The Italian Supercar Saga:
The Birth of
Ferrari, Lamborghini & Pagani

Introduction:

Now a days we can see many car manufacturers from different countries (like: America, Japan, British, French etc.) are making sports car. But few decades ago, this much number of sports cars were not in the market. The main reason for that is these cars were not easy to manufacture also it was not easy to acquire customers for these type of cars.

But there is a country which was expert in manufacturing sports cars and acquiring its customers, and this country is Italy. In Italy all manufacturers were used to make sports cars only. In fact, today also 7 out 8 car manufacturers of Italy make sports cars. But only 4 of these are world-wide famous, they are Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Pagani.

And a less known fact about this 4 companies is, Ferrari started from Alfa Romeo, Lamborghini started from Ferrari and Pagani started from Lamborghini. The cause of starting these companies were some disagreements or some revenge taking mindset.

In this blog I will try to elaborate the full-story to you. So be with me and read this full blog.

Alfa-Romeo:

The story was started from Alfa-Romeo. This company started from 1910. That time the cars had huge prices only extremely wealthy people were able to afford it. And as a car manufacturer if you want to sell your car to them then, you have to prove capability of your car to them. For that the European brands used to participate in the race, so Alfa-Romeo started to participate in these races.

Alfa-Romeo launched its 1^st sports car in 1920 and its name was Torpedo. This sports car used to produce 30HP. Alfa-Romeo started dominating from beginning, they won their 1^st race in 1920. Giuseppe Campari came 1^st in Mugello in Tuscany and the other race in Targa Florio, Enzo Ferrari came 2^nd.

Alfa-Romeo to Ferrari:

Yes, Enzo Ferrari the founder of Ferrari himself. Enzo Ferrari started his racing career in 1908 when he was just 10, After 11 years he joined the Alfa-Romeo racing team as a race driver and he also worked in Alfa-Romeo, Milan sales depot.

In 1920, he resigned from Alfa-Romeo and founded his own racing team named ‘Scuderia Ferrari’. To build this team he took loan of 1 million Lira, he also got same backing by elite amateur racers not only this Italy’s famous tyre company PERILI supported him.

Despite of getting these money and support the main thing of any car race is to have a car.

To source the car, Enzo Ferrari approached Giorgio Rimini, the commercial director of Alfa-Romeo. This wise person agreed to give the car to Enzo Ferrari but there is little twist in this, the twist is they had an agreement where Alfa-Romeo will give Ferrari low end car from previous racing season. Because, Alfa-Romeo also used to participate in the races and they knew if Enzo Ferrari got those new cars, then Alfa-Romeo had no chance to win those races. But these agreement didn’t last long because the factories of Alfa-Romeo were acquired by Italian Government during World War – I.

For this Scuderia Ferrari started focusing to build their own cars and started R&D. The amazing fact is they started to win with their car. By the time Alfa-Romeo made their comeback. Alfa-Romeo realised the partnership they had with Ferrari is now nothing but a joke.

To counter this Alfa-Romeo again played a wise business move they bought 80% share of Scuderia Ferrari and being the owner. By the year 1937 Scuderia Ferrari dissolved. And Enzo Ferrari went back to Alfa-Romeo as a sporting director. After some time, Enzo Ferrari had some disagreement with Alfa-Romeo’s managing director Ugo Gobbato for that Enzo Ferrari left Alfa-Romeo. After Enzo Ferrari left Alfa-Romeo, with all savings he started his own sportscar brand named ‘Auto – Avio Costruzioni’ by the end of 1938.

Now, you may have a question, “why ‘Auto – Avio Costruzioni’ why not ‘Ferrari’?”

Well Ferrari had a non-compete agreement with Alfa-Romeo for 4 years. After 4 years they got the name ‘Ferrari’. And there after they started producing sportscar one after other. Ferrari used to make the sports car in a limited numbers that is one of the reasons why their cars were super expensive. The cars were that expensive that only some millionaire and billionaire were able to buy a Ferrari.

The birth of Lamborghini:

One of that millionaire was Ferruccio Lamborghini. Who was the owner of Italy’s top tractor manufacturing company. He used to own many Ferrari sports car. But he was little upset about these cars and the main reason was its clutch. He used to think, if Ferrari upgrade the clutch the performance of the cars will increase.

Mr. Lamborghini addressed this issue personally to Enzo Ferrari on a pleasant morning in the year 1963. He also came with a solution, after hearing the constructive criticism Enzo Ferrari said, “Go back to your tractors, farmer…”. He had no idea that these lines will be the reason to change entire sports car industry.

These lines were taken as an insult by Ferruccio Lamborghini because Ferruccio himself was an engineer and his tractor were best in entire Italy. To take the revenge of this Ferruccio Lamborghini decided to build a sports car company, which will manufacture more faster and better car than Ferrari.

Ferruccio Lamborghini did not only think to take revenge but he took immediate steps for it. He started in a small factory in Sant’Agata, within only 4 months Lamborghini built their 1^st sports car named ‘Lamborghini – 350GT’.

Now you may be surprized and ask, “How Lamborghini built a sports car in just 4 months?”.

To be very honest I was surprised to….

Well, the reason was Ferrari it self not directly but indirectly. According to the allegations and rumours, Lora Ferrari the wife of Enzo Ferrari, was taking important decisions on factory floor. The senior executives were not very happy for this, but Enzo Ferrari did not listen to them and ended up by firing the executives. In these executives there were Chief Engineer and Development Manager also. These executives approached Lamborghini and he didn’t miss this chance. Lamborghini on boarded them in his team. These executives and with the help of tractor engineers Lamborghini made a beautiful looking sports car in just 4 months.

The 1^st sports car ‘350–GT’ was not a big-bang for Lamborghini. They sold only 120 units of this car. In fact, Ferrari was not felt threatened by this car. But the next sports car Lamborghini launched that was a nightmare not only for Ferrari but also for other sports car manufacturers. This car was ‘Lamborghini – Miura’.

This car was very futuristic according to that time and it also came with a rear-mid engine. For these reasons ‘Miura’ became a commercial hit. This car’s production started from 1967 and ended in 1973 in this time frame Lamborghini sold around 764 units. This was a very big number for this kind of car in that era.

After this Lamborghini produced sports cars one after another namely – Espada, Islero, Jarama and Urraco. But these cars were not successful as ‘Miura’ until, ‘Countach’ hit the market. This time ‘Countach’ became very successful.

The main reasons were looks and power. This car looked like an alien car and also this was the fastest Lamborghini till then. The most powerful variant of ‘Countach’ came around 1988. And this project was leading none other than Horacio Pagani.

The starting of Pagani :

Yes, the Horacio Pagani who is the owner of Italy’s most exclusive sports car company at present time. Mr. Pagani had interest in cars from childhood. By the age of 20 he already designed & built Formula – 3 race car. For this he got a job in Renault.

After sometime, he joined Lamborghini but as a worker who do basic jobs like floor cleaning and etc. But for his talent he got recognised in the company and kept climbing the corporate ladder and reached the position of chief engineer position. And eventually started working on the final version of ‘Lamborghini – Countach’. Soon a time came when Pagani & Lamborghini had some disagreement.

Now, you may ask – ‘What was the disagreement about?’

The disagreement was about Auto-Clave. Auto-Clave is a machine which is used in manufacturing of carbon fibre parts. Pagani wanted, Lamborghini to invest in Auto-Clave technology so, that the cars can be lighter but rigid as well and stay ahead of other car manufacturer. But Lamborghini rejected this proposal.

Horacio Pagani was an ambitious person. In 1987, Pagani borrowed money and bought an Auto-Clave. He resigned from Lamborghini in 1991. After he resigned from Lamborghini, Pagani started a car design consultancy firm named ‘Modena Design’. He had clients like Aprilia, Daimler & Ferrari itself. But the design firm was just a stepping stone for Pagani. Just next year in 1992 Pagani launched his sports car company named ‘Pagani Automobili’. In the late 1990s Pagani launched ‘Zonda’. After that ‘Huayra’ came in the market.

But you might ask, ‘what is exclusive in this cars?’

Well, the exclusivity in this cars are these are all made of carbon fibre. Some cars are that much expensive that the price of 1 Pagani is equivalent to 20 Ferraris.

Conclusion:

This was the story behind the birth of 3 big sports car manufacturers (Ferrari, Lamborghini and Pagani). Some things we can see in their stories are common, all 3 brands started from some sort of disagreement or to take revenge or to prove someone wrong.

But we can also see here the disagreements or revenge doesn’t have to be destructive all the time, sometime it can be creative also. So, revenge or disagreement is not a bad thing at all. But you have to hold your patient to create something big.

Thanks for tuning in. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this post as much as I have enjoyed writing it. But this is just the beginning. There’s still so much more to explore in the world of cars and bikes, and I’ll be back soon with more exciting content that’s sure to get your engines revving. So don’t forget to subscribe our newsletter and stay tuned for our next instalment. Until then, keep on exploring all the thrilling adventures that the open road has to offer!

— by Shubhradwip Paul