Lamborghini Sets World Record in Japan While Celebrating the Brand's 60th Anniversary

To celebrate its 60th anniversary, the erupting Italian brand made landfall in the Far East. What better place to stage a speedo-centric gathering of sportscars than the Temple of the Crankshaft God in Japan?

The place would be the Suzuka Circuit; the Lambo rally – organized on the 23rd of February – was announced only on this first day of spring by the Italians. As it turns out, their event marked a world record: the “Largest parade of Lamborghini cars” ever.

Two hundred fifty-one automobiles from the Bolognian manufacturer drove around the track simultaneously. The Guinness World Records seal of approval backed the feat. Although the attendance was substantially more robust in numbers – over 280 Lamborghini automobiles, according to the official roll call – not all of them subscribed to the long march on the tarmac, but that makes no difference for the brand’s loyalists.

Lamborghini brought out the very best of its heritage, paying tribute to the primordial 350 GT, the Islero continuator, and the poster-perfect Countach (three examples restored to impeccable condition by the Polo Storico Department of the carmaker).

Japan has a sweet tooth for the athletic Italian make, and this guilty pleasure recently took the form of a double masterpiece of contemporary art – the Time Gazer and the Huracan STO Time Chaser_111100, both creations of IKEUCHI. Last but certainly not least, on the list of Lamborghini priorities, the supercar party served as the official Japanese market launch for the Huracan Sterrato.

Lamborghini has a solid fan base in the Land of the Rising Sun, and the record-setting attention this special gathering received needs no further introduction. The Asian country is renowned for its engineering mastery. Carmaking is one of the powerful industries that put Japan at the forefront of the global economic realm (Toyota needs no further appraisal).

However, the Imperial gearheads do not shy away from bowing in appreciation for a magnificent foreign performance display, and Lamborghini made sure the brand paid homage to its roots in a spectacular manner. The Suzuka gathering is something Ferruccio Lamborghini probably never envisaged when he decided to turn his back on Ferrari.

The hot-headed Italian dispute of egotistic businessmen motoring ambitions is well known. Still, a detail has slipped through the endless tales of how Ferruccio and Enzo became bitter rivals. The “your clutches are worse than what my tractors have ” complaint was met with arrogance from the hubristic Ferrari founder.

As a result, the farmer planted a V12 inside a beautiful body, and the world still reaps the fruits of his vengeance-spurred impulse. Ferruccio chose the bull as the emblem for his new-founded sportscar in a sublime but gruesome symbolical throw of the gauntlet. Many attributed this to his zodiac sign or his passion for the Spanish bullfighting games.

Both could be true, but a more profound, darker secret is hidden in the muscular, raging posture of the logo. During the classic era of the corrida, when all fights were fought to the literal end of life, the number of horses that fell victim to the bulls’ brutal goring was far greater than that of the defeated bulls.

Whether Ferruccio Lamborghini was aware of this statistic when he decided to take on the Prancing Horse is something we’ll never know. Still, his cars have since been considered the ultimate Ferrari Nemesis.