Matt Kimberley meets Lamborghini supremo Stephan Winkelmann to find out what the brand with the raging bull means to him.
- What was your first experience of the Lamborghini brand?
When I was a kid I remember playing with Matchbox cars, so I think I had a Miura or a Countach. I can’t remember now. Let’s say it’s a Countach because then it seems that I’m younger. I remember that when I was with my father and we saw one of these cars in the street he always told me the name and the brand. This was my first memory of Lamborghini, even if I have to admit that when I was a teenager I was more into motorbikes than cars.
- What was your favourite Lamborghini from before the Volkswagen Group’s acquisition of the brand?
For me there are three. One is the Miura because at that time it was a revolution, not only in terms of its design, which was completely different, but also in terms of being something that completely changed the picture of the car business for sports cars. And then, the one which for me is timeless is the Countach – I mean in terms of design.
And because I tend to see the brand not only related to the supersports cars, I think there is really a good thing in the LM002. When I look at the LM I have a feeling that there is more [of that] to come from Lamborghini.
- How did your experiences of those cars affect your vision for Lamborghini’s future when you joined the brand?
You know, the temptation is very big to do retro-styled cars in the beginning, because they (Lamborghini’s historic designs) are so strong that you tend to say, ‘They are much better than what you have now so I want to do the same again’. But then you know immediately that this can’t be the thing [to do] for a brand like Lamborghini. In other brands there are some retro-styled cars, even successful ones, but it’s not really what it’s meant to be. For me, every car has to be very different: you have to have the guts and the courage to do something completely new.
- What is it that makes Lamborghini special to you, even above the likes of Ferrari and Maserati?
For me [Lamborghinis] are visionary and pure, and for me this is something that makes them icons. They will never be just a purchase of a car – they are always something you’ve dreamed of and this is something that we have to have and something we must continue to do.
- Other manufacturers are building super-advanced supercars like the Porsche 918 and the McLaren P1. Will Lamborghini try to go toe to toe with cars like this or does it simply not need to?
It’s a good point. We are cutting-edge technology, technical innovators in a lot of senses, but there must also be a balance between the DNA of the brand and what the future is showing us. There are these naturally aspirated engines which are part of us and part of the history of Lamborghini, and we will hold [on to] them as long as we can. There were 70million cars registered last year, [and] 2,000 Lamborghinis. We feel ethically responsible for the environment but we also know that we are not really affecting global emissions due to the amount of cars we sell and their average mileage, which is very low. But we know that there is something in the future which is going to happen, and this is something that we will evaluate. We have ideas of our own in this direction. They are a bit different, but it’s too early to talk about them.