Lamborghini cars were born out of challenge! 

If someone told you that Lamborghini, the manufacturer of your dream car didn’t actually start as a carmaker but as a tractor manufacturer, you will find it a little hard to believe, isn’t it? After all, how can someone imagine that those sleek super-fast exotic cars came from the same stable as the tough slow-moving tractors used on a farm? 

Lamborghini tractors 
The company was founded in 1948 in Italy by an Italian automobile designer, Ferruccio Lamborghini, as Lamborghini Trattori. At first, Lamborghini used discarded war materials to produce its first tractors. These machines were instantly a hit because they featured a significant innovative technical solution – a fuel atomiser which, when used in conjunction with a Morris engine (one kind of engine), allowed the tractor to be started with petrol and then switch to diesel. 

Within a few years, its tractor production went up significantly and new Italian-made engines replaced the old war surplus. In 1951, it produced an entirely self-made tractor, except for the engine. There was no stopping after that. It produced many models till 1955 and its first Lamborghini crawler in the same year.  

The birth of Lamborghini cars 
Things were going well for Ferruccio, so he bought many new cars, one of them being a Ferrari. He wasn’t happy with the heaviness of its clutch so he wrote to Enzo Ferrari, Ferrari’s founder. However, Enzo didn’t reply well. Flush with cash from his success in tractors and frustrated by Enzo’s response to his complaint, he launched Lamborghini Automobili in 1963 with the intent to make his own luxury cars. 

He hired a few of Ferrari’s ex-employees. The task was very clear – to create a luxurious and powerful GT (grand tourer, a kind of a car) that would reach 150 miles per hour on the Autostrada del Sole, the famous Italian motorway which connects Milan with Naples. The result was its first luxury vehicle, Lamborghini 350GT, in 1964. The highly sought-after MIURA came in 1966, pushing Automobili into the world of super sports cars it is known for today. 

Lambos are named after bulls 
What’s really interesting and we doubt you would know is that Ferruccio used his birth sign, Taurus the bull, as a symbol for his cars. If you check out, most of the Lamborghini cars were named after bullfighting or the famously bred bull. Take MIURA for example. It was named after Don Eduardo Miura, who was a bullfighting breeder. Then there’s Islero. This grand tourer was named after a bull that killed the famous matador, Manolete. Lamborghini’s Espada, on the other hand, was inspired by the name of a sword, the weapon of a matador. 

Why do Lamborghini cars cost a fortune? 
This is a question, that crosses the mind of everyone who dreams of buying this car. There’s a two-prong answer to this. Firstly, they are produced in limited numbers. Secondly, the cars use high-quality materials and are hand-built rather than through automated processes. Its engines don't use the force induction of turbochargers or superchargers. The oxygen intake in the engine depends completely on atmospheric pressure which is supposed to be an engineering feat. 

Lamborghini today  
The success of Lamborghini Automobili did not signal the end of the Trattori business, far from it! Both the businesses have continued to evolve over the decades innovating new products and designs and winning awards.