The
name is instantly recognizable, and the cars stand out in any setting.
Lamborghini is one of the world’s best-known supercar brands, known for its
extremely precise manufacturing methods and ultra-limited production runs. The
brand is synonymous with luxury and high performance — and for costing a lot of
money. The most recent model, the Lamborghini Sian, retails for more than $3.5
million.
Lamborghini
is one of the brands car enthusiasts should familiarize themselves with.
Appreciating Lamborghini is essential if you want to fully understand the past
and present of supercar design and manufacture.
This
is your ultimate guide to Lamborghini — where the brand began, where it’s going
and what it takes to keep a one running.
The History
of Lamborghini
Lamborghini
first came on the scene in the early 1960s, with the launch of the prototype
Lamborghini 350 GT.
The
entire story, however, starts with Ferruccio Lamborghini, the son of Italian
winemakers who first began tinkering with machinery on his parents’ vineyard in
northern Italy. After returning from service as a mechanic in the Second World
War, Ferruccio opened a repair shop of his own, but the business was
short-lived. After an accident in a custom-built race car, Ferruccio was put
off by the idea of working with cars. Instead, he looked back to his childhood
of tinkering with farm equipment for business inspiration.
At
the time, much of the Italian economy continued to rely on prewar surplus. The
country needed agricultural and industrial revitalization in the form of new
machinery — especially farm equipment, like tractors. Ferruccio’s new business,
Lamborghini Trattori — the first company to bear Lamborghini’s name — became
massively successful. It sold new, high-quality tractors to Italian farmers who
had been relying on obsolete equipment.
By
the early 1960s, Ferruccio was a wealthy businessman. Despite the years that
had passed since his time as a mechanic, he had retained his enthusiasm for
cars.
In
1963, inspired after purchasing a small fleet of sports cars and thinking that
he could do better, Ferruccio returned to auto design.
In
just four months, Ferruccio built his first sports car, the prototype 350
GTV, which
would go on to debut at the 1963 Turin Motor show. Ferruccio would later rework
the prototype into the 350 GT, the first Lamborghini to go to market. The 350
GT was so successful that it alone ensured Lamborghini’s early survival in the
competitive Italian luxury car market.
The
350 GT was the first of several successes for the newly minted Lamborghini
Automobili. Ferruccio quickly surrounded himself with some of Italy’s most
talented designers and mechanics. This included Marcello Gandini, who would go
on to design some of the most distinctive Lamborghinis of the 20th century,
including the Miura, Countach and Diablo.
Despite
Ferruccio’s early successes and business acumen, falling sales numbers — partly
a result of the 1973 oil crisis, which cratered the demand for luxury vehicles
— led him to plan his departure from Lamborghini. By 1974, Ferruccio had sold
off his entire stake in the company, and had retired to an estate in central
Italy. While he was out of the company, his name would live on. Lamborghini
would continue to follow his practice of precisely manufacturing just a small
number of each model the company designed.
Big
risks and successes, like the
Lamborghini SUV LM002, carried the brand through the end of the 20th century and into the
early 2000s. That’s when the company debuted some of its best-known cars, like
the Lamborghini Diablo, Murciélago and Gallardo.
The Brand
Today
Lamborghini
remains a name associated with luxury and high quality, and the company
continues to produce some of the highest-performing luxury vehicles on the
market today.
Currently,
there are three Lamborghini models in production — the Aventador and Huracán,
which replaced the Murciélago and Gallardo, respectively, and the
Urus, the company’s second SUV.
These
three cars are some of the most advanced developed by Lamborghini and feature
some extremely powerful hardware. The Aventador SVJ sports a 6.5-liter,
12-cylinder engine, which generates more than 750 horsepower and more than 530
pound-feet of torque. In 2018, driver Marco Mapelli used that engine to
set a new lap record at
the Nürburgring, making the Aventador the fastest ever around the Nordschleife.
The
cheapest of the trio, the Urus, starts at around $200,000. The most expensive,
the Aventador, starts at more than twice that — a little more than $450,000.
While
these cars haven’t outsold their predecessors yet, the
Aventador, Huracán and Urus are some of the most popular
Lamborghinis. We don’t know the exact number that have been sold, but the
company did celebrate the manufacture of the 11,000th Huracán
and the 8,000th Aventador in mid-2018. None of the three cars are out of production yet, so
there’s no telling how high the total number of vehicles produced will be by
the time they’re retired.
In
2019, Lamborghini debuted the company’s
first hybrid vehicle, the Lamborghini Sián. Production was limited to 63 units — to honor
Lamborghini’s founding year — all of which were already sold by the time it was
unveiled. The Sián uses an electrified version of the 6.5-liter V-12 engine in
the Aventador. The Sian’s engine delivers more than 800 horsepower, making
it the most powerful Lamborghini in the company’s lineup to date.
Maintaining
a Lamborghini
With
the amount of money you’d have to spend on your Lamborghini, you probably want
to keep it in the best shape possible. Maintaining a Lamborghini isn’t quite
like maintaining an average car — there are special precautions you have to
keep in mind. Here’s what it takes to keep a Lamborghini running in top
condition.
While
a modern Lamborghini’s parts are based on Audi designs — typically easy to
source and not too expensive — the specialized pieces in any
Lamborghini are custom-built and may need to be specially ordered. You can’t go
to just any mechanic for a repair, and if you need a part replaced, it’ll cost
you. With Lamborghinis, it’s normal for a transmission replacement to cost as
much as $50,000.
Also,
pretty much nothing about Lamborghini maintenance is simple — not even changing
the oil —
so you can expect to pay a premium for the little things, too, if you don’t
want to do them yourself.
For
these reasons, it’s also a good idea to get your car checked by an independent
mechanic before bringing it in for repairs. You might think you know what’s
causing a problem — but with how expensive these repairs can be, it’s a good
idea to be sure what’s wrong with your Lamborghini and only repair or replace
what needs to be fixed.
You’ll
want to make sure you’re using the best oil possible for your Lamborghini. For
newer models, the company recommends synthetic oils like Castrol Edge. Choosing
the right oil, along with the proper oil additives, will be necessary if you
want to reduce maintenance costs and keep your Lamborghini running
for as long as possible.
Also,
once you find a combination of oil, filters and additives that work well, you
should probably stock up. Any high-performance luxury car — and Lamborghinis
especially — will burn through their consumables fast. If you plan on changing
your Lamborghini’s oil and filters yourself, you should plan on having plenty
in storage.
The Ins and
Outs of Lamborghini
Even
after being in business for more than 60 years, Lamborghini continues to
consistently design and manufacture some of the most-sought supercars in the
world. The latest Lamborghinis are more popular than ever, and are on track to
beat the company’s previous production records. At the same time, the brand
continues to push the envelope and develop cars that are more advanced and more
powerful than anything else on the market.
Lamborghini
has even experimented with electric vehicles — a sign it may be preparing to
bring an EV of its own into full production.
If you
have a few hundred thousand dollars lying around, you can have a Lamborghini of
your own — if you’re ready for the maintenance that comes with ultra-high
performance.
