When words ignited horsepower: Enzo Ferrari's taunt and Ferruccio Lamborghini’s response

Imagine you are a multi-millionaire. You are living comfortably in a huge mansion; you wish to move around in, or are already a member of the rich and famous. You feel like the odd man out, being driven in a Toyota or Honda, or a Volkswagen. Not when others are being driven in in their Bentleys, Jaguars and Rolls-Royces!

And you want to be different. Show people how sporty you are as well as rich! There is a good chance that among the first name that pops up in your mind is Lamborghini. A dream of many, the Lamborghini car is a beauty that never falls shy of showing the power and status of its owner.

But did you know that had it not been for an insult from another prominent car maker, this supercar wouldn’t even exist?

Who was the prominent car maker whose insulting words launched the supercar brand? Well, the man was Enzo Ferrari. Yes, the same man who created the famous red sports car with a prancing horse logo.

So what did Enzo Ferrari do? To know that, we need to go back in time to the year 1963.

Ferruccio Lamborghini, who grew up on a grape farm and is now a successful tractor manufacturer, had bought a Ferrari, which he loved, but there was a problem. Lamborghini felt that the car’s clutch does not work properly and breaks too easily and frequently. Lamborghini thought he had the solution to this problem and hence decided to pay a visit to Enzo Ferrari in a village named Maranello in Italy.

It is rightly said you should never meet your heroes. This statement held true for Ferruccio Lamborghini.

The meeting between Enzo Ferrari and Ferruccio Lamborghini was short, but the impact it had on the future of supercars was eternal.

Ferruccio Lamborghini pointed out the mistakes in the clutch of the Ferrari car and even gave some suggestions on how to fix them.

Enzo Ferrari, the proud man that he was, did not deal with this constructive criticism well. He instantly rejected every suggestion made by Lamborghini and proceeded to say those famous words:

“Let me make cars. You stick to making tractors, farmer.”

This did not sit well with Ferruccio Lamborghini. He was even ready for a partnership with Ferrari, as he felt it would benefit both companies. Lamborghini made the best tractors in Italy, and this insult just gave him a new goal in his life. He wanted to make a car that was better than Ferrari’s.

He wanted his car to be stronger than a Ferrari, as a bull is stronger than a horse. Work commenced without delay, and within a mere four months, a modest factory emerged in Sant'Agata, giving birth to the inaugural car model. This automotive marvel made its debut at the 1964 Turin annual car exhibition and was named the Lamborghini 350 GT.

“You buy a Ferrari when you want to be someone; you buy a Lamborghini when you are someone,” said Ferruccio Lamborghini during the launch of his Lamborghini 350 GT.

So this was the story of how Ferrari indirectly helped create their fierce rivals at Lamborghini. Over the years, both Ferrari and Lamborghini have made giant strides in the supercar market, and today Ferrari has a market cap of $53.88 billion and Lamborghini has a market cap of $11 billion.

But how did Ferruccio Lamborghini create his car so soon? Or why has Lamborghini still not caught up to Ferrari in more than 50 years since its inception?

These topics would be a good read for some other day and some other article.