Ferruccio Elio Arturo Lamborghini
The father of Automobili Lamborghini was born into a farming family in Renazzo, a small village near Bologna, on 28th April 1916. Ferruccio always had a love for state-of-the-art technology and mechanics, and attended technical studies in Bologna. He served as a mechanic during World War II and started shortly thereafter a tractor factory, which made him a wealthy man. He bought and drove several top-end sports cars and was generally satisfied with them, especially so with his Ferraris. However, the Ferraris' clutches could not handle the power of the engine and Ferruccio had them fixed several times without any improvement. Finally, he decided to confront Enzo Ferrari with this weakness. Upon hearing Lamborghini's complaint, Ferrari uttered the legendary words that triggered the founding of Automobili Lamborghini: "You know how to drive a tractor, but you will never learn to drive a Ferrari!" Ferruccio then vowed to make his own car - a real car!
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. was founded on 7th May 1963. Business went even better than Ferruccio's expectations, and Lamborghini became a strong name in the sports car world. In the late 1960's, Ferruccio employed somewhere around 4500 persons. However, just a few years later, in 1972, he had to sell 51 percent of Automobili Lamborghini due to the economical problems he experienced as a result of the oil embargo and the general world recession. Two years later, he sold his remaining shares and left the factory for good.
Ferruccio moved to the estate La Fiorita by Lake Trasimeno in Umbria, where he created a wineyard from nothing. He entered the wine industry, producing the wine "Sangue di Miura" ("Blood of the Bull"). His mind flourished again, and he constructed a golf course, a suiting hydraulically powered golf caddy and built himself a car museum. When he was asked which car he liked the most, he would always answer "Miura". Ferruccio Lamborghini died 20th February 1993 at the age of 76.