How Ferrari's Insult Inspired the Birth of Lamborghini

 

 And that is when he made a shocking discovery after disassembling the engine and transmission the mechanic noted that the clutch on the car was exactly the same clutch that was used in Ferruccio's tractors

 while it was a commercially available

 The clutch that was fitted to many of the top-end sports cars of the days this discovery did not sit well at all with the wealthy tractor maker knowing he was paying 100 times as much for the clutch 

Every time he went in to get his car fixed was like a stab in the heart 

he could not understand why someone would use a subpar clutch in such a luxury vehicle in fact it upset the disgruntled Ferrari owner so much

 That he not only replaced the Ferrari clutch with a clutch from his tractor company

 but he also decided to pay a visit to the Ferrari factory and present his findings to the founder of the company Enzo Ferrari

 it was the first encounter that would later ignite into the great Lamborghini Ferrari feud many versions of

 The story has been retold from the meeting of Enzo and Ferruccio naturally with a story that has been told and retold thousands of times over the decades history has taken on a life of its own undoubtedly with each retelling

There will be a mix of truth and myth as the protagonists of the story have long passed away all we can do is rely on one man who claims to know the real story as he heard it firsthand from the mouth of Ferruccio himself Valentino Balboni is an automotive royalty and a true cult figure in the car world a 40-year employee of Lamborghini 

He started his career as an apprentice mechanic 

but finished as the company's chief test driver having worked directly for Ferruccio Valentino insists he has the real story this is how it went the supposed opening line of the conversation was you built your beautiful cars with my tractor parts 

an agitated enzo ferrari responded with words to the effect of You are a tractor driver a farmer

 you shouldn't complain about driving my cars because they are the best cars in the world Enzo made sure to remind Ferruccio that he is a tractor maker and should stick to building farming equipment and let Ferrari take care of the car business of course this only enraged Ferruccio

Even more and in return he said correctly I am a farmer but I'll show you how to make a sports car 

and I'll do it by myself to show you how a good one should be there's some speculation on where precisely this confrontation took place but Valentino insists this was the actual exchange between the two however,

 others note that Valentino wasn't associated with Lamborghini until 1968 well after the founding of the company so according to them

He most likely didn't actually see this conversation

Take place and the statement should be considered nothing more than hearsay nonetheless the Lamborghini versus Ferrari history is fascinating in the 20th century there were many great rivalries

Microsoft versus Apple

coca-cola versus Pepsi

burger king vs McDonald's 

and Adidas vs Puma

 But Ferrari vs Lamborghini was a clash of two proud Italian men

 who refused to give in at all as with many great rivalries there is more that unites the two men than divides them both were from the Emilia Romagna region of northern Italy both grew up with an interest in mechanics and both went on to make some of the world's most memorable and famous cars

 These details make the story even more interesting