LAMBORGHINI

Ferrucio Lamborghini was born on April 28, 1916 in a small Italian farming village, Renazzo di Cento, Ferrara. Even as a small child it was obvious that Ferrucio had a keen aptitude for anything mechanical. During WWII he was drafted into the Italian services where he repaired vehicles. After the war he built tractors from spare parts to help his country recoup after suffering the devastation of the war years.

In 1963 he founded the Lamborghini Automobili company due to his lack of satisfaction with the Ferrari he owned. He knew he could build a better car. Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. was founded in 1963 in Sant'Agata Bolognese, a small village between Bologna and Modena, Italy, by Ferruccio Lamborghini.

Ferruccio Lamborghini built his first cars as a hobby, using modified Fiat parts. During this time he identified a demand for big, exclusive sports cars. Among his creations was the 3929cc V-12 Miura of l966 with a rear transverse engine.

A smaller mid-engined model was the 2463cc eight-cylinder Urraco P 250, launched in 1970, like the dohc Jarama 400 GT, another V-12. While the Jarama was a 2+2 seater, the Espada 400GT was a four-seater with Bertone bodywork. Development brought the 385 bhp Miura P 400 SV. The ultimate Urraco could be supplied with V-8 engines of 1994cc, 2463cc or 2996cc, with power up to 260 bhp. The latest Jarama 400 GTS model houses an improved 3929cc V-12 engine developing 365bhp, while the mid-engined Lamborghini Countach LP 400/400S, a Bertone coupé, houses a similar 375 bhp motor and has a top speed of 188 mph.

He used his birth sign, Taurus the bull, as a symbol for his cars. Most of his cars were named in connection with bulls. In March of 1964 the first production car arrived, the 350 GT. During the 60's the future of the company looked very bright. The 350 GT, the 400 GT and the 400 GT 2+2 made the Lamborghini name known throughout the world. The Miura made it legendary. The successors, Countach and the Espada, kept the company alive during some very troubling times.

In 1973 Ferrucio sold all of his companies and retired to his vineyard in Italy's Umbria province. He produced a red wine called Colli del Trasimento know as "Blood of the Miura". He died on February 20, 1993 at the age of 77.

The company's first car, the 350 GTV was introduced at the Turin Motor Show in the fall of 1963 and the production started, with the model 350 GT the year after. More ground breaking was the 1966 release of the Miura, which used a transversely mounted V12 behind the occupants. With a Bertone designed two seat bodyshell (actually by Gandini and Giugiaro whilst working there), the Miura proved a great success and continued until 1973 when it was replaced by the equally famous Countach.

In the meantime, the Islero had replaced the 400GT in 1968 as the companies 2+2 coupe, whilst in the same year the Espada had introduced genuine four-seater capacity to the marque. 1970 saw the Islero replaced by the similar Jarama whilst two years later the V8 Urraco entered another market segment, that of the 'small' supercar. This was followed in the sixties and the early seventies by the legendary Miura, Islero and Espada, Jarama.

Also in 1972 Lamborghini sold 51% of his company to a Swiss businessman, with the remaining 49% going to another Swiss in 1974. The latter year saw the Countach revealed in production form complete with 4-litre mid-mounted V12 and brutal, angular styling. Production continued until 1988 by which time the engine had been increased to 5-litres.

The companies problems did not go away, however, and in 1978 they went into receivership. Three years later the Mimram brothers took control and began to revitalise the marque. First came the Jalpa, a restyled and heavily modified Urraco, then more potent Countachs and then, in 1982, the LM002. The latter was a Countach engined four wheel drive off-road jeep-like vehicle, quite a break with tradition !

In 1973, following the first oil crisis, the company got into financial difficulties and Ferruccio Lamborghini sold 51 % of his shares to a Swiss investor, Georges-Henri Rossetti. One year later, he sold the remainder to a second Swiss investor, René Leimer.

Due to continued financial difficulties, the company was forced to enter into receivership in 1978. However, it was able to maintain the operational side of the business till 1980 when it was declared bankrupt and went into liquidation. In July 1980, it was sold by the official receiver to the Mimran brothers, well known French tycoons in the food industry. It was during this period that the company produced the various Urraco models and the all-terrain vehicle study, the Cheetah.

CHRYSLER STEPS IN

Owing to the rapid growth of Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. in the early eighties and the resultant necessity for capital investment, the company had to look for an investor from the automotive industry.

The Nuova Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini SpA was making money again, but suddenly on April 23rd 1987 Lee Iacocca, president of Crysler Corporation, announced he bought a 100% shareholding in the Sant'Agata company from Patrick Mimran. Why Mr Mimran decided to sell the company remains unknown but he couldn't have chosen a better time, the supercar market was at the top and the Countach was selling very well in the United States and prices for exotic cars were booming at that time, second hand cars costing even more than their new counterparts. At this time it wasn't unusual to get about $ 10,000,000 US for a Ferrari 250 GTO, an amount which soon dropped after Japanese investors lost interest in these exotics.

In May 1990, the most successful Lamborghini model up to that time, the Countach, was replaced by the Diablo. By then, 2,000 of this model had left the factory in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. In January 1994, Chrysler sold Lamborghini to Megatech, part of the Indonesian Sedtco Group. In 1995, it changed hands again, with 60% of the shares being taken by V'Power, a company controlled by "Tommy" Suharto. The other 40% were bought by Mycom, a Malaysian investment company.

Chrysler decided to sell Automobili Lamborghini SpA after it became obvious to them the managment of a small Italian supercar manufacturer was in no way comparable to that of a mass-producer like Chrysler.

A fairly unknown group of three Far-Eastern companies bought Lamborghini for a rumoured amount of 35,000,000,000 Lire, after the paperwork was finished on January 21st 1994, Ubaldo Sgarzi decided to leave the company.

Megatech, the biggest of the three received 28243 shares, while Sedtco and VPower both got only 3530 shares each. The new owners immediately fired the foreign managers put in place by Chrysler, even Tim Adams was laid off, while he probably was the best man for the job of president, but he was replaced by Indrajit Sardjono. These three companies were in fact all part of the same holding owned by Tommy Suharto and Setjawan Djody.
April 1994 brought a new president to the company, Michael J. Kimberly, former top manager for Lotus and Jaguar was attracted by the Indonesian owner to keep Automobili Lamborghini SpA at the top of the supercar market, one of his first decissions was to evaluate a plan to put the LM 002 back in production after it was halted in 1992, but the LM002 was never put back online.

But the long awaited open top version of the Diablo did go into production, the Diablo VT Roadster became an immediate success and sales for the United States started to boom, the US based subsidiary of Automobili Lamborghini SpA was renamed to ALUSA, standing for Automobili Lamborghini United States of America, and was headed by Robert A. Bramer. But things started to worsen and the ALUSA encountered financial problems from the start, they were unable to pay their supplies from Italy.

Some problems became visible in Sant'Agata too, the Cala prototype was frozen and Megatech sold all its shares to the other two, Mycom Sedtco got 22760 shares while V'Power received 34140 shares, this latter was now also owner of Vector Automotive, building the Vector M12 powered by the Lamborghini V-12.

The economical crisis started to hit the Indonesian owners hard and the much needed money for research on the Tipo 147 just wasn't available. The managment tried to boost car sales with the Diablo Trophy, but this idea didn't work just the way they thought it would and the financial position of Automobili Lamborghini SpA became even worse.

In August 1996, Vittorio Di Capua joined the Board of Directors, he almost immediately got into a dispute with Kimberley who resigned on November 12 leaving the position of Managing Director to Di Capua.

The 1996 Balance Sheet showed a 17 Billion Lire loss and to make things even worse, in 1997 the ALUSA ceased payment completely and already owed the cost of about 30 Diablo's to Sant'Agata.

Towards the end of 1997 Di Capua started negotiations with Audi AG for the use of their 4.2-Litre V-8 engine together with the Audi A8 Quattro four-wheel drive to be used in the new 'Baby Lambo' since developing an all-new V-10 engine seemed impossible at the time.

Chrysler decided to halt production of the Jalpa in 1988 and the LM002 was being built in larger numbers than ever, this mastodont off-road racer hybrid was becoming a very hot commodity in the States, a head turner completely without competition.

Lee Iacocca didnt like the Gandini design for the P132 and decided it had to be redesigned by his own American based designers, but the Italian managment was able to get him to compromise between the Gandini design and the US designs, so Marcello was still willing to put his signature on the most drivable Lamborghini since the Espada.

Di Capua decided to freeze all deliveries to their US branch, luckily during January 1998 Platinum Motors offered to buy the ALUSA stock both in the United States and in Italy. Under the 'Excellence' name they became the new official US importer for Automobili Lamborghini SpA.

By now Liugi Marmiroli, Gianfranco Venturelli and Sandro Munari left Sant'Agata, Marmiroli's place was taken by Ceccarani and Alberto Armiroli became the new External Relations Manager. Di Capua decided Automobili Lamborghini SpA had to grow if they wanted to survive, and the successor to the Diablo had to be finished as soon as possible. But building the Tipo 147 turned out to be far more expensive than calculated and the money was really running out in the Far East so it started to look very bad for this small Italian exotic car manufacturer.

AUDI AG ENTERS THE FRAME

Suddenly in 1998 Ferdinand Pi루, top level manager at Audi AG, offered to buy Automobili Lamborghini SpA, Di Capua managed to convince the Indonesian owner to agree and on June 12, 1998 a 'letter of intent' was drawn up stressing both partners to close this deal as soon as possible.

On July 27th Audi AG became the single owner of all Automobili Lamborghini SpA shares, the necessary paperwork was finalized on August 4, the amount of money that changed hands is however still unknown. The entire Board of Director was replaced by managers from Audi AG on November 4, 1998 and during 1999 Automobili Lamborghini SpA will be transformed into a holding, managed by Franz-Jozef Pfaefgen, helped by Vittorio Di Capua and Rodolfo Rocchio.

The new Board of Directors for the Lamborghini Holding will be made up of Werner Mischke, George Flandorfer, Helmut Aurenz, Ditman Schimanski and Haydan Leshel as Sales Manager.

These people will actually run three different branches of the Lamborghini holding, the Car Factory, the Marine engine division and the new Lamborghini Artimarca, founded especially for brand and image managment.

To start working Audi AG already invested DM 50,000,000 in the factory to get the research for the Canto back on its feet. Since the Audi AG takeover the future of this 'small' factory is looking better every day, once again there is enough capital to develop the successor of the famous Diablo, and even a smaller 'entry-level' follow-up to the Jalpa is under consideration. Some sources even state that during the first years of the next millenium, a new car will be designed like the Espada in it's time, even a new off-road utility vehicle is still possible, things we can only wait for and hope everything keeps going in Italy without too many German influence from Audi AG.

The new Board of Directors for the Lamborghini Holding will be made up of Werner Mischke, George Flandorfer, Helmut Aurenz, Ditman Schimanski and Haydan Leshel as Sales Manager. These people will actually run three different branches of the Lamborghini holding, the Car Factory, the Marine engine division and the new Lamborghini Artimarca, founded especially for brand and image management.

To start working Audi AG already invested DM 50,000,000 in the factory to get the research for the Canto back on its feet. Since the Audi AG takeover the future of this 'small' factory is looking better every day, once again there is enough capital to develop the successor of the famous Diablo, and even a smaller 'entry-level' follow-up to the Jalpa is under consideration. Some sources even state that during the first years of the next millennium, a new car will be designed like the Espada in it's time, even a new off-road utility vehicle is still possible, things we can only wait for and hope everything keeps going in Italy without too many German influence from Audi AG

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