Despite France’s expertise in luxury, the car industry has been left relatively untouched.
Redefine Tmall: A Mega App beyond Transaction
The Luxury Maisons’ Tmall Imperative report release by DLG guides luxury brands in optimising their…
Clash of the Titans
While Ferrari was originally founded as a racing team and then started developing and selling sports cars, Lamborghini was founded by Ferruccio Lamborghini in 1963. Lamborghini, successful founder of a tractor company, was a top Ferrari customer deeply disappointed by the performance of its cars. It seems that, during a discussion about it with Enzo Ferrari, the latter said “you cannot drive Ferrari properly, because you are used to driving tractors.”
This clash of titans convinced Lamborghini to found its own luxury car company and in 1966 he launched the infamous Lamborghini Miura. The competition between Ferrari and Lamborghini, both luxury sport car companies, based in the same region of Italy but in different cities, is still going on.
While fashion and soft luxury had their golden years in France, luxury car makers thrived in Great Britain and Italy. Bentley, Aston Martin, and Rolls Royce are the British trademark for uber luxury cars. Ferrari and Lamborghini are the best-in-class for sport luxury cars.
From status symbols to collectors items for discerning millionaires, those cars represent old and new money, castles and penthouses, countryside and City. They perfectly merge heritage and sophistication, tradition and engineering, brand power and customization.
While France may be the Olympus for soft luxury, it never had the chance nor the vision to develop luxury cars, which is clearly a successful business for British and Italians.
Cover image credit: Ferrari
