Enzo Ferrari didn’t initially intend to manufacture road cars when he started his Scuderia Ferrariteam in 1928. It wasn’t until almost two decades later, in 1947, that the first road car bearing the prancing horse, the V12 125S, was produced mainly to finance his team’s racing activities.
Ferrucio Lamborghini founded Lamborghini Trattori in 1948, a successful manufacturer of tractors and other agricultural equipment. In 1959, he opened an oil heater factory, and later started producing air conditioning equipment. Naturally, he became very wealthy.
Enzo met Lamborghini's dissatisfaction with Ferrari’s sub-standard quality and after-market service with derision. In 1963 he decided to build his own car company, Automobili Lamborghini, in order to manufacture a supercar superior to Ferrari’s and get his revenge. The rest, as they say, is history…
And McLaren made its Formula 1 debut in the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix, but didn’t build its first road car, the record-breaking F1, until 1992 –and it sold only 102 units, including the race versions. Its first volume production car is the recently launched MP4-12C.
Dietrich Mateschitz, who owns Red Bull, decided to buy not one, but two Formula 1 teams: Jaguar Racing in 2004, which he renamed to Red Bull Racing, followed two years later by Minardi, which became Scuderia Toro Rosso (Italian for Team Red Bull).
Now, Herr Mateschitz wants to follow the example of Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren and extend his activities beyond F1. His intention is to become a car manufacturer, as RBR boss Christian Horner revealed to Autocar: “Red Bull used to be known only as an energy drink company, but now it is recognized as an engineering team. It’s a natural evolution for us to get involved in road car engineering.”
However, he doesn’t intend to start from scratch. He already has a partnership with Nissan-Renault’s luxury brand, Infiniti, which is advertised on the RBR F1 cars powered by Renault. Infiniti sources are acknowledging that their brand’s awareness has increased because of their involvement in F1.
So Red Bull’s first step will likely be a Red Bull Racing-badged special edition of a yet unknown, Infiniti model (we would bet on the G37 coupe). But while the brand plans to expand its European range with a medium-size crossover and a LEAF-based EV with increased performance, don’t be surprised if Red Bull starts an actual car company in cooperation with the Renault-Nissan alliance.
After a tractor manufacturer and two F1-team owners, an energy drink company that also happens to own last year’s F1 champion-winner to build it own cars? Well, why not? The G37 sounds like a good base - and, given that Renault doesn't manufacture supercars, how about a GT-R-Based Red Bull Mr. Mateschitz?
By Andreas T.
http://carscoop.blogspot.com/
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