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Ferruccio Lamborghini and the Ferrari story: what is documented and what is legend

Ferruccio Lamborghini owned Ferraris and complained about their clutches, but the famous insult rests on his own telling and later retellings. A leading Italian biography points to profit and publicity instead.

Published 6 min read

Black 1958 Ferrari 250 GT Coupé Pininfarina with its bonnet raised at a Paris auction, the model Ferruccio Lamborghini is reported to have bought that year
Photo: Thesupermat · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Modified: bystander faces and display placard blurred

Key takeaways

  • Ferruccio Lamborghini is reported to have bought a Ferrari 250 GT in 1958 and to have had repeated clutch trouble with his Ferraris.
  • The best-known version of the insult comes from Ferruccio himself, in a Thoroughbred & Classic Cars interview of January 1991.
  • Accounts disagree on the words used, the place and even whether Enzo Ferrari agreed to see him.
  • The Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani calls the quarrel a tradition and names profits and publicity as the more realistic motive.
  • The documented dates are firmer: land bought at Sant'Agata Bolognese on 22 February 1963 and the factory opened on 26 October 1963.

Ferruccio Lamborghini did own Ferraris, did complain about their clutches and did say, in a 1991 interview, that Enzo Ferrari insulted him. We found no independent record of that conversation, however, and the versions conflict. Italy's Dizionario Biografico treats the quarrel as tradition and names profit and publicity as the more realistic reasons for the 1963 founding of his car company.

What is the popular version of the story?

A rich tractor maker burns out the clutch of his Ferrari, complains to Enzo Ferrari and is told to go back to his tractors. He storms off and builds a better car. The 2022 film about Ferruccio also has Ferrari insult him before he builds a rival car, and this is the version most readers already know.

The story has real foundations. Born in Renazzo, near Cento, on 28 April 1916, Ferruccio built tractors from 1948 and added oil burners around 1960. He could afford expensive cars, and by the late 1950s he was buying them.

What can actually be documented?

The businesses and dates are firm, the private conversation is not. This table sorts the main claims by how much support they have.

ClaimStatusBasis
He was a wealthy tractor and burner maker before 1963DocumentedDizionario Biografico
He bought a Ferrari 250 GT in 1958Well reportedSecondary histories; no purchase record seen
His Ferraris had repeated clutch troubleWell reportedFerruccio and Valentino Balboni; his son Tonino describes a failed clutch
The clutch was the same part as one of his tractors'Single line of testimonyBalboni, repeating Ferruccio and a mechanic
Enzo Ferrari insulted himOne party's accountFerruccio; Bob Wallace doubted it
The exact wordsUnknownVersions differ
The clash took place in Enzo's Maranello officeDisputedBalboni places it elsewhere
The insult alone explains the car companyNot supportedBiography cites business motives

What did Ferruccio himself say?

His own account is the closest thing to a primary source. In the January 1991 interview with Thoroughbred & Classic Cars, as quoted on Wikipedia, he said: "I decided to talk to Enzo Ferrari. I had to wait for him a very long time." He then told Ferrari his cars were "rubbish" and reported the answer as: "Lamborghini, you may be able to drive a tractor but you will never be able to handle a Ferrari properly."

He added: "This was the point when I finally decided to make a perfect car." In the same interview he said that "Ferrari never spoke to me again".

This is one man's memory, recorded some three decades after the event. His recollection of dates was not always exact either. Quoted by the FIA's AUTO magazine, he described his exit as "In 1970 I had chosen to sell 51 per cent of my stock. I sold the rest in 1972", while Lamborghini's own company timeline gives 1972 and 1974, and the Dizionario Biografico puts the first sale in 1973.

How do the other versions differ?

They agree on a clutch and an offended Ferruccio, and on little else. The main variants are these.

  • Valentino Balboni, the long-serving test driver, to Car and Driver: he says he heard it from Ferruccio repeatedly. Ferruccio was "always burning the clutch", so his own head mechanic replaced it and found it identical to one on a small Lamborghini tractor. Balboni's figures are 10 lire for Ferruccio's part and 1,000 lire for Ferrari's. Enzo's reply, as he tells it: "You are a tractor driver, you are a farmer."
  • The setting: Balboni says it was "not in Enzo Ferrari's office" as far as he knows, and more probably at a show whose location he cannot recall.
  • Tonino Lamborghini, the son, as reported by Jalopnik: Ferruccio went to Modena with a tractor clutch as a proposed fix, not merely to complain, and Enzo would not listen to a tractor maker.
  • Italy On This Day: the meeting happened at Maranello, and Ferrari was not prepared to be lectured by a tractor manufacturer.
  • The sceptics, in a MotorTrend investigation summarised by LamboCars: some accounts say Enzo refused to see him at all. Balboni believes the story while his predecessor Bob Wallace doubted it, and historian Massimo Delbo concludes: "Something was said between them, but only Enzo and Ferruccio knew what it was."

Note the unflattering detail in Balboni's account. It blames the clutch partly on Ferruccio's own driving, not only on Ferrari's parts.

What were the business reasons for building cars?

The Dizionario Biografico is the most direct on this point. It records the quarrel as what tradition holds, then says the choice more realistically came from the profits of the sector and the advertising value that success with cars would bring to his whole group.

Other accounts fit that reading. Wikipedia's biography cites author Sackey's view that economic motives far outweighed personal feeling. Tonino's version also has Ferruccio tired of spending on tractor advertising and wanting a new factory that would make noise farmers could hear, even though the banks were unconvinced. MotorTrend's summary adds that his dissatisfaction covered other prestigious cars as well, including Alfa Romeo and Jaguar.

What happened once he decided?

Most dates from here on are well recorded, and we note where the Dizionario Biografico and the company's own timeline differ.

  • 1962: he assembled a technical team including Giotto Bizzarrini, Gian Paolo Dallara and Paolo Stanzani.
  • 22 February 1963: he bought 20,000 m² of land at Sant'Agata Bolognese.
  • 26 October 1963: the factory opened.
  • November 1963: the 350 GTV was shown at Turin, though the company's timeline says October. The biography judges it a failure.
  • 1966: the turning point came with the Miura, covered in our piece on how the Miura and Countach defined the supercar.
  • 1972 and 1974: the company's dates for his exit, when he sold 51% to Georges-Henri Rossetti and later his remaining stake to René Leimer, as his interests shifted to an estate near Lake Trasimeno. The biography dates the first sale to 1973.

He died in Perugia on 20 February 1993. His bull emblem and the names it led to are explained in Lamborghini naming: bulls, fighting and the model names. You can test what stuck in the My Hangar Lamborghini quiz or follow the dates on the Lamborghini timeline.

FAQ

Did Enzo Ferrari really insult Ferruccio Lamborghini?

Ferruccio said so in a 1991 interview, and test driver Valentino Balboni repeats a similar account he heard from him. We found no independent record of the exchange, and Bob Wallace, an early Lamborghini test driver, doubted it.

Was the Ferrari clutch really the same as a Lamborghini tractor clutch?

Balboni says so, quoting Ferruccio, and Car and Driver adds that a tractor mechanic recalled the same details. Balboni describes it as a commercial clutch used on several sports cars of the time. We found no parts record that confirms it, so it should be treated as testimony.

Why did Ferruccio Lamborghini start making cars?

The most likely answer combines motives. He had a personal grievance and a love of fast cars, but the Dizionario Biografico considers profits and publicity for his group the more realistic reason.

When was Automobili Lamborghini founded?

In 1963, and the company's timeline gives 7 May as the date. He bought land at Sant'Agata Bolognese on 22 February of that year, opened the factory on 26 October and showed the 350 GTV at Turin that autumn.

Sources

Every figure here was checked against at least two independent sources, listed at the end.

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