Lamborghini – That’s pronounced Lam-bor-ge-knee and is derived from the Latin word Laydowntherubber – it’s Italian translation: wicked fast, exotic, sexy, and very expensive. The definition: If you can afford it you won’t need to look it up in the dictionary.
For those of you who have never heard of Lamborgini it is the other Italian super car manufacture. During the early sixties, Ferruccio Lamborghini, a successful tractor builder in Italy was apparently frustrated with the clutch in his new Ferrari 250GT. Like any high roller he went straight to the top of Ferrari and complained to the man himself, Enzo Ferrari, that the clutch in his car was not satisfactory. Enzo told Ferruccio to go back to driving tractors as he certainly cannot drive cars. The irony of this is Ferruccio decided to fix the clutch in his Ferrari at his own factory and discovered that the clutch was in fact made by the same manufacture that produced his own tractor clutches. Ferruccio at that point decided he was going to beat Ferrari at his own game. Thus the Lamborgini was born.
My first Lamborgini sighting was the Countach. Wow! It looked like a space ship with wheels and was ready to break the sound barrier at it’s next outing. It’s giant rear wing and NASA ducting for sure meant that this thing could fly. It’s doors didn’t open outwards like a conventional car but swept up to the sky like some robotic creation form the latest Transformer movie! The V12 engine made sounds I never heard come form a car and it made the hair on my arms stand at attention. I will never forget the Bull standing proudly on the car’s emblem. The matador was going to loose the bullfight with this one for sure….
As with many small, exotic car manufacturers Lamborgini has endured an economic roller coaster ride in it’s 40+ year history. A big tractor deal gone bad in the early seventies allowed FIAT to acquire the name. They of course ran the company into the ground (ever heard of a GOOD running Fiat?). The late eighties saw Chrysler revive the Lamborgini name with the Diablo. They brought much needed technologies that a super car of today needed. But, of course, Chrysler couldn’t manage their own company and had to sell the Lamborgini rights to pay off their own debts.
The good news is Audi now owns it and look what they built! The Lamborgini Gallardo. The one spied here in our own Rogue Valley is the Spyder version. Now everyone knows that if an Italian car has the word Spyder in it’s name it is a convertible. I won’t bother you with the specs as you can tell by the picture it’s wicked fast, exotic, sexy, and very expensive. Now if only I could talk the owner into giving me a ride…
