1. Country - Italy.
Parent - Volkswagen group (via Audi).
Brands - Lamborghini.
Location - Headquarters and factory: Sant'Agata, Bolognese, near
Modena.
2. Lamborghini a world famous automobile industry name it is one of the
biggest name in the world of automobile industries.
Lamborghini is the only sport car brand can rival the prestige status of Ferrari. In
many ways, it is even more exotic than Ferrari in the eyes of car lovers, thanks to the
loss-making supercars it produced throughout its 40 years history -
Miura, Countach, Diablo and Murcielago. Lamborghini has proven itself as the biggest
headache to Enzo Ferrari because there is hardly a flagship Ferrari without a Bull to
compete with.
Financial instability used to limit the success of Lamborghini. However, since acquired
by Audi in 1998, it has been growing stronger and stronger. Thanks to Audi's quality
standard, new generation of Lamborghinis no longer suffer quality problems like their
predecessors. The cars are also made easier to live with. The addition of the smaller
Gallardo allowed Lamborghini to target at a volume in excess of 2000 units, which
brought financial stability to Sant'Agata for the first time.
3. 2010: 1302 units (Production: 1064 Gallardo, 163 Murcielago)
2009: 1417 units (Production: 922 Gallardo, 331 Murcielago)
2008: 2430 units
2007: 2420 units (Production: 1951 Gallardo, 629 Murcielago)
2006: 2087 units (Production: 1651 Gallardo, 444 Murcielago)
2005: 1493 units (Production: 972 Gallardo and 464 Murcielago)
2004: 1592 units (1215 Gallardo and 377 Murcielago)
2003: 1305 units (890 Gallardo and 415 Murcielago)
2002: 442 units (all Murcielago)
2001: 297 units (Diablo plus a few Murcielago)
4. Ferruccio Lamborghini, then a successful tractor maker, was an ambitious and
motivated young expertiser. Before founding Lamborghini, his business had
already expanded to oil burners and air conditioning units. Having owned the
best examples of luxury cars including American and Ferraris, he had his own
idea of what an ideal GT was.
He always had much respect for Enzo Ferrari and considered Ferraris as the
only cars he was competing with. However, it is said (and himself does not
really deny it) that he had trouble with his Ferrari 250GT and complained to
Maranello personally. Having not been received with the respect he
expected, he decided to build his own GT car, a car that would be better than
his Ferrari, of course.
5. Lamborghini was highly motivated. He poured countless money into his new
purpose-built factory which was just 15km away from Maranello. He
employed some ingenious people to design his cars, such as Giotto Bizzarrini
(who had designed Ferrari 250GTO), Giampaolo Dallara (chassis
designer), Paolo Stanzani (engineer), Bob Wallace (test driver) and Franco
Scaglione (designer). With these people and sufficient funding, the first
car, 350GTV, debut in 1963 Turin motor show and immediately became the star
of the show. It featured an aluminum bodywork and an all-alloy V12 with 4
camshafts, more advanced than any contemporary Ferraris. The production
version, 350GT and 400GT, shocked Ferrari for its high-level of finish and
driving refinement. Lamborghini made a perfect launch.
6. However, that was nothing compare with the second car, Miura.
This was seen as the world's first "supercar", which combined exotic
looks (by Marcello Gandini of Bertone) and spectacular mechanical
design - low center of gravity, mid-engined and V12 power. Thanks to
its looks, many people really believed its wild claim of 300 km/h (186
mph) top speed ! The Miura was the dream car of every boys in the
1960s and the toys of millionaire playboys.
7. The empire of Ferruccio continued to grow with the addition of Espada 4-
seater and entry-level Urraco. 1974 saw the an even more spectacular successor
to Miura, the Countach. Its space-age appearance (again by Gandini), noise and
power became a trademark of Lamborghini in the next 25 years.
When Lamborghini's prospect seemed to be promising, it was actually
suffering from continuous loss, because of the extreme cost for such high-tech
machines and the oil crisis further increased the difficulty for selling
supercars.Ferruccio Lamborghini finally sold the company in 1972 and
production was stopped for 2 years as a result. Since then the ownership of
Lamborghini changed hands many times. Financial instability limited its
development. The aging Countach kept soldiering on, although updated to
keep up with new generations Ferrari.
8. The financial difficulty was finally resolved when Chrysler took over
Lamborghini in 1987. A lot of money was put into the development
of Diablo, which made it better developed than any previous models.
Besides, an unknown amount of investment was made to the Formula 1 engine
program, which saw some promising signs but finally ended when Chrysler
pulled out.
He US giant car maker sold Lamborghini to Indonesian company Megatech in
1994. Not long later, it was transferred to Malaysian company Mycom Setdco
and Indonesian company V'Power. Sant'Agata enjoyed a brief management
stability under ex-Lotus executive Mike Kimberly. However, the Asian
economic crisis in 1997 washed out the wealth of its Indonesian and Malaysian
owners. Lamborghini found itself short of money to develop its next generation
supercar and its long overdued "baby Lambo" program.
9. When Lamborghini knocked on the door of Audi, it only wanted to ask for
sourcing Audi V8 engine and Quattro drivetrain for its baby Lambo.
Unexpectedly, Volkswagen group boss Ferdinand Piech was interested in the
Italian marque, thus the negotiation resulted in Audi taking over Lamborghini
in 1998. Since then Audi invested a lot of money to modernize the Sant'Agata
factory and helped engineering the new Murcielago. Its high quality
standards and testing procedures improved the new generation Lamborghinis
a lot, making them far more reliable and user friendly than the past.
The "baby Lambo" finally arrived in the form of Gallardo. It was engineered
largely by Audi but, fortunately, preserved the traditional strengths of
Lamborghini. Thanks to its success, Lamborghini's sales increased 8 folds
from 2001 to 2007 ! It became the strongest challenger to Ferrari again.
10. At the end Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction will make the amasing
cars in future.