the official opening of Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini SpA. -
Ferruccio Lamborghini created the first Lamborghini car.
Production began slowly, with only 13 350 GTs built in 1964. Still, these few Lamborghinis soon impressed journalists around the world. Road & Track's Henry Manney aptly titled his March '65 review, "This one will give Ferrari a migraine," concluding that the 350 GT "is the most desirable sports/GT I have driven." Even in the magazines' hands the numbers were impressive: For Road & Track the 350 ran from 0 to 60 mph in 6.1 sec., while Car & Driver measured top speed at a satisfying 156 mph, with
