Boy Racer
The dynamic young CEO of Lamborghini, Stephan Winkelmann, reveals how he plans to get the Italian luxury carmaker back on track
INTERVIEW | TIM POLLARD
Image – Daniel Kennedy
SCREECHING UP AND DOWN THE KING’S ROAD in a garish supercar is about as in tune with the zeitgeist as MPs claiming for mortgage payments on their mallard mansions. Extravagant sports cars with guzzling V12 engines and bling looks are decidedly out of kilter with this carbon-crunched age of austerity. What future for road-going racers when most people struggle to outpace a bicycle in crowded cities, and are more interested in miles per gallon than miles per hour?
Stephan Winkelmann, the dashing president and chief executive of Automobili Lamborghini SpA, is one man who believes there will always be a small, but lucrative, niche for supercars in this fledgling decade.
Perhaps he’s got a point. Ask any schoolboy to name a supercar brand and he’ll say ‘Ferrari’ or ‘Lamborghini’. The two companies have been rivals since 1963, when tractor maker Ferruccio Lamborghini reacted to a snub from Enzo Ferrari by setting up his own sports car maker just 21 miles away in Sant’Agata Bolognese.
Since then, Lamborghini has carved itself a reputation for building the world’s most extreme sports cars. Where Ferraris have become synonymous with F1-derived technology and Porsches with mass-produced Teutonic performance, Lambo has always been about brutal drama, pure and simple. Miura, Countach, Diablo, Murcielago: each has defined automotive shock and awe in a different decade. A Gallardo’s scissor doors and impossible cheese-wedge profile still startle today, so imagine what they must have looked like when the Countach first arrived in 1971.
Winkelmann has run Lamborghini since 2005 and has overseen a steady expansion to achieve record production and turnover. Since Audi bought the company in 1998, a hitherto alien stability has taken hold in Sant’Agata – a refreshing change after decades of industrial crises, management clear-outs and even the occasional lurch into receivership.
What’s kept the company afloat is the sheer theatre of its designs. Or as Winkelmann, a relatively young CEO at 45, puts it: “A Lamborghini is a dream car. We have to procure the dreams of the people. If we do something merely decent, that’s not enough. We are the most extreme manufacturer – nobody builds a sportier or more distinctive car. We sell emotions.”
That innate desire, the supercar as a reward for playboys, entrepreneurs and connoisseurs alike, is what drove Lamborghini sales to a record high in 2008, when the good-time boom brought in 2,430 customers worldwide. Still relatively small fry compared to the likes of Porsche, which tops 100,000 sales in a good year, but a monumental achievement for a company whose cheapest car retails at £151,000.
Fast forward to autumn 2008, when the world’s economy felt the first shudders of recession. As finance markets collapsed on both sides of the Atlantic, the very City boys who’d filled the order books suddenly found themselves without a job, let alone a bonus. “We lost people in the real estate business in the US, the young bankers who made quick and easy money,” admits Winkelmann. “We just don’t know if and when they might come back.”
He acknowledges the company is negotiating one of its biggest challenges in decades. “Our sales last year were down 37 percent to 1,515 cars. The US market was hard – it’s our biggest market and had the biggest drop. Even the growth in Asia Pacific was not enough to balance what we lost in the US. It’s difficult to imagine us recovering to the record years any time soon. I think the year 2010 will be very tough. Let’s see what happens in 2011 and beyond.”
The slowdown has forced Lamborghini to delay plans for expanding into new niches. Two years ago it unveiled a concept car previewing a new type of Lambo: a sporting four-door called the Estoque. The plan had been to launch the company’s first saloon to rival the likes of the new Aston Martin Rapide, Porsche Panamera and top-end Mercs. A sports saloon for the businessman in a hurry.
“We are not going to do the Estoque for the time being,” reveals Winkelmann. “We will stick with [our only two production models] the Gallardo and Murcielago. We have to think carefully in these tough times: all the CO2-reduction technology is adding a lot of additional investment for our business. Last year’s research and development costs were among the highest in the entire history of Lamborghini. We didn’t pull the plug in bad times, but that means for now we have to continue with a two-model range.”
Not that that’s any hardship. These are the most exciting supercars in their respective sectors. To drive a range-topping Murcielago SV is to strap yourself into a wedgy missile on wheels: the scissor-lift doors pirouette towards the sky like a fighter jet’s canopy; you can’t see anything out the back; and the noise once you thumb the starter button and awaken the 6.5-litre V12 is akin to a volcano going off behind your left shoulder. An SV is devilishly fast, passing most European speed limits in a little over three seconds and topping out at a faintly ludicrous 212mph; for your £276,000 outlay, nothing from Ferrari, Porsche or Aston Martin comes even remotely close to the visceral thrills of a Lamborghini.
But here’s the rub. Winkelmann admits that most of Lambo’s engineering effort is now spent cleaning up its act. The company’s strategy is to slash CO2 emissions by 35 percent before 2015. How? By building cars out of more exotic weight-saving composite materials and adding new power-train technologies: stop-start, hybrids and biofuels are all under development. Performance will be joined by prudence.
Lamborghini famously picks most of its car names from the world of bullfighting. Founder Ferruccio was born under the Taurus star sign and the Islero, Urraco, Jalpa and many others are named after famous fighting bulls. The rampant bull adorning the company’s logo reflects the pugnacious spirit alive and kicking in Sant’Agata. It’s borne out in the passion of its boss today and Winkelmann isn’t going to let that ebb away by producing 4x4s and utility vehicles like some of Lamborghini’s competitors. Schoolboys of the future will still hold the company’s name in awe.
“We will always surprise our customers,” he vows. “I am certain of that!” www.lamborghini.co.uk
