Lamborghini has been one of the world’s most luxurious brands for decades, but when was the first one made?
The first-ever Lamborghini was a one-off, the 350GTV, and it was unveiled at a motor show in 1963. However, the car would be re-built and re-designed following great interest and would be released officially in 1964, as the 350GT.
Read on to learn more about the powerhouse car manufacturer and its history.
Lambo Lifestyle
For decades, Lamborghini has been known as an outlet for the super-rich. Their cars are sleek, almost futuristic, and immensely powerful – and expensive.
While it might not have as illustrious a history as competitors such as Ferrari, it has enjoyed its time in the spotlight. Arguably the top-tier of the flamboyant supercar range, Ferrari and Lamborghini have fought for years.
It’s an age-old debate: is Lamborghini better than Ferrari? While Ferrari has seen more success and boasts a firmer legacy, Lamborghini can’t be dismissed.
It’s a little known fact, but the founder of Ferrari – Enzo Ferrari – was the biggest contributor to the founding of his most prominent rival.
Allegedly, Ferrucio Lamborghini was a lover of Ferrari’s earliest models and had a direct connection with Enzo. However, he had a few issues with the vehicles’ build and offered up solutions.
However, Enzo didn’t take his suggestions on board, so Ferrucio took matters into his own hands. He went out and built the first-ever Lamborghini car, a 350GTV.
This would resurface a year later as Lamborghini’s first road car, the 350GT. This debuted at a motor show and immediately gathered traction among motoring fans.
The first Lamborghini would start the infamous trend of super-powered cars among the company. It was driven by a 3.5-liter V12, capable of producing 270bhp.
In the sixties, this was a huge deal, especially given the top speed of 158 miles per hour. It was a true contender to the then-dominating force of Ferrari.
It’s bizarre to think that before Lamborghini entered the car stakes, they produced tractors. It was an extremely lucrative business that lined Ferrucio’s pockets.
Before he started building supercars, he was one of the wealthiest men in all of Italy. He’d expanded into air conditioning and central heating manufacturing before he moved on to making cars.
Faster in the Future
Lamborghini hasn’t ever been an affordable brand. Where other luxury car manufacturers might make budget versions available, Lamborghini wasn’t one of them.
The most expensive Lamborghini in the world would cost you around eight million dollars, brand new. The Veneno Roadster was introduced in 2014 and was built to celebrate Lamborghini’s fiftieth anniversary.
This absolute monster of a vehicle was capable of top speeds of around 220 miles per hour. It was fitted out with an immensely powerful 6.5-liter V12 engine, boasting a massive 750 hp.
It quite simply was the pinnacle of engineering for Lamborghini.
As with many cars, it’s always cheapest to buy a used variant. It’s a well-known fact that cars depreciate massively, dropping in value as soon as they leave the showroom.
In 2019, an article was published discussing the scale of Lamborghini: most affordable, to most expensive.
At the lower end of the scale was a 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, valued at less than eighty thousand dollars. This was essentially the entry-level item in the Lamborghini ranks and a fraction of what it would have cost brand new.
When it launched, the Gallardo – in the lowest spec – would have cost almost two hundred thousand dollars.
Extreme Extravagance
There’s a reason the Lamborghini is the supercar of choice for so many of the world’s elite. They quite literally exude wealth, exuberance, and opulence.
Celebrities such as Kanye West, 50 Cent, and Cristiano Ronaldo have been spotted behind the wheel of a Lamborghini.
Lamborghini is also extremely well-known for its incredible and often bizarre concept vehicles. They’ve produced some of the boldest builds in recent history, never for production, but to showcase their engineering abilities.
They’ve shown hybrid supercars, vehicles that store energy in the body panels, and monster machines that reach sixty miles per hour in two seconds.
The future is likely very bright for Lamborghini, who in 2020 boasted a net worth of eleven billion dollars. If we dismiss the over-the-top concept vehicles, Lamborghini has a very strong line-up of cars.
And of course, they also have a very loyal – and wealthy – customer base looking to acquire them.