Logos and stories. Why a bull for Lamborghini’s image?

Founded in 1951, the Italian factory of Lamborghini tractors, created by a certain Ferruccio, will quickly develop and become one of the largest manufacturers in the country.

Ferruccio Lamborghini, a mechanical genius, had a good intuition. Post-war Italy was very little industrialized and its economy was essentially based on agriculture.

The level of agricultural machinery equipment among Italian farmers is still very low. The tractor market has enormous potential with growth guaranteed for at least 40 years.

The founding act

Ferruccio is now at the head of a beautiful business, very lucrative. A position that brings him to rub shoulders with the biggest bosses in the country, starting with a certain Enzo Ferrari, from whom he regularly buys sports cars.

But Ferruccio is a perfectionist and none of his four Ferraris really fills him, because of random reliability. One day in 1960, annoyed by the broken clutch of his Ferrari 250 GT, Ferruccio went to the factory in Maranello.

Reassembled, Ferruccio tells Enzo about the chronic problems with his cars. Ferrari responds curtly to the insolent manufacturer of agricultural machinery “You may be good at making tractors, but you are certainly not good at driving Ferraris. Each his trade ». Without knowing it, Enzo has just started a war.

Lamborghini gets into the car business

Ferruccio leaves the factory in a rush. At dinner, he summons the family and announces his intention to start manufacturing sports cars. He recruits a young, freshly graduated Italian engineer, Stanzani, builds an ultra-modern factory and swallows up his entire fortune in automobile production.

Ferruccio wants a sports car that is more efficient, more beautiful, better built, with a better V12 than the Ferraris. Giotto Bizzarrini, designer of the legendary 250 GTO and Gian-Paolo Dallara, from Maserati join the team. Only one thing is missing: a logo.

An angry man

The year 1963 will be the year of Lamborghini’s debut as a car manufacturer. Until then, its tractors, under the name Lamborghini, had a triangle-shaped emblem with the letters FLC for Ferruccio Lamborghini Cento.

Ferruccio contacts a local graphic designer, Paolo Rambaldi. This seeks to understand who Lamborghini is and how it defines itself. “I’m tamugno” replies the entrepreneur.

Which could be translated as “stubborn and strong as a bull”. Ferruccio Lamborghini is of the sign of the bull, he is determined and angry. Rambaldi draws a bull facing forward, ready to pounce.

The legend was born, most cars from Lamborghini Automobili will be named after a bull. An animal that is difficult to tame, powerful, determined, like the boss’s cars.