Ferruccio Lamborghini

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Ferruccio Lamborghini : biography

April 28, 1916 – February 20, 1993

File:Lamborghini 22PS 1951.jpg|A Lamborghini 2200PS from 1951 File:Lamborghini C553.jpg|A C553 crawler from the 1970s File:LamborghiniR6-150.jpg|A modern Lamborghini R6-150 tractor File:Lamborghini BC.jpg|The automaker bearing Lamborghini’s name continues to produce sports cars (Gallardo pictured)

Lamborghini’s fascination with bullfighting

The world of bullfighting is a key part of Lamborghini’s identity. In 1962, Ferruccio Lamborghini visited the Seville ranch of Don Eduardo Miura, a renowned breeder of Spanish fighting bulls. Lamborghini, a Taurus himself, was so impressed by the majestic Miura animals that he decided to adopt a raging bull as the emblem for the auto company he would soon found.

After producing two cars with alphanumeric designations, Lamborghini once again turned to the bull breeder for inspiration. Don Eduardo was filled with pride when he learned that Ferruccio had named a car for his family and their line of bulls; the fourth Miura to be produced was unveiled to him at his ranch in Seville.

The automaker would continue to draw upon the bullfighting connection in future years. The Islero was named for the Miura bull that killed the famed bullfighter Manolete in 1947. Espada is the Spanish word for sword, sometimes used to refer to the bullfighter himself. The Jarama’s name carried a special double meaning; intended to refer only to the historic bullfighting region in Spain, Ferruccio was concerned about confusion with the also historic Jarama motor racing track.

After christening the Urraco after a bull breed, in 1974, Lamborghini broke from tradition, naming the Countach not for a bull, but for countach! (), an exclamation of astonishment used by Piedmontese men upon sighting a beautiful woman. Legend has it that stylist Nuccio Bertone uttered the word in surprise when he first laid eyes on the Countach prototype, "Project 112". The LM002 sport utility vehicle and the Silhouette were other exceptions to the tradition.

The Jalpa of 1982 was named for a bull breed; Diablo, for the Duke of Veragua’s ferocious bull famous for fighting an epic battle against "El Chicorro" in Madrid in 1869;http://www.lambocars.com/pdf/diablo.pdf Murciélago, the legendary bull whose life was spared by "El Lagartijo" for his performance in 1879; Gallardo, named for one of the five ancestral castes of the Spanish fighting bull breed; and Reventón, the bull that defeated young Mexican torero Félix Guzmán in 1943. The Estoque concept of 2008 was named for the estoc, the sword traditionally used by matadors during bullfights, While the replacement for the murcielago, the Aventador (unveiled in 2011) was named for a bull that was bred by the sons of Don Celestino Cuadri Vides. This bull was killed in a particularly gruesome fight, where after the bull was killed, its left ear was cut off and given to the Matador as a token of good luck.

Early life

Ferruccio Lamborghini was born on April 28, 1916, to viticulturists Antonio and Evelina Lamborghini, in house number 22 in Renazzo di Cento, in the Province of Ferrara, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. According to his baptismal certificate, Ferruccio was baptised as a Roman Catholic four days later, on May 2. As a young man, Lamborghini was drawn more to farming machinery rather than the farming lifestyle itself. Following his interest in mechanics, Lamborghini studied at the Fratelli Taddia technical institute near Bologna.Sources do not agree on Ferruccio Lamborghini’s area of study. Jolliffe and Willard state that Lamborghini studied engineering, but did not obtain a degree due to his military service obligations. Sackey states that Lamborghini studied industrial design. Lyons et al. state that Lamborghini earned an "industrial arts" degree then pursued an apprenticeship in a Bolognese mechanical shop prior to joining the Italian Royal Air Force. Wood states that Lamborghini was drafted upon graduating in 1940. In 1940 he was drafted into the Italian Royal Air Force, where he served as a mechanic at the Italian garrison on the island of Rhodes (territory of the Kingdom of Italy since 1911, after the Italo-Turkish War), becoming the supervisor of the vehicle maintenance unit. Lamborghini was taken as prisoner when the island fell to the British at the end of the war in 1945, and was not able to return home until the next year. He married, but his wife died in 1947 while giving birth to his first child, a boy named Antonio.