Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., commonly referred to as Lamborghini  is an Italian automaker. The company was founded by manufacturing  magnate Ferruccio Lamborghini in 1963, with the objective of producing a  refined grand touring car to compete with established offerings from  marques like Ferrari.
The  company's first models were released in the mid-1960s, and were noted  for their refinement, power, and comfort. Lamborghini gained wide  acclaim in 1966 for the Miura sports coupé, which established mid-engine  design as the standard layout for high-performance cars of the era.  After a decade of rapid growth, hard times befell the company in the  mid-1970s, as sales plunged in the wake of the 1973 world financial  downturn and oil crisis. After going through bankruptcy and three  changes in ownership, Lamborghini came under the corporate umbrella of  the Chrysler Corporation in 1987. The American company failed to return  the automaker to profitability and sold it to Indonesian interests in  1994. Lamborghini's lack of success continued through the 1990s, until  the company was sold in 1998 to Audi, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen  Group, a German automotive concern. Audi's ownership marked the  beginning of a period of stability and increased productivity for  Lamborghini, with sales increasing nearly tenfold over the course of the  2000s, peaking in record sales in 2007 and 2008. The world financial  crisis in the late 2000s negatively affected luxury car makers  worldwide, and saw Lamborghini's sales drop back to pre-2006 levels.
Assembly  of Lamborghini cars continues to take place at the automaker's  ancestral home in Sant'Agata Bolognese, where engine and automobile  production lines run side-by-side at the company's single factory. Fewer  than 3,000 cars roll off the production line each year. The company  currently offers two variations of a single model, the V10-powered  Gallardo coupé and roadster. The flagship V12-powered Murciélago coupé  and roadster were discontinued at the end of 2010, with a successor  expected in 2011.
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