Did you know that Lamborghini also built tractors?
In fact, the company not only built Lamborghini tractors. They started with them.
And Lamborghini Trattori, the maker of Italian tractors, is still in business.
The vendor of a 1966 1R example hails it as,
“The ultimate collector piece for a Lamborghini enthusiast or collector.”
In completely “nut-and-bolt” restored form, it’s for sale on eBay in Elmira, N.Y. with a Buy-It-Now price of $45,000.
The seller restored the Lamborghini tractor, complete with orange and blue two-tone paint. He says,
“It runs even better than it looks.This will be the talk of any collection.”
Power comes from a two-cylinder overhead-valve diesel engine with early Bosch fuel injection.
That is paired to a three-speed gearbox and a high/low transfer case.
Serious Lamborghini collectors also buy the company’s tractors. But others still use them as working vehicles.
That’s the story of this lightly used and fully serviced Lamborghini C553 Crawler Tractor with loader.
It’s available on eBay in Hayward, Calif. for $18,200.
Lamborghini Tractors For Sale
eBay Motors offers Lamborghini cars, tractor parts, and diecast models.
The smaller Lambo tractors are more collectible, says “Lamborghini-holic” Robert Cleary. He said:
“If they’re well cared for, these tractors will last a long time.”
These farm tools sometimes show up in odd spots. An example is the auction field at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.
eBay has spare parts for these classic tractors.
Lamborghini tractor listings are rare. It’s probably the cheapest way to get into a Lamborghini.
A 42-horsepower 2001 Lamborghini tractor fetched $15,530 at an auction in New Mexico last June. It had a backhoe, loader, and 497 hours on the clock.
Another 1966 1R sold for $35,000 last year.
Cleary knows his Lamborghini tractors. He owns eight of the company’s vehicles.
Three years ago, he restored an R904DT tractor from 1972 (the model’s first year). Next, he sold it on eBay.
That one came with a four-cylinder, 90-horsepower diesel engine. Also, it had an all-wheel drive and a four-speed manual.
The four-cylinder diesel puts out 90 horsepower.
The rare original leather seat was $2,000. It’s authentic and probably the last one available for a meticulous rebuild. The manual is scarce, too.
Cleary went through that tractor bolt by bolt. Next, he repainted it in blue and white colors. Finally, he returned it to as-new condition using mostly original parts.
A stand-out feature was a very rare $2,000 leather seat from Europe.
Cleary also:
- Renewed the console and gauges
- Used correct yellow bulbs in the headlights
- Replaced the non-working turn signals and horn
- Put every correct decal and sticker in place.
Lamborghini Tractor History
During the Second World War, Ferruccio Lamborghini was a mechanic on military vehicles.
When the war ended, he started using the widely available spare parts to build tractors. He sold them from his small shop in northern Italy.
The business caught on. In 1960, he also started selling heating and air-conditioning units. That prospered too.
Ferruccio Lamborghini with one of his tractors, and a supercar too.
The tractors were key to car production. Ferruccio made so much money selling farm equipment and HVAC.
He used the money to buy a series of Ferrari 250s. The cars dissatisfied him. So, in 1962 headed to Maranello to tell Enzo Ferrari in person.
The clutch was far too small for a supercar, Lamborghini told the notoriously touchy Ferrari. Ferrari said,
“The clutch is not the problem. The problem is you don’t know how to drive a Ferrari, and you break the clutch.”
Lamborghini stood and said,
“Dear engineer, I’ll never buy your cars again. From now on, I’ll make my own cars. Then I can be sure they work the way I want them to.”
He founded Lamborghini (the car company) in Sant’Agata Bolgnese a year later.
Signore Lamborghini died in 1993, after selling the company to a Swiss investor.
But the cars still bear his name. So do the tractors. They are still built in Europe.
Porsche built tractors too. But that’s another story.
