Ferruccio Lamborghini may be best known for the sports cars that bear his name, but his company actually got its start making tractors in post-war Europe. Automobile production didn't enter the picture until well after Lamborghini was an established tractor manufacturer, and only after Lamborghini's personal Ferrari 250 GT had a clutch problem. Confronted with what he believed to be an inferior clutch design and substandard customer service from Ferrari, he met with Enzo personally and was dismissed. This annoyed Lamborghini considerably, and from there, he set out to build a better GT car than Ferrari.
The first step in starting a GT car company was a proper sports car engine, and Lamborghini wanted something similar to the 3-liter V12, but tuned specifically for road use. He teamed with Societa Autostar, at the time led by ex-Ferrari designer Giotto Bizzarrini, and the company provided a 3.5-Liter 360-hp V12 that made peak power at 9,800 rpm. This was not what Lamborghini set out for, as he wanted a street car, not a dry-sump high-revving race car, and... View more the ensuing disagreement eventually caused the two companies to part ways.
The first car, the 350GTV, featured a chassis designed by a team led by Gian Paolo Dallara, with a body designed by Franco Scaglione. It was unveiled to wide acclaim in 1964, but changes were made to the production version, which became known as the 350GT. These included a new chassis and a de-tuned version of the Bizzarrini V12. A total of 120 were sold over three years.
The 400GT was released in 1965, featuring a larger 3.9-Liter V12, and a 2+2 version was available in 1966. Around that same time, Lamborghini's designers started working in secret on a new project with both road and race use in mind, hoping to persuade Lamborghini that racing cars were not a waste of resources. What resulted was the P400, later known as the Miura, which featured a transverse mid-mounted V12 and extremely low profile. The car was an immediate hit, and examples still rank among the most expensive sports cars of their era, with prices for the SV model currently hovering just under $1m.
Other notable Lamborghinis included the Islero, the Espada, the Jarama, and the Urraco. The Espada was the most successful of the bunch, selling 1,200 over ten years of production. The Miura's replacement was the Countach, which became an icon of performance cars in the 1980s. It was released for U.S. sales in 1982. Chrysler bought the company in 1987, and by 1990, the Diablo was released as a replacement for the aging Countach. With its V12 engine, the Diablo was the fastest production car in the world.
The company changed ownership several times throughout the 1990s, eventually finding a home with Volkswagen in 1998. The Murcielago became the new range-topper in 2001, and the smaller Gallardo came out in 2003, powered by a 5-liter V10 engine. The ultra-exclusive Reventon was released in 2008, of which only 21 were built. Future projects include the Aventador, which is set to hit the market in 2011. It has a projected top speed of nearly 220 mph. View less
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