Born into a family of grape farmers, Ferruccio Lamborghini was far more interested in mechanics than cultivating crops. After a stint in the Italian Air Force during World War II, he melded his passion with that of his family’s business when he started building tractors for working the fields. Lamborghini’s innovations were a smashing success and he was soon wealthy enough to afford the pinnacle of automotive engineering: a Ferrari. But he quickly found issues with the vehicle that he wanted to address with il Commendatore himself, Enzo Ferrari. In 1962, Lamborghini drove to the factory in Maranello and told Ferrari that his clutch wasn’t quite right. Ferrari’s rumored rebuke? Somewhere along the lines of: “The car is fine. You just don’t know how to drive it.” Incensed, Lamborghini vowed to make a perfect car, far better than anything from Ferrari. A year later, Automobili Lamborghini was founded in Sant’Agata Bolognese. What emerged from that assembly line would..
