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Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.

Type	Subsidiary
Founded	1963
Founder(s)	Ferruccio Lamborghini
Headquarters	Sant'Agata Bolognese, Italy
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Stephan Winkelmann, CEO
Industry	Automotive
Products	Automobiles
Owner(s)	Volkswagen Group
Parent	Audi AG
Website	Lamborghini.com

Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., commonly referred to as Lamborghini, is an Italian manufacturer of sports cars, based in the small Italian village of Sant'Agata Bolognese, near Bologna. The company was founded in 1963 by businessman Ferruccio Lamborghini, who owned a successful tractor factory, Lamborghini Trattori.

In 1998, Lamborghini became a subsidiary of the German car manufacturer Audi AG, a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group.^[1]

[edit] History

[edit] Origin

As a prominent manufacturer of tractors and heating units after World War II, Lamborghini was an enthusiastic owner of sports cars. After owning and driving a Mercedes-Benz 300SL, a Jaguar E-Type, and a Maserati 3500GT, he bought his first Ferrari, a 250GT. He became a Ferrari enthusiast, eventually owning three. However, he had recurring clutch problems with the car, and eventually brought his complaints to Enzo Ferrari. Ferrari insulted Mr. Lamborghini, effectively stating that a tractor manufacturer was not qualified to criticize his Ferraris. Insulted by Ferrari's reaction, Lamborghini began to repair his clutch himself, at which point he noticed that some of the clutch components were the same as the ones he used on his tractors. Encouraged by the discovery, Ferruccio Lamborghini called upon the talents of Giotto Bizzarrini, Gian Paolo Dallara, Franco Scaglione and Bob Wallace, who worked on what Ferruccio envisioned as his grand tourer to rival Ferrari. The result would eventually become the Lamborghini 350GT and the founding of Lamborghini.

[edit] Bankruptcy, Mimran, and Chrysler

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The 1970s oil crisis plagued sales of high performance cars. In 1978, Lamborghini declared bankruptcy. An Italian court was appointed to find a buyer, and the Swiss-based Mimran brothers took over the company in 1984, after managing the company for four years while it was in receivership. The company remained solvent under Mimran's control, selling the Countach, the Jalpa, and the LM002 during this time.

In a surprise move, the company was bought by the Chrysler Corporation in 1987 with the acquisition being driven by Lee Iacocca, Chrysler's chairman at the time. Lamborghini was then working on the Countach's successor, the Diablo. The basic design of the Diablo was by Marcello Gandini, who designed the Miura and the Countach while at Bertone. The design was further developed by Chrysler, which brought its resources, including design input, pollution controls, and new manufacturing techniques, into this development. Chrysler's experience with the design of mass market vehicles improved areas of practicality and comfort that had been neglected earlier, including noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH), engineering, and ergonomics.^[2]

[edit] Post-Chrysler: Megatech and Audi

In January 1994, poor economic circumstances and the political climate at Chrysler forced them to sell^{[citation needed]} Lamborghini to Megatech, an Indonesian investment group headed by Tommy Suharto, the youngest son of Indonesian President Suharto. A new management team was installed at the company headquarters headed by ex-Lotus Group Chief Executive Mike Kimberley and including ex-McLaren Cars head of sales Nigel Gordon-Stewart, who became International Sales and Marketing Director. Kimberley was, at the time, the only candidate acceptable to Chrysler as the new President of Lamborghini under the Megatech ownership as he was well known to senior Chrysler management from his previous senior roles at Lotus and General Motors.

Under the new management, Lamborghini began a renaissance in the world markets, with a complete revision of its international dealer network and the implementation of highly proactive marketing strategies. Sales increased from 101 in 1993 to 301 in 1994 and 414 in 1995. Large stocks of cars held by the dealers were sold through aggressive marketing programs and new models introduced to create a shortage of product in the market reinforcing the exclusive image and premium value of Lamborghini product.

The Lamborghini Diablo SV (Sport Veloce) was launched in 1995. Inspired by the Lamborghini Miura SV, the Diablo SV featured a more powerful 525 bhp V12 engine featuring variable cam timing technology (MMEC) developed by Lamborghini. The Diablo SV became the best selling version of the Diablo.

The Lamborghini Diablo SVR was also introduced in 1996 and used to compete in the one-make racing series developed by Stephane Rattel and sponsored by Lease Plan.

Megatech sold the company in 1997 as a result of changing circumstances in Indonesia and therefore an inability to fund the future business plan produced by Kimberley's team.

Lamborghini was bought by Audi AG, who had gained interest in the Italian company after being one of several major manufacturers approached as possible technical suppliers for major components for future Lamborghini models. After a complex series of transactions, Audi AG became the sole owner of Automobili Lamborghini.

Lamborghini Showroom display

Lamborghini's latest owner once again greatly influenced the design of its cars, including the Murcielago. Audi's vast technical resources helped produce one of Lamborghini's most sophisticated cars to date.

[edit] Models

Vehicle	Year	Engine	Displacement		Top Speed		Image
			cc	cu in	km/h	mph
350GTV	1963	Lamborghini V12	3,464	211.4	280	170
350GT	1964–1968	Lamborghini V12	3,464	211.4	249	155
400GT 2+2	1966–1968	Lamborghini V12	3,929	239.8	250	160
Miura	1966–1974	Lamborghini V12	3,929	239.8	289.7	180.0
Espada	1968–1978	Lamborghini V12	3,929	239.8	245	152
Islero	1968–1970	Lamborghini V12	3,929	239.8	248	154
Jarama	1970–1978	Lamborghini V12	3,929	239.8	240	150
Urraco	1970–1979	Lamborghini V8	2,463 2,996 1,994	150 180 120	230	140
Countach	1974–1990	Lamborghini V12	3,929 4,754 5,167	240 290 320	305.8	190.0
Silhouette	1976–1977	Lamborghini V8	2,996	182.8	260	160
Jalpa	1982–1990	Lamborghini V8	3,485	212.7	240	150
LM002	1986–1992	Lamborghini V12	5,167	315.3	210	130
Diablo	1990–2001	Lamborghini V12	5,707 5,992	350 370	330	210
Murciélago	2001–	Lamborghini V12	6,192 6,496	380 400	351	218
Gallardo	2003–	Lamborghini V10	4,964	302.9	340	210
Reventón	2008	Lamborghini V12	6,496	396.4	356	221

The current (2009) range consists of the Murciélago LP640, the Murciélago LP640 Roadster and the smaller, less expensive Gallardo LP560-4 and Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder, after production of the Gallardo Superleggera ceased earlier this year. All are high-powered, mid-engined two-seaters. The Murciélago LP640, the Murciélago LP640 Roadster and the Gallardo LP560-4 come with Lamborghini's standard four-wheel drive systems. Their styling is largely the work of Belgian designer Luc Donckerwolke.

The current head of design for Audi and Lamborghini is Wolfgang Egger.

At the 2008 Paris Motor Show, Lamborghini revealed the Estoque Concept, a four-door sedan. There had been much speculation about eventual production of the Estoque,^[7][8] but the management of Lamborghini has since stated that no decision has been made to manufacture the Estoque.^[9]

[edit] Racing models

Ferruccio Lamborghini had set a rule that Lamborghini would not be involved in motor racing. He saw such a program as too expensive and too demanding in company resources.^{[citation needed]} Consequently, no Lamborghini racing car was fabricated under his management. The closest the company came to building racing cars at that time was when the company's test driver Bob Wallace made a few highly modified prototypes based on existing models. Notable among these are the Miura SV based Jota and the Jarama S based Bob Wallace Special.

Under the management of Rosetti, Lamborghini entered into an agreement with BMW to build a production racing car in sufficient quantity for homologation. However, Lamborghini was unable to fulfill its part of the agreement. The car was eventually developed in-house by the BMW Motorsport Division, and was manufactured and sold as the BMW M1.^[10][11]

Lamborghini developed the QVX for the 1986 Group C championship season. One car was built, but lack of sponsorship caused it to miss the season. The QVX competed in only one race, the non-championship 1986 Southern Suns 500 km race at Kyalami in South Africa, driven by Tiff Needell. Despite the car finishing better than it started, sponsorship could not be found and the program was cancelled.^[12]

Lamborghini was an engine supplier in Formula One between the 1989 and 1993 Formula One seasons. It supplied engines to Larrousse (1989-1990,1992-1993), Lotus (1990), Ligier (1991), Minardi (1992), and to a 'Lamborghini' team (1991), although this last was not viewed as a works team by the car company. The 1992 Larrousse–Lamborghini was largely uncompetitive but noteworthy in its tendency to spew oil from its exhaust system. Cars following closely behind the Larrousse were commonly colored yellowish-brown by the end of the race.^{[citation needed]}

Late in 1991, a Lamborghini Formula One motor was used in the Konrad KM-011 Group C sports car, but the car only lasted a few races before the project was canceled. The same engine, badged as a Chrysler, by Lamborghini's then parent company, was tested by McLaren towards the end of the 1993 season, with a view to its use during the 1994 season. Although driver Ayrton Senna was reportedly impressed with the engine's performance, McLaren pulled out of negotiations, choosing a Peugeot engine instead, and Chrysler ended the project.

Two racing versions of the Diablo were built for the Diablo Supertrophy, a single-model racing series held annually from 1996 to 1999. In the first year, the model used in the series was the Diablo SVR, while the Diablo 6.0 GTR was used for the remaining three years.^[13][14]

Lamborghini developed the Murciélago R-GT as a production racing car to compete in the FIA GT Championship, the Super GT Championship and the American Le Mans Series in 2004. Their highest placing in any race that year was the opening round of the FIA GT Championship at Valencia, where the car entered by Reiter Engineering finished third from a fifth-place start.^[15][16] In 2006 during the opening round of the Super GT championship at Suzuka, a car run by the Japan Lamborghini Owners Club garnered the first victory (in class) by an R-GT.

A GT3 version of the Gallardo has been developed by Reiter Engineering.^[17]

A Murciélago R-GT entered by All-Inkl.com racing, driven by Christophe Bouchut and Stefan Mücke, won the opening round of the FIA GT Championship held at Zhuhai International Circuit, achieving the first major international race victory for Lamborghini.^[18]

[edit] Marine engines

Lamborghini has for some years produced a larger V12 marine engine block for use in powerboat racing, notably the World Offshore Series Class 1. This engine is produced with a displacement of around 8,171 cc (499 cu in) with an output of around 940 hp (700 kW).^[19]

[edit] Ownership

Lamborghini has had a number of owners:

• Ferruccio Lamborghini 1963–1972
• Georges-Henri Rossetti and René Leimer 1972–1977
• bankrupt 1977–1984
  • managed by Patrick Mimran 1980–1984
• Patrick Mimran 1984–1987
• Chrysler Corporation 1987–1994
• Megatech 1994–1995 (Permission granted for the creation of Automóviles Lamborghini Latinoamérica)
• V'Power, Mycom 1995–1998
• Audi AG 1998-present

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Companies portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lamborghini

• Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.
• Automóviles Lamborghini Latinoamérica

v • d • e « previous — Lamborghini car timeline, 1980s–2000s – marque of the Volkswagen Group
Type		1980s										1990s										2000s
		0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Owner		receivership				Mimram				Chrysler							M'tec / V'Power				Audi AG
Mid- engine	V8/V10			Jalpa																						Gallardo
	V12	Countach										Diablo												Murciélago
																														Reventón
SUV								LM002
Founder: Ferruccio Lamborghini • Lamborghini corporate website • A marque of the Volkswagen Group