oRiGin Of LamBorgHiniAutomobili Lamborghini was founded by Ferruccio Lamborghini, the child of viticulturists from the comune (township) of Renazzo di Cento, Province of Ferrara, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. After serving as a mechanic in the Regia Aeronautica, during World War II, Lamborghini went into business building tractors out of leftover military hardware from the war effort. By the mid-1950s, Lamborghini's tractor company, Lamborghini Trattori S.p.A.,[7] had become one of the largest agricultural equipment manufacturers in the country.[8] He was also the owner of a successful gas heater and air conditioning manufacturer.[5][8][9]

Lamborghini's wealth allowed him to cultivate a childhood interest in cars, owning a number of luxury automobiles including Alfa Romeos, Lancias, Maseratis, and a Mercedes Benz.[9] He purchased his first Ferrari, a 250GT, in 1958, and went on to own several more. Lamborghini was fond of the Ferraris, but considered them too noisy and rough to be proper road cars, likening them to

repurposed track cars.[9] Lamborghini decided to pursue an automobile manufacturing venture, with the goal of bringing to life his vision of a perfect grand tourer.

EarLy 1960'S

Prior to founding his company, Lamborghini had commissioned the engineering firm Società Autostar to design a V12 engine for use in his new cars. Lamborghini wanted the engine to have a similar displacement to Ferrari's 3-litre V12; however, he wanted the engine to be designed purely for road use, in contrast to the modified racing engines used by Ferrari in its road cars. Autostar was led by Giotto Bizzarrini, a member of the "Gang of Five" of Ferrari engineers, who had been responsible for creating the famous Ferrari 250 GTO, but left the company in 1961 after founder Enzo Ferrari announced his intention to reorganize the engineering staff.[12] The engine Bizzarrini designed for Lamborghini had a displacement of 3.5 litres, a 9.5:1 compression ratio, and a maximum output of 360 bhp at 9800 rpm.[13] Lamborghini was displeased with the engine's high revolutions and dry-sump lubrication system, both characteristic of the racing engines he specifically did not wish to use; when Bizzarrini refused to change the engine's design to make it more "well-mannered", Lamborghini refused to pay the agreed-upon fee of 4.5 million Italian lire (plus a bonus for every unit of brake horsepower the engine could produce over the equivalent Ferrari engine).[13][14] Lamborghini did not fully compensate the designer until ordered to do so by the courts.[14]

The chassis design for the first Lamborghini car was created by famed Italian chassis engineer Gian Paolo Dallara.[14] Drawing on his experience working for Ferrari and Maserati, he assembled a team that included recent college graduate Paolo Stanzani and New Zealander Bob Wallace, who had previously been employed at Maserati, and was known for his keen sense of chassis handling and excellent feedback and developmental skills.[14][15] Lamborghini hired then-relatively unknown designer Franco Scaglione to style the car's body, after turning down highly regarded names like Vignale, Ghia, Bertone, and Pininfarina.