Why Lamborghinis fuel emotion?

You have to watch that old 60 Minutes TV episode where they feature the Lambo Countach, and "try" to explain all the ooohs and aaaahs of seeing one. They really do an excellent story on the mystiquie of Lamborghini. I'm the same way, I've owned 3 Ferraris so far and love them, but for some reason the Lambo Diablo just spews out emotion. It's like a gun slinger come-to-town kinda car. I'm sure the rarity and exclusivity helps too...people have seen Ferraris...but Lambos are an event. We had a Diablo show up at our local car show (small town but big show, almost 1500 cars), and you'd have thought a major celebrity was in town. Smiles, pictures, drooling.....you name it. I must admit - I'm the same way. One of my dream cars to own some day is an early Diablo. I went and saw a black/black one at a foreign car dealership a year ago...this car was not really advertised or anything, I'd just heard about it. It was a driver's car as they say, but still looked totally awesome. Sininster black with no wing (I like them with our without). What really struck me was this car was warning me...."if you don't know what your doing - do not drive me". I took about a million pictures and studied every inch...if only I'd had the funds (it could have been bought for around $70k). Some day...I want that 4-wheeled adreneline rush parked in my garage! Some day..... (Miura....same thing - sweaty palms and racing heart)

 

I have a peronal theory on this and the reason the feeling is different between looking at a Ferrari and a Lamborghini...

Ferraris, especially ones made up to the mid-80's, hold a beauty that captivates human beings because of an innate instinct in humanity to use the human form as art and to appreciate its beauty. It is no secret that Italians love their women. The feminine form abounds and is celebrated in the Ferrari bodies of Fantuzzi, Scaglietti, and Pininfarina. Hips, the form of the female back and the wonderful semi-spherical shapes of buttocks and breasts are the subconscious language of these works of art.

A few early Lamborghinis share this as well, specifically the 350/400GT and the Miura. The Miura, especially the SV, may be the most "Ferrari-esque" of the Lamborghinis. It and the Ferrari 250GTO recall the female form more than any other mechanical devices ever have, and perhaps, ever will.

I feel that this devotion to pleasing swoops and curves speaks not only to the nearly universal memory of ones mother, but more to the sexual urges we all share, which is of course one of the most powerful responses you can create in a person using art.

Men of course respond strongly, but even women, who often have no problem appreciating the beauty of another woman, tend to find Ferraris "beautiful".

The Lamborghini designs that one could describe as "obviously" being from the house of Bertone, or evolutions of those designs have a wholly different feeling about them.

These extreme automotive designs speak clearly to that primal part of our brains that tells us "this is my death". This is the same part of the brain that makes even the strongest of men jump at the sight of a snake, or get chills at the sight of the shark circling closer.

The Countach shape, evolving through the Diablo and Murcielago is the head of the jungle python. The Espada recalls the massive head of the river crocodile. The Jarama is wide and stout, whispering the memory of the great bruins. The Islero displays a hint of the ominous shape of the deadly White Shark.

Very few Ferraris display these deadly shapes. I feel the F40 is an example of function leading form, but the one designing those body panels knew it still had to be a Ferrari and while it is indeed still a Ferrari, it breaks from the classical idea of what a Ferrari should look like and becomes predatory. The Testarossa, while existing in a totally different language from the Countach, is again the serpent, except where the Countach might be the angular head of the python, the Testarossa is the Asp.

So why, if these shapes recall danger and death, are people drawn to them? The same reason the Romans went to the gladiatorial games to watch men fighting Lions and Tigers, or to the circus to watch men tame the same cats. It's the same reason the apex predators are usually the most popular attractions at the zoo, and why those with the ego and the money to match used to go big game hunting to kill these animals, or to capture them and keep them as pets.

There are just some people for whom the closer they are to death, the more alive they feel. The need to conquer dangerous nature, either literally by killing, capturing, or wearing it as fashion or figuratively by tattooing it upon our bodies, or painting or engraving it upon our weapons, has been part of the psyche of certain people since the dawn of man.

Certainly this is not for everyone, but then again, neither are Lamborghinis. To be frank, to own or drive one of these cars, one must have an element of ego, a nature willing to take risks, if not to seek risk out as pleasure, and strength of character to pull it off.

This is why Lamborghinis, in my opinion much more so than Ferraris, seem to be love it/hate it kind of designs. Some folks haven't got the grapes to swim with sharks, or to hunt the Grizzly. The world is full of fighters and lovers and artists and hunters. For some, there is Ferrari. But for those that can run with the bulls, as rare as they may be, there is Lamborghini.

 

That was an absolutely brilliant bit of writing!

In a few paragraphs you have managed to articulate the very essence of Lamborghini.

 

Great read and sounds plausible..

Are you a shrink?...

 

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback.

No, I have just spent a lot of time thinking about the relationships between humanity and our vehicles. The respect and admiration a pilot had for his P51 Mustang over Occupied France differs from the pride and love a young woman has for the hand-me-down Saab that takes her to college, which differs from the thrill and adrenaline a wealthy man feels at the top of 3rd gear in his F40, which differs from the feeling of accomplishment the rider feels after a 700 mile day on his Harley, and yet these are all examples of that bond between a human and their machine.

We're bound to them. They allow us to explore our world and the limits of our own selves. In a way I'm looking for assurance that as we move from the age of gasoline to whatever is next, that the passion comes with us. We have not yet allowed our machines become completely soulless, and if we did allow that to happen, something great will have been lost and we will be lesser for it.

 

+1 tru-dat

I could not of said it better myself.