This sentence was seen in a discussion thread on the Internet, so the title of this article should be put in double quotation marks.
Is it really because Limberghini doesn't play much motorsports because he is poor?
Or for many veteran fans, this question is really not a problem, because many people are well versed in the history of the brand and know the reasons for not participating in racing. For the vast majority of people in China, they only know that this brand of cars is very expensive, very domineering, and very "supercar", and they almost don't know how this brand came about, so they may come to a conclusion that it is because of "poverty".
Picture: After chatting with many local aftermarket practitioners in Italy, the general impression of the brand and model of lamborghini is that "it can run fast", and there are more small surprises after the acquisition of Audi, that is, the reliability has improved, and the sports car can be driven every day, nothing more.
To answer this question, we must look at it from a historical perspective, and we must not use such a one-sided way of thinking as "after Audi became the master", but it is precisely this idea of "pushing the past from the present" is the most loved and most infallible narrative method by domestic self-leading text editors. Chinese people's cognition of the history of automobile development is very one-sided, even ignorant, because the vast majority of people do not use the wheel of historical development to learn Xi cognitive things, often only one-sided pursuit of the present and the interest groups behind the present, etc., so there are a large number of questions about the brand, the starting point is "now", the context is "today", and finally come to an answer that is completely in line with the current state.
Pictured: The reason why Audi acquired Limbo is actually very simple, because Audi would not have built a mid-engine sports car before this, please note that the concept car and the production car are two completely different concepts. The acquisition of Limbo to acquire the relevant technology is also a means to enhance the form of the brand. As for why Audi came forward to buy it, instead of Volkswagen? The reason is also very simple, that is, Volkswagen is born in the manufacture of civilian production cars, and its brand tonality has already been implemented, if suddenly Volkswagen builds a sports car through Limble's technology, do you expect customers to buy Passat, or customers who buy Beetles to buy it? Therefore, Audi, which mainly manufactures mid-to-high-end models, is the best candidate.
The car brand Lamborghini, if it is placed in the *** of the big names, is at best a fourth-tier or even a fifth-tier brand in terms of comprehensive strength. See clearly, don't be in a hurry to spray, the word used here is "comprehensive strength", not to divide the goods sold**, in the same way, even if it is replaced by Rolls-Royce, which is a super first-line brand in the minds of domestic car owners, in our standards, it is probably a third gear, this is still because it is backed by this technical strength of BMW AG to have such a status, if it is still with Bentley dependent on the era, it is estimated that even the fourth line is not enough, the reason is very simple, holding 6Is the 75L's V8 not letting go, changing it again and again, because it adheres to tradition? In fact, the strength of the first is not judged by the first commodity sold, on the contrary, the main reason for selling expensive is because of "less" rather than "what brand", the reason for less is because of the low sales volume caused by product positioning, low sales lead to low production capacity, low production capacity leads to high procurement costs, and the superposition of all kinds of high costs has led to more expensive, more expensive and further narrowed the consumer group. But brands have also entered a vicious cycle of cost versus sales. Handmade is a selling point in publicity, but in a business, it is a kind of helplessness and necessity.
Figure: Taking 10,000 steps back, the reason why Lin Bao will launch a specific limited edition model is more due to the consideration of production costs, the sales of the mass production version are insufficient, and it is difficult to maintain the operation of the production line. And Lin Bao is even worse, there is no racing results as an endorsement, can only not rely on limited editions, special editions to make a living, as for the follow-up owners will use these cars to "speculate" that is a matter of the aftermarket, the problem to be solved by car companies is survival.
Since its founding on May 7, 1963, Lamborghini has never considered following the path of Ferrari's founder.
How do you understand this? The Ferrari at that time was not the Ferrari that Fiat has painstakingly operated for more than 30 years. At that time, Ferrari was not able to develop its road car business properly and strategically because the whole company revolved around the racing team. It's easy to understand this history: Ferrari itself is only responsible for the development of the chassis and engine production, the body is outsourced, and the key is that the engine of the road car is also modified by a group of racing engineers to modify the developed racing engine and racing chassis for street car use, the performance parameters are very strong, but the reliability is questionable. Moreover, Ferrari is not as good at marketing and business as its father Alfa Romeo, a car like the 250 GTO, in Enzo's eyes, is just a very good race car, as for selling the street to make money? We can't even satisfy the private fleet, and sell it to private travelers? If you put it in the 1950s and 1960s Ferrari, there is no such thing at all, at that time, the FIA stipulated that the cars were to be licensed, and the customers were not allowed to run Liman for 24 hours after the license was completed? What international jokes?
In the same month of the same year that Lamborghini was founded, Enzo Ferrari negotiated with the Ford team led by Lee Iacocca to sell the Ferrari brand to Ford and retain only the management of the team, but this condition was obviously not what Ford wanted, and the negotiations broke down, that is, the later GT40, on the one hand, in the racing circle and ** Ferrari team, at this time Ferrari has been difficult to withstand such political difficulties, but also plans to return the sports license to the country after the end of the 1964 season, quit racing (in 1964, the last F1 Ferrari has painted itself white to show **) is the so-called willow and bright village, the following year in 1965, Ferrari got the help of FIAT president-designate Giovanni Agnelli, and stood up strongly for Ferrari, which can be regarded as forcing Ford back, and only then did Ferrari become a member of the Fiat Group. This event is a major event that shook the entire Italian car industry, as a successful businessman Ferruccio Lamborghini (Ferruccio Lamborghini) of course saw it clearly, and then the entire Lamborghini product direction can be seen that there is no racing background at all car companies, a tractor just wants to increase a business, make more money, want to enhance the popularity of this road? It's better to avoid this troubled water. You know, Enzo Ferrari, who has been ostracized in various ways, is still a veteran of the circle who has been famous since before World War II. As the saying goes, people are self-aware.
Photo: Automobili Lamborghini Sp.a.Founder: Ferruccio Lamborghini (Ferruccio Lamborghini, 1916).4.28-1993.2.20）。
The social role of the founder, Ferruccio Lamborghini, was a successful businessman and a successful businessman created by the times, whose life trajectory and fortune were completely different from those of Enzo Ferrari, who was much older and more experienced in the automotive world, and was born in 1916 when Enzo was already working as an instructor in the fire brigade of Modena. After the Second World War, Ferruccio was responsible for the maintenance of machinery in the army, and the opportunity to rebuild after the Second World War, so he began to establish the portal repair and production of tractors in 1948, and quickly became the most important tractor manufacturer in Italy, and at the end of the 50s, he added building heating equipment and air conditioning products, which was also successful, so it can be seen that Ferruccio's commercial success is largely due to the times. The success of his career, Ferruccio's wealth made him a car player, and he took a number of high-end sports cars on the market at that time, such as the Mercedes 300 SL, Jaguar E-Type and Martha 3500 GT, etc., but careful car lovers will find that the models he likes and buys are basically the new generation models after World War II, just like many young rich people today like "that kind of sports car that can be seen but not run". In the 1960s, he could be classified as a "new generation of gamers", or rather, he was only interested in high-end sports cars and had no interest in racing.
It is often said that it is a legend".The criticism and disdain between Ferruccio and Enzo prompted Ferruccio to found the Lamborghini automobile companyI think it's more like a fabrication or distortion of history to put gold on Limburghini's face. First of all, Ferruccio and Enzo have known each other for many years before 1963, especially after Ferrari launched its first road car 250 series in 1952, and officially opened it to ordinary consumers in 1954. But each model is a few dozen units, more than 100 or 200 vehicles, the customer base is not large, plus they have always maintained the tradition of customers to hand over new cars to the factory by themselves, in other words, in theory, Enzo knows the vast majority of 250 car owners. Ferruccio has owned three Ferrari 250s, a regular 250 GT, a Scaglietti 250 Berlinetta SWB, and a Pininifarina 250 GT E. But even if the two have known each other for a long time, in the atmosphere of business, Ferruccio, who was born as a businessman, will not be as "guilty of the following" as the legend says, which is the most basic etiquette in the business field, not to mention that Enzo is a celebrity in the Italian racing industry. Later, it was discovered that this legend was originally from the words of a junior test driver Valentino Balboni, who was a god in the domestic Lamborghini fan circle, but sorry, he was actually just a junior who joined the car factory on April 21, 1968, and his job was to work for Bob Wallace (Bob Wallace), until 1975, when Ferruccio and Wallace both left the company, took over as chief test driver. To put it mildly, how can this gentleman be qualified to explain the origin story of Lamborghini before the establishment of the factory as an eyewitness? At least at the beginning of Lamborghini's factory, when the Four Heavenly Kings were still around, he was not even a small follower.
Pictured: This is Valentino Balboni, the chief test driver of Limbo who is known as the "Lamborghini and Ferrari" story. If you only know this person after Lamborghini entered China, then it is true that what he said can be believed as "a word and a word"; But if you already know the history of the brand and what has happened, then excuse me? What was Barboni in the founder's time? It's just a low-level employee, how can he tell the founder the reason for starting a business?
Quoting Ferruccio Lamborghini's own interview after leaving office: He was indeed not too satisfied with the sports cars he owned at that time, for example, he would think that Maserati's 3500 GT was too heavy, that Alfa and Lancia were too small and slow, etc., during which he owned three Ferrari 250 sports cars and drove them most often, so he did have some opinions about some shortcomings of this car. In other words, if you feel that the car you drive every day is inadequate here and wrong, isn't it a very normal thing? The main reason why he decided to build his own car was that the clutch of his 250 GT was often broken, and there was no 4S shop at the time, so every repair had to be towed from the Cento to the Ferrari factory in Modena, which was very time-consuming. So I tried to find an experienced car mechanic in the local area to help change the clutch, when it was removed and found that the clutch of its own tractor was the product of the same company, so back and forth, I found that as long as I could find the right automotive engineers, designers and mechanics, it was not a dream to build a sports car by myself, so I had the idea of developing and manufacturing a car by myself, and this idea sprouted around 1959, but in the same year, the idea of building his own helicopter and so on, if according to the domestic ** According to the editor, could it be that Ferruccio was again "offended by the owner of the aircraft factory?" "That's why I wanted to build a helicopter.
As a successful businessman, isn't it a child who listens to the stories of the Arabian Nights, and takes real money to build a factory and build a car just to gamble on the anger of an old-timer? Is it the naivety of the people who made up this story, or is it that some PR people treat the Chinese as fools? Take your own seat, but sadly, as long as you go to the Internet to search, all the copywriting and ** rhetoric that mention the history of Lamborghini all take this story as the beginning, is this car **, self-** circle want to be famous, want to be crazy about money?
If you really want to understand the development history of Lamborghini, these four kings are inescapable, without them, even if Ferruccio Lamborghini is ambitious and rich, this car company will not survive today. Responsible for the development of the chassis isGian Paolo DallaraHe started his career at Ferrari in 1959, then at Maserati and in 1963 at Lamborghini, where he worked on the chassis of the 350 GT and Miura. Responsible for the engine is:Giotto BizzarriniHe joined Afast Romeo in 1954 and Ferrari in 1957, and after a labor conflict, he left Ferrari in 1961 with Carlo Chiti and founded ATS Spa, during which time he developed the 35L-V12 engine. Bob Wallace, was Lamborghini's first test driver, the New Zealand engineer who first joined Lotus after moving to England and later joined the Italian Serenissima racing team, which used Ferrari merchandise cars such as the 250 GTO, became chief mechanic of Phil Hill in 1960 and assisted Hill in his championship; In 1963, he received two offers, one for Scuderia Ferrari and the other for a new company, which he chose to become factory director of Lamborghini, and because during the development of the 350 GT, he demonstrated his expertise in the coordination of mechanics and handling performance, and became the chief test driver, tasked with solving the mechanical problems and adjusting the handling characteristics of the prototype car. The last one to choose is either Ferruccio, the owner of the depot, or the other is yesMarcello GandiniBecause: until Diablo, all Lamborghini was written by him, and it is important to know that the car designers of that time were different from those of today, who were supported by car companies, and the older generation of masters not only could draw, but even taught you how to make and hammer out the body trim.
Pictured: This is Giotto Bizzarrini, Limbau's engine expert at the time6.6-2023.5.13),* Taken in 1964, Giotto was working in Bizzarrni, his own automobile manufacturing company.
Pictured: This is Bob Wallace (Bob Wallace), this ** has been briefly mentioned in many articles about Lamborghini, but sorry, this ** does not belong to Limble, Wallace is working on the Maserati Tipo 61, ** taken in 1960, when Wallace was still serving in Camoradi USA.
Pictured: This is Gian Paolo Dallara, a well-known Italian expert in the manufacture of chassis for cars and racing cars.
Photo: Marcello Gandini (1938).8.26-), a designer from a well-known Italian coachmaker, was responsible for the body design of the Limbo sports car until the Diablo project design was rejected by Chrysler.
Until 1972, when Ferruccio Lamborghini sold the majority of the company's shares to the Swiss industrialist Georges-Henri Rossetti, all of Lamborghini's cars were forbidden to be tested on the track and not used in racing cars. The reason has already been mentioned above, because Ferruccio knows very well that what he wants to do is only to produce some GT-class sports cars, and the product is to pursue comfort, luxury, and reliability, rather than a dual-purpose sports car like the Ferrari 250 or the follow-up, and he knows that with his background or technical prowess, once he pushes his own products to the track, he will fall into another river and lake and even incur a catastrophe. It can be seen that Ferruccio is a very shrewd and rational businessman. His products and Ferrari have always maintained a certain dislocation and competition, and even today, Lamborghini's product positioning still maintains this ancestral motto, so the saying that Ferrari and Lamborghini are rivals is a kind of ignorance of the brand and history. Or in the eyes of Fiat later, Lamborghini was even a car company that was not even as good as Maserati or Porsche, otherwise, it would not have become the only Italian car brand that could slip away from Fiat's fingers.
Figure: Those who really understand the car and the history of automobile development will not regard these two as opponents, because they are people on two roads, from birth to change, from change to change of hands, all the way, are not on the same road.
This brand positioning and product development idea is vividly manifested in Bob Wallace's career, as an F1 mechanic who has served Ferrari, he has an orthodox understanding of racing cars and sports cars, so in the early years of the development of the 350 GT test project, he will deliberately and unreportedly drive the car to the Mille Miglia race route, Misano circuit and other well-known Italian racing routes for up to 100,000 kilometers of testing, and with strong financial support, He had the most advanced automotive testing instruments at his disposal. This enabled Lamborghini's first series production car to reach a high level of performance and reliability, paving the way for the brand's subsequent development. You must know that the life and death of many mosquito car companies in history are often on the "first car", and if it is good, it will continue to develop, and if it is bad, it will go out of business, and there are many such history lessons.
Pictured: The 350GTV, a prototype of the 350GT sports car in small series production, was first shown at the Turin Motor Show in October 1963 and received critical acclaim.
In 1964, the Limble 350GT, redesigned by the Touring Superleggera (Turin bodybuilder), was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show and was as well received by fans as the previous prototype 350GTV. Although the 350GT soon received orders and began production, because Ferruccio insisted on maintaining a certain competitiveness between the cars sold by his brand and Ferrari's civilian cars, this Limbao 350GT, which produced a total of 120 units, sold one at a loss. If it weren't for the tractor factory that made money later, I believe it would be difficult for the founder to survive.
Picture: Although the emergence of the 350GT has put Lin Bao in a situation of selling one and losing one, its appearance has also laid a good foundation for Lin Bao to launch a new GT sports car.
In 1965, after having a certain amount of experience in car building, three of the four kings of Lin Bao once gathered together in their spare time to develop a sports car that could also run on the road in reference to the RMR layout that was popular in racing at the time. In view of the success of the 350GT, the trio hoped that Ferruccio would not be too expensive to build a civilian sports car with track attributes (selling points), because at that time, all kinds of racing cars began to be popular with the rear mid-engine drive layout (RMR), and France's Rene Bonnet had already launched the first civilian mid-engine sports car, the DJET, which quickly became the trend vane of the era. Ferruccio was still very open-minded when it came to trends, especially after seeing the actual car, and he knew that "this car should be easy to sell", so he allowed this sports car, which was internally codenamed P400, to be built according to the commercial idea of the concept car. But Ferruccio also made it clear that the concept car was just a potential marketing tool, at least that's what Ferruccio himself thought. Just a few days before the start of the 1966 Geneva Motor Show, the P400 body was successfully completed by Marcello Gandini, a designer under the famous Italian coach manufacturer Bertone. But unexpectedly, the cross-mid-mounted V12-engined, rear-wheel drive layout was so popular at the Geneva Motor Show that Ferruccio was "forced" to agree to start production of the car, which was later named Miura. At the Geneva Motor Show in the same year, the 400GT, a 2+2 sports car, was also unveiled, and as an "extended version" of the 350GT, the 400GT was also very popular.
Pictured: The chassis of the P400 prototype from 1965 can be seen with a transverse mid-engine layout. But please note to those bloggers who put gold on Lamborghini's face every day, it is neither the first MR layout sports car, nor the first supercar after World War II, nor does it have any racing results, and even the first booth is borrowed from Bertone's booth, how can it be called an "epoch-making supercar"?
Picture: It is undeniable that if the Miura is indeed beautiful and classic based on its appearance alone, it is also true that in terms of performance, it is almost useless except for the fast straight, otherwise the Jota secretly made by Wallace would not have ended up with no bones. There are two sides to everything, and cars are no exception, and cars should be loved rationally and knowingly, even if they are beautiful and ugly, they should learn to tolerate love.
Photo: Limbo Miura SV (P400) with the logo of the BERTONE body building company printed on the B-pillar of the vehicle.
Although Limbao's 400GT and Miura are still a bit successful in terms of sales, the company is also doing quite well under the leadership of Ferruccio. But as a chassis engineer who had spent time in Scuderia Ferrari, Gian Paolo Dallara, who had been in the racing arena, was tired of Ferruccio's constant refusal or fear of participating in motorsport, and felt that it was too "wretched". So he hit it off with De Tomaso, who is also an Italian GT car manufacturer but active in motorsport, and he competed in F1 as a chassis manufacturer. From 1969 onwards, de Tomaso's F1 racing chassis were mainly supplied to the Frank Williams F1 Team (Frank Williams).
Pictured: This is the De Tomaso 505 F1 Cosworth for the Frank Williams F1 Team in 1970.
Even after the departure of chassis guru Gian Paolo Dallara, Ferruccio had no intention of racing, and said that he was satisfied with having a GT car that could compete with Ferrari's road cars in the same class, or even surpass Ferrari, so he did not need to waste money and time on motorsports.
Pictured: Ferruccio Lamborghini's view of his sports car brand as a business is not as attractive as Enzo Ferrari's ideals and ambitions, or even as his wine business.
After reading this, I believe that everyone has not appeared in the arena much because of why Lin Bao has not appeared on the field, right? In the end, it was not that there were no technical or financial problems, but that the founder Ferruccio Lamborghini had the will of the founder: to concentrate on building GT sports cars, and not to do anything else. Lamborghini, who has experienced a number of car companies, still takes this as his family motto, even if he really sees Lamborghini's car racing in some years of events, these are basically the behavior of private teams, and we have never heard of the "lamborghini factory team". Seeing this, do you still think Limbo is a brand that can compete with Ferrari? But please respect the history of each brand and their respective ancestral teachings, or you can understand how the car developed, or you can understand why this car company is what it is today.