On Sunday I attended a lunch to honour the birth of the founder of Lamborghini. Ferruccio was an industrialist who owned many sports cars before creating his own supercar company Automobili Lamborghini to produce luxury Grand Tourer (GT) cars. He had owned several Ferrari and Maserati vehicles and felt he could do better! His birth was actually on April 28th and this was the weekend after – it was also the anniversary of Ayrton Senna’s death so several people wore shirts in his honour too.
I met the cars at the venue – La Vigna Trattoria in Camden just south of Sydney – as I had already checked out Motors and Meatballs 3 in the morning. The other drivers had come down in convoy which was a sight to see when they arrived!
There were about 100 people there with quite a wide mix of mostly Italian cars: over 20 Lamborghinis attended with around a similar number of Ferraris, 5 Maseratis and then a mix of Iso, FIAT and Alfa Romeo added in. To complement them a Honda NSX and a Dodge Viper made an appearance!
La Vigna is a great place to have as a meeting point for car clubs as it has a large concrete car park for off street parking and the venue has a great Italian menu with delicious pasta, pizza and salads on offer. It is run by an Italian family and they really know how to look after their guests.
What I enjoy about these meets is the diversity and age of the attendees. There were young owners with the latest cars and many people who had slightly older cars that were being maintained well – clearly it was full of enthusiasts for their respective marques.
Then there were the classics – an Iso Grifo and Iso Lele arrived. Both rare in Australia and in great condition. The Grifo especially, joined the Maseratis in showing how beautiful and curvy a car could be in contrast to a modern Lamborghini. Not surprising really as the Grifo and GranSport share the same designer: Giorgetto Giugiaro.
The Iso Lele was a classic early 70s luxury Italian car with US muscle under the hood, this time firstly Chevrolet and then Ford V8s. The car was designed by Gandini, another icon of the industry.
To bring us back to earth was a new Alfa Romeo 4C and a FIAT 124 that had some work done to it to make it a little more “dynamic”! This was a car that my uncle used to drive in the early 70s and I have fond memories of it, although not as tricked up as this.
It was a great event, a fabulous mix of cars and people, the weather turned out great after a wet start to the day and the village of Camden was witness to a fitting tribute to Mr Lamborghini (and Mr Senna).
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