Since its inception in 1963,
Automobili Lamborghini has always been known for its innovative and pioneering spirit,
This is mainly due to generations of engineers,
The dedication of production technologists and innovators.
They are bold and far-sighted,
Shape Lamborghini into
One of the most prestigious and legendary brands in the history of the automobile.
Written by Ao Jing Typography Tong Wei
Ferruccio Lamborghini
Brand founder Ferruccio Lamborghini
The founder of the brand, Ferruccio Lamborghini, built a tractor from excess military equipment and built a successful tractor factory. Subsequently, having become a well-known entrepreneur, he once again challenged himself to enter the automotive industry and re-establish the industry model. In 1963, at a time when society and workers still followed the rules, Ferruccio founded a sports car production company, Lamborghini, in the village of Sant'Agata Bolognese, near Bologna, Italy, to create the best sports cars in the world.
Because of his hard, strong, stubborn personality, like a bull, and his constellation also happens to be Taurus, the Lamborghini bull logo was born. Ferruccio Lamborghini died on February 20, 1993, but his thirst for exploration has always been the company's attitude. In the early days of the company, he recruited a group of young and persistent engineers, many of whom had just graduated from college.
Franco Scaglione
Franco Scaglione, a contemporary of Ferruggio Lamborghini, was born in Florence in 1916, where his appreciation for beauty grew. He grew up in the heyday of the Futurist movement, when artists were constantly pursuing vitality, dynamism and speed. After studying aeronautical engineering, he followed his passion for design and began working as a fashion designer, eventually deciding to design models for the most important body shop of the time. In the 1950s and 1960s, he designed pneumatic techniques that brought aerodynamic studies into the field of automotive design. In 1967, he designed the legendary Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale for Alfa Romeo, considered one of his most beautiful creations.
Lamborghini 350 GTV model
In 1963, at the direct request of Lamborghini, Italian designer Scaglione designed the first model born in Sant'Agata Polonni, the 350 GTV, which was exhibited at the Turin Motor Show that year. A prototype of the Gran Turismo with a longitudinal front-facing V12 engine, it has an avant-garde and bold exterior, with rounded lines, extremely thin columns and curved windows. After the auto show, a new R&D team was formed by Gian Paolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani, Bob Wallace and others to improve the chassis and engine of the 350 GTV, and the appearance was redesigned by the Milanese company Touring, and the new car was named Lamborghini 350 GT, which was released at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1964.
Group photo of Lamborghini Miura and her team,
左:Paolo Stanzani,右:Gian paolo Dallara
Gian paolo Dallara
Gian paolo Dallara was appointed technical director at the age of 27. Under his leadership, Mass production of Lamborghini models began. Among them, the Miura introduced at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show is particularly eye-catching, it is only 105 cm high, the minimum ground clearance is only 135 mm. It caused an overnight sensation in the industry and was destined to change the world of sports cars, and journalists used a new term to describe it — supercars. Miura takes its name from Edoardo Miura, a close friend of Lamborghini, the founder of Lamborghini, and a famous bull breeder. Starting with Miura, Lamborghini embarked on a tradition of naming cars in a way inspired by Spanish bullfighting.
Ferruccio Lamborghini
At the time, everything about the Miura was brand new and had never been seen on previous production models. From a technical point of view, the model was equipped with an unprecedented 4.0-liter engine with four overhead camshafts, producing 350 horsepower at 7,000 rpm, giving the Miura a record top speed of 280 km/h at the time. At the same time, the lines designed by Carrozzeria Bertone undoubtedly made this 12-cylinder engine driving machine the most desirable model of the time, so much so that in recent years, the Miura model has become a veritable collector's item. It is a refined and ultra-modern project that is far ahead of its time, from the P400 to the P400S to the SV and SVJ, and has been sought after by buyers until Lamborghini's next star model, the Countach, is introduced.
Paolo Stanzani
Paolo Stanzani, a young engineer, joined the company in 1963 at the age of 27. Since 1968, he has been the company's director of production and technical director. Stanzani was highly acclaimed for his involvement in the development of the Countach project and making the model the world's fastest supercar of the 20th century.
Lamborghini Countach
Introduced in 1974, Countach, with its stunning appearance, extreme performance and outrageous price tag, became a legend that Lamborghini could not surpass. It features a new drivetrain with drive shafts placed on the side of the engine block, and is the first production model to feature scissor doors. These highlights are still prominent in today's Lamborghini 12-cylinder models. Unlike other Lamborghinis, the car is not named after a cow, but rather the exclamation and surprise that a Bertone worker uttered in the Piedmontese dialect when he first saw the car.
After that, Stanzani also built the four-seater sports car Urraco, which means "little bull", named after the bullfighting that killed the matador Manoret. Its 2+2 layout includes a smaller lateral rear-mounted 2.5-litre V8 engine with Heron-type combustion chambers. The engine also features other technological innovations, such as separate front and rear McPherson suspension, a recessed steering wheel, and a steering column located in front of the cockpit.
Bob Wallace
Born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1938, Bob Wallace moved from New Zealand to Italy at the age of 21, where he worked for teams such as Ferrari and Maserati. At the end of his motorsport career, he moved to Lamborghini and was Lamborghini's chief test driver for 12 years from 1963 to 1975, essentially dominating road testing and development for all Lamborghini models up to and including the Countach. It played a key role in the early days of Lamborghini and contributed greatly to the birth of the myth of the "bull". He developed a work and test system that is still considered the cornerstone of Automobili Lamborghini's R&D department and more.
Lamborghini four-seater sports car Urraco
Passionate about racing, Wallace agreed with Ferruccio Lamborghini to use his spare time to turn old parts of the company's machinery into new parts and come up with innovative solutions that were then tested on experimental cars to create sample models such as miura Jota, Jarama Bob and Urraco Rallye, which are still considered legendary today. The results of these "free tests" have led to rapid iteration of the company's mass production models, and the Lamborghini brand has gradually become famous around the world.
Giulio Alfieri
Engineer Giulio Alfieri was born in Parma in 1924 and graduated from the Politecnico di Milano shortly after the end of World War II. He joined Lamborghini in 1975 and was promoted to general manager in 1982, ushering in the era of composites. In 1987, he was responsible for developing the Counterach Evoluzione, a prototype of the Countach made almost entirely of carbon fiber, about 500 kg lighter than the regular Counterach model and capable of speeding in excess of 330 km/h. These studies were applied almost immediately to production: first with the 25th anniversary edition of the Countach introduced in 1988, and then with the Diablo model introduced in 1990.
Lamborghini Diablo
Diablo is a veritable successor to Countach. The car is still named after a ferocious bullfighter and combines some surprising aerodynamics and modern design with a 12-cylinder engine that produces 492 horsepower at 7300 rpm. It was able to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.03 seconds, reaching a top speed of 325 km/h, the highest speed of a production car at the time. To this day, carbon fiber technology remains the crown jewel of Lamborghini manufacturing.
These young engineers and designers came together for a common goal and later became masters of the car in their respective fields, which is a testament to the foresight of Lamborghini's founder, Ferruggio Lamborghini. Through their innovation and bold ideas, they have created a young and sparkling brand, and gradually converged into the essence of Lamborghini's brand that has been passed down to this day, leaving a unique work in the history of the development of the automotive industry.