Almost every car enthusiast has dreamt of driving a Lamborghini at least once in their life. But little did we know that winemaker Ferruccio Lamborghini – the inventor, mechanic, and car designer who created Automobili Lamborghini in 1963 – had a Cinderella-like story: he was a young Italian, born to grape farmers, with huge ambitions of competing with the already established supercar maker Ferrari. In fact, Lamborghini didn’t always make supercars; Ferruccio made tractors in the beginning — yes, big lumbering tractors, for farms. What’s his story?
Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend
Lamborghini’s fascinating story was recently made into the biographical drama Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend. Produced by Ambi Pictures, Grindstone Entertainment Group, and Iervolino & Lady Bacardi Entertainment and written and directed by Robert Moresco (Crash), the movie was released in select theaters in the United States back in November 2022. It stars Frank Grillo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Billions) as the Italian industrialist Ferruccio Lamborghini.
Lamborghini’s dreams and humble beginnings
The film is set after World War II when Lamborghini began making tractors from reconfigured surplus military machines. He later went into manufacturing air-conditioning and heating systems, contributing to his eventual success and wealth.His dream, however, was always to make a sports car that could compete with Ferrari, whose 250 GT coupe he bought in 1958. (He owned Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Jaguar, and Mercedes Benz cars prior to his first Ferrari.)
In the movie, when Ferruccio offers Enzo Ferrari a partnership to make the best car in the world (and a solution to Ferrari’s problematic clutch), Ferrari tells him, “Go back to your tractors, farmer.” Adding insult to injury, the older man says, “Do you know what they say about Lamborghini? He is too uneducated to understand what he doesn’t know.”
In real life, Ferruccio tells the story of what Ferrari also said: “’Lamborghini, you may be able to drive a tractor but you will never be able to handle a Ferrari properly.’ This was the point when I finally decided to make a perfect car.”
Once Ferruccio visited Eduardo Miura’s ranch in Seville where the latter raised bulls for bullfighting, he had an emblem for his supercar. He also named a lot of them after famous fighting bulls like the Lamborghini Gallardo (2003-2013), which was named after one of the five Spanish bull breed castes, and Huracan (2014 to present), after a famous bull that fought in 1879.
One of the earliest cars Lamborghini made was the Miura, which he named after his friend with whom he shared a fascination for bullfighting. Lamborghini manufactured fewer than 800 Miuras between 1966 and 1973. Today, the car costs around $1.6 million (P87 million).
The last scene of the film shows Ferruccio driving a classic yellow Miura and the end credit text reading, “When the Museum of Modern Art in New York exhibited the Lamborghini Miura, they declared it to be ‘the most beautiful car ever made.’”
Stream Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend on Lionsgate Play
For the Philippine premiere of Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend, streaming platform Lionsgate Play is giving PLDT Home customers exclusive access to the movie as it drops on January 28, 2023.
PLDT Home customers get front-row seats to Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend plus more premium content through Lionsgate Play, exclusively powered by their broadband subscription. By activating their free Lionsgate Play voucher on https://pldthome.com/lionsgateplay, subscribers get to enjoy the ultimate entertainment experience at home thanks to PLDT Home’s fast internet speed.
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