Lamborghini pulls ahead of Ferrari in biopic race
The lifelong rivalry between Enzo Ferrari and Ferruccio Lamborghini, creators of some of the iconic Italian sports cars, has made its way to the streets of Hollywood.
Dueling movies about these flamboyant automotive patriarchs promise to shed light on a pair of stubborn visionaries with a keen eye for winning and women.
The first off the starting line is “Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend” (now streaming on demand), starring Frank Grillo as Lamborghini, Mira Sorvino as his second wife, Annita, and Gabriel Byrne as Ferrari. Just around the bend next year: Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” starring Adam Driver as Enzo and Penelope Cruz as his wife, Laura.
Ferrari started building his cars in the late 1940s, and Lamborghini, unhappy with the performance of his personal Ferrari, started building his own car in the early 1960s. A quick pit stop about Lamborghini the man, and his fabled nemesis:
A tale of prancing horses and raging bulls
Ferrari was a moderately successful race car driver for fabled Alfa Romeo but decided to go it alone. He unveiled his first vehicle, the 125 S, in 1947.
On its nose was a prancing black stallion against a yellow backdrop, topped by the red, white and green colors of the Italian flag. This was the logo of World War I Italian flying ace Francesco Baracca, whose family passed the symbol on to Ferrari.
Lamborghini made a fortune building tractors and loved driving his Ferrari cars. But after being snubbed by Ferrari – who disregarded Lamborghini’s complaints about the car’s reliability – he started his own company, which made its debut at the 1963 Geneva Motor Show with the alluring 350 GT.
For his logo, Lamborghini chose a snorting bull after seeing dramatic bullfights in photos and in real life. The company continues to name vehicles after famous bull lineages.
Wine, women and motorcars
Lamborghini’s first love and wife, Clelia Monti, died while giving birth in 1947 to the couple’s first child, Tonino. Lamborghini ultimately was married three times, but (as the movie suggests) he was not a faithful husband.
The automaker used his riches to build an expansive home near his company’s headquarters in Bologna but eventually spent more time at La Fiorita, a huge compound on an Umbrian lake where he made wine and returned to his farming roots.
Ferrari was married to Laura Garello until her death in 1978. Their son, Alfredo, was an engineer known as Dino, whose name later adorned a number of Ferrari cars. Dino died at 24 from complications of muscular dystrophy. Ferrari had another son, Piero, with his longtime mistress, Lina Lardi. Piero Ferrari is now vice chairman of Ferrari.
Ferrari remained devoted to his company until his death in 1988 at age 90, often personally approving or scrapping models as he saw fit. Ferrari lived not far from his company headquarters in Maranello, near Modena, and had an home on the Ferrari race track, called Fiorano.
The iconic model ever was ... ?
Enthusiasts will go to war over this question, but a few top choices are indisputable. Ferrari made just more than 30 copies of the special 250 GTO race car in the early ’60s, and these models have sold for as much as $70 million.
On the Lamborghini side of the ledger, the fabled Miura takes the prize, a low seductive rocket of a car that was once put on display at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, representing perhaps the most beautiful automobile ever made. Because they were produced in larger numbers between 1966 and 1973, about $2 million will fetch a nice example today.
Curiously, “Lamborghini” features as a recurring theme a mythical drag race between Ferruccio and Enzo, who are seen careening through deserted Italian streets at top speed.
In those scenes, Lamborghini is driving his famous spaceship of a supercar, the Countach (produced between 1974* and 1990), while Enzo is seen in a red Mondial coupe (1980-1993).
Although Enzo peels away to victory in “Lamborghini,” there’s no planet on which a 270-horsepower Mondial would beat a 420-horsepower Countach.
Who’s winning the financial race?
Neither of these two legendary automakers could have imagined how successful their companies would become.
Ferrari scrapped an idea to sell part of his company to Ford in the 1960s, later choosing Italian automaker Fiat as his partner, which allowed him to focus on his beloved Ferrari racing team. But at the time of Ferrari’s death in the late ’80s, his company’s cars, while beautiful, were plagued with quality-control problems. Fast-forward to today, and landing an impeccably built new Ferrari, such as the $2 million Monza SP1, requires deep pockets and factory connections.
At the end of “Lamborghini,” the red Ferrari is seen pulling away from Ferruccio’s Countach, implying that Enzo had won their personal and corporate duel. Lamborghini retired from his company in the 1970s, and the automaker’s cars, while exotic, suffered.
Today, after being taken over by Volkswagen in 1998, Lamborghini once again makes staggering machines including the Urus, a waitlist-only $230,000 SUV. And so the Lamborghini vs. Ferrari duel continues.