The company was a spin-off from the very successful tractor maker, Lamborghini Trattori S.p.A.. Its owner Ferruccio Lamborghini[?] (1916-1993) was an enthusiastic owner of sports cars, including a Ferrari. The standard tale goes that he took this car back to the Ferrari factory when its clutch failed. Enzo Ferrari refused to meet him. So - after fixing the clutch with surprising ease - he decided to go into business building his own exotic sports cars.
Featuring bodies designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro[?] and Marcello Gandini[?], Lamborghini's products are amongst the most expensive, and also most powerful, road-going vehicles made.
Lamborghini's products included the Miura[?] (1966), Countach[?] (1974), Jalpa[?] (1981), and Diablo (1990) as well as the LM002[?] (1986) off-road vehicle of which Road and Track magazine said, "With the 5.2 liter V-12, the LM002 can pass anything on the road - except a gas station".
The current (2003) range consists of the flagship Murcielago and the smaller, cheaper Gallardo[?]. Both are very fast, mid-engined 2-seaters with four-wheel-drive[?] as standard. Styling for both cars is largely the work of Belgian designer Luc Donckerwolcke[?].
Lamborghini has had a number of owners, as shown in this simplified list:
See also: List of Italian companies
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