Take That, Enzo

          He was born the son of grape farmers and, during World War II, worked as a mechanic in the Italian Royal Air Force. After the war, Ferruccio Lamborghini saw a lot of surplus mechanical parts laying around. With his farming background and an entrepreneurial spirit, he started a company that manufactured tractors.
          As the business began to prosper, Ferruccio began to explore a passion for fast racing cars. His first was a Fiat Topolino that he modified and ran in several races. When he wrecked the car into the side of a restaurant his passion for motor sports died. But not his passion for cars.
          With plenty of money to spend on this hobby, Ferruccio bought cars from Germany and Great Britain, and, of course, Italy. He owned and drove two Maserati 350 GTs until he discovered a Ferrari 250 GT. There was a lot he liked about the Ferrari. So much so that a few years later he bought a couple more cars from that company, including what many consider to be one of the most beautiful cars of all time, a 250 SWB.

          While Ferruccio loved driving those Gran Turismo machines, he had some major problems with Ferrari as a company. Being a mechanic it irked him that he couldn't fix the cars himself. When a problem arose, such as with the clutch, he would have to drive to Maranello where a mechanic would hide the car away while working on it.
           Finally Ferruccio got mad enough to call out Enzo Ferrari and let to, depending on the version you want to believe, a huge fight between the men. Ferruccio was then determined to make a better car. What he made was the Lamborghini.
           The first few Lamborghinis, such as the 350 GT, 350 GTV and the 400 GT were exactly what Ferruccio wanted: a grand touring car that was more refined than the knock off racers being sold by Ferrari. They featured an elegant and throaty V 12 engine placed in front of the driver and had chassis and body designs developed by engineers Ferruccio cherry picked from other Italian car firms.

          These first cars were adequate at what the did but hadn't made much of a true splash in the automotive world. A couple of engineers, though, were working behind Ferruccio's back in developing the car that would. Gian Paolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani and Bob Wallace worked on their own time designing a more Ferrari-like car. When it was unveiled Ferruccio hated it.
           This car was like nothing else that had ever been seen before. The V 12 engine was mounted transversely amid ship, scrunching the driver closer to the front axle. And the body, the body was so new and sleek and unlike anything else that when people first saw it at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show, even Ferruccio had to take a second look.

          While the car may have looked more like a racer, it was designed to be a true GT car. No, this was no luxury road yacht but it was more comfortable than the typical Ferrari. With looks that definitely made a statement, the car quickly began rolling off the sales floor even though it had a rather steep $20,000 price tag (that's a little over $100,000 in today's dollars).
          Through 1972 the car would undergo several updates and model changes. Most of those changes were under the steel body where the engine became a bit beefier and the suspension became a little stiffer. Still, this car never became a racer. It just looked damn cool. And as people began driving them around the world, it was as if Ferruccio Lamborghini was thumbing his nose and saying, take that, Enzo.