Ferrari started making cars in the late 1940s, and Lamborghini, unhappy with the performance of his personal Ferrari, started building his own car in the early 1960s. A quick pit stop about Lamborghini the man, and his fabled nemesis:
A tale of prancing horses and raging bulls
Ferrari was a moderately successful racing driver for fabled Alfa Romeo, but decided to go it alone, unveiling his first vehicle, the 125 S, in 1947.
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On its nose was a prancing black stallion against a yellow backdrop, topped by the red, white and green colours of the Italian flag. This was the logo of World War I Italian flying ace Francesco Baracca, whose family passed the symbol on to Ferrari.
Lamborghini made a fortune building tractors and loved driving his Ferrari cars. But after being snubbed by Ferrari – who disregarded Lamborghini’s complaints about the car’s reliability – he started his own company, debuting at the 1963 Geneva Motor Show with the alluring 350 GT.
For his logo, Lamborghini chose a snorting bull, after seeing dramatic bullfights in photos and in real life. The company continues to name vehicles after famous bull lineages.
Wine, women and motor cars
Lamborghini’s first love and wife, Clelia Monti, died while giving birth in 1947 to the couple’s first child, Tonino. Lamborghini ultimately was married three times, but (as the movie suggests) he was not a faithful husband.
The carmaker used his riches to build an expansive home near his company’s headquarters in Bologna in northern Italy, but eventually spent more time at La Fiorita, a huge lakeside compound in Italy’s Umbria region, where he made wine and returned to his farming roots.Ferrari was married to Laura Garello until her death in 1978. Their son, Alfredo, was an engineer known as Dino, whose name later adorned a number of Ferrari cars. Dino died at 24 from complications of muscular dystrophy. Ferrari had another son, Piero, by his long-time lover, Lina Lardi. Piero Ferrari is currently the vice-chairman of Ferrari.
Ferrari remained devoted to his company until his death in 1988 at age 90, often personally approving or scrapping models as he saw fit. He lived not far from his company headquarters in the northern Italian town of Maranello, near Modena, and also had a home on the Ferrari racetrack.
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The most iconic model ever was the …?
Enthusiasts will go to war over this question, but a few top choices are indisputable. Ferrari made just over 30 copies of the special 250 GTO racing car in the early ’60s, and these models have sold for as much as US$70 million.
On the Lamborghini side of the ledger, the fabled Miura takes the prize, a low seductive rocket of a car that was once put on display at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, representing perhaps the most beautiful automobile ever made.
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Because they were produced in larger numbers between 1966 and 1973, about US$2 million will fetch a nice example today.
Curiously, Lamborghini features as a recurring theme a mythical drag race between Ferruccio and Enzo, who are seen careering through deserted Italian streets at top speed.
In those scenes, Lamborghini is driving his famous spaceship of a supercar, the Countach (produced between 1974 and 1990), while Enzo is seen in a red Mondial coupe (1980-1993).
Although Enzo ultimately peels away to victory in Lamborghini, there’s no planet on which a 270-horsepower Mondial would beat a 420-horsepower Countach.
Who’s winning the financial race today?
Neither of these two legendary carmakers could have imagined how successful their companies would become.
Ferrari scrapped an idea to sell part of his company to Ford in the 1960s, later choosing Italian carmaker Fiat as his partner, allowing him to focus on his beloved Ferrari racing team.
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But at the time of Ferrari’s death in the late ’80s, his company’s cars, while beautiful, were plagued with quality control problems. Fast forward to today, and landing an impeccably built new Ferrari, like the US$2 million Monza SP1, requires both deep pockets and factory connections.
At the end of Lamborghini, the red Ferrari is seen pulling away from Ferruccio’s Countach, implying that Enzo won their personal and corporate duel. Lamborghini retired from his company in the 1970s, and the company’s cars, while exotic, suffered.
Today, having been taken over by Volkswagen in 1998, Lamborghini once again makes staggering machines that now include the Urus, a waiting-list-only US$230,000 SUV.
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