When Ferruccio met Enzo…

So the story goes Ferruccio Lamborghini, who made tractors, told Enzo Ferrari his clutches were rubbish. Enzo got miffed, punched Ferry on the nose and sent him back to ploughing his potatoes. Mr Lambo decided that the only way to get even with the man who was building the most charismatic cars in the world was to ….and the rest is history as they say. 

It is arguable of course whether Ferruccio ever got close to realising his ambitions since The Raging Bull has always been the pub that everybody spoke about while drinking in The Prancing Horse.

An new act arrived in town, however, in 2003 and started putting bums on seats for the tractor maker. The pole dancer’s name was Gallardo.

Nobody could say that Ferruccio had ever made an ugly car. Quite the opposite, in fact. The Miura is a regular favourite in those ‘most beautiful car in the world’ polls. The issue seemed to be though that the only way Sant Agata felt it could beat Maranello was in the ‘mad’ design category.

Take the Countach, which apparently means ‘Eureka’ – “I found it!” - as pronouned by Archimides when he discovered the theory of water displacement. Lambo should have sent a team on University Challenge!

If you ever wanted people to point and stare, you either walked around stark naked with a spinning bow-tie or you drove a Countach.

The Gallardo is sensible – for Lamborghini that is. It is also beautiful. It is built beautifully and it drives even better. That is why the tractor boys have never built so many of a particular model to come out of Sant Agata.

Is it better than a 360 or a 430? Who knows? They are probably trading blows at the pearly gates right now.

Take a look at the yellow example featured on the website – it’s a peach of a car!