Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.

Ferruccio Lamborghini was born in 1916 in Sant'Agata Bolognese, the same small town in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region where Lamborghini cars are still built today. After serving as a mechanic in the Italian Air Force during World War II, he founded Lamborghini Trattori in 1948, converting surplus military vehicles into agricultural tractors. The business was enormously successful — postwar Italian agriculture needed mechanisation desperately, and Lamborghini's tractors were well-engineered and affordable.

Having become wealthy from the tractor business, Ferruccio Lamborghini bought a Ferrari 250 GT. He found the clutch unsatisfactory — it was the same type used in his tractors, which he considered agricultural-grade engineering inappropriate for a sports car. Lamborghini drove to Maranello to discuss the problem with Enzo Ferrari personally. Ferrari, according to the story that has been told thousands of times since, told Lamborghini that a tractor manufacturer had no business telling Ferrari how to build a car. Lamborghini left and decided to build one himself.

Lamborghini Automobili was founded in May 1963. Ferruccio hired engineers away from Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati. The first Lamborghini, the 350 GT, was shown at the Turin Motor Show in November 1963 — thirteen months after the company was founded. Automotive journalists noted that the car was better finished than comparable Ferraris. Enzo Ferrari was reportedly livid.

The Lamborghini Miura, unveiled at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show, is widely credited with inventing the modern supercar concept. Its mid-engine layout, aggressive styling, and 170 mph top speed were unprecedented in a road car. The Miura was designed largely by a 25-year-old engineer named Giampaolo Dallara working in secret — Lamborghini had not authorised the project. When Ferruccio saw the finished chassis at the Turin Show, he was surprised. He gave the project his blessing and the supercar era began.

Ferruccio Lamborghini sold the company in 1972, disillusioned by labour strikes and the 1973 oil crisis which devastated supercar sales. The company passed through several owners — including the Swiss Mimram family and briefly Chrysler — before being acquired by Volkswagen Group's Audi subsidiary in 1998. Under Audi's ownership, Lamborghini's manufacturing quality and financial stability improved dramatically. The Gallardo, launched in 2003, became the best-selling Lamborghini in history. Ferruccio died in 1993 and never knew his company would eventually become one of the most valuable automotive brands in the world.