All Things You Need To Know About The Bad Blood Between Ferrari And Lamborghini

For every car manufacturer, there is bound to be some rivalry among them in terms of sales and market shares, However, one rivalry is indeed so incredible and impactful that it lead to the birth of one luxury sports car maker, and it still goes on until today. That legendary feud is between two Italian top car makers: Ferrari and Lamborghini.

Though most of the feud between them is plainly a battle of big egos, it is hard to even imagine what the landscape of supercars would be like now if the clash had not existed in the first place; it is doubted that there would be as many beautiful edgy sports cars with powerful performances as today. All in all, we have to thank their egotistical minds and their relentless frenemy relationship for the engineering and design masterpieces badged Ferrari or Lamborghini.

1. Ferruccio Lamborghini: Born to be a farmer, destined to be a mechanic

Ferruccio Lamborghini was born in a family of a grape farmer in Renazzo, Italy. Nonetheless, his passion did not lie there. So, he did everything that involved working with machinery and avoided living the life of a farmer. After serving in the Italian Air Force for a while during the Second World War, he returned home and started his lucrative passion-fueled business of turning war machines into agricultural machines like tractors. Success would be an understatement to his business; it was booming.

And like most people who gained a certain level of fame and fortune, Ferruccio Lamborghini indulged himself in luxury cars. His massive collection ranged from Alfa Romeo and Lancia to Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, and Maserati. Not coincidentally, one of his prized possession was a brand spanking new Ferrari that he got in 1958. Ferrari was even synonymous with high-performing sports car back then, so the prosperous businessman, Ferruccio Lamborghini, owning one was no big deal. But that was the beginning of the problem.

Ferruccio Lamborghini did not accept his fate to be a grape farmer and started his own mobile mechanic business

2. The exchange that changed everything

As a meticulous mechanic, Ferruccio Lamborghini started to realise everything that was wrong about his cars. He said that his Maserati cars (yes, he had more than one), despite how he respected the owner Adolfo Orsi’s humble beginning, was too heavy and too slow. Ferruccio was particularly was dissatisfied with his Ferrari. The man felt that the clutch was fragile and the engine was too noisy and rough to be proper road cars. He even claimed that his Ferrari was a repurposed track car with poorly built interiors. We do not know for sure how Ferruccio Lamborghini handled his Ferrari or what his driving habits were, but it was said that he had to take his Ferrari to Maranello to get it fixed quite often. To add to Ferruccio’s mountain of discontentment, the mechanics at Ferrari’s shop took the car away from his sight for several hours to repair it, and that was something that Ferruccio considered substandard after-sales service.

Ferruccio Lamborghini took the problems surrounding his car to Enzo Ferrari’s attention, and Enzo, being a notoriously pride-filled man he was, dismissed Ferruccio’s opinions. The owner of Ferrari said that there was nothing wrong with the car, and the issue lied with the owner who drove it. He even added to that, telling Ferruccio Lamborghini to stick to working with tractors since he knew nothing about cars. Of course, to such an insult, the no-less pride-filled Ferruccio was infuriated. He began devising a complicated plan to avenge Ferrari.

Ferruccio spoke to Enzo Ferrari about what he thought was wrong with his Ferrari car and Enzo dismissed everything

3. The birth of Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini

Ferruccio’s first step was to modify one of his personally-owned Ferrari 250GTs to outperform stock models and he succeeded with flying colours. After that he invested all the money he got from his tractor business in establishing a supercar business. In May 1963, Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini was officially founded. Five months later, in October, the first ever Lamborghini car, the 350 GTV was released at the Turin Motor Show. Before the 1960s ended, Ferruccio Lamborghini became so successful that his wealth was comparable to Enzo Ferrari’s, which many people thought was impossible prior to that.

As a reply to Enzo Ferrari’s insult, Ferruccio Lamborghini started his own sports car company and made a fortune out of it

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