00:00 Chances are good that if you're watching this program, you already know that Lamborghini's logo is a rampant bull.
00:04 You may also know that most of their model names are inspired by classic bulls and bullfighting.
00:09 But if you're like us, 21st century Americans, you don't know anything about the bullfighting tradition that inspired these cars.
00:15 What better way to fix that than with an epic drive from the factory here in Santa Agata Bolognese, Italy,
00:21 to Zaragoza, Spain, where the hooved Aventador met his valiant end in 1993.
00:25 [intro music]
00:31 The engineer industrialist Ferruccio Lamborghini, born under the sign of Taurus,
00:36 made his fortune building tractors and spent it on a string of increasingly fabulous cars,
00:41 culminating in a Ferrari 250 GT.
00:43 Disappointed by that car's fragile clutch, Spartan interior, noisy cabin, and Ferrari's indifferent customer service,
00:50 he brought his concerns to Enzo himself.
00:52 The old man was so dismissive that Ferruccio decided to build a better Ferrari,
00:56 combining equivalent performance with greater grand touring comfort.
01:00 While his original 350 GT model was in development, Lamborghini visited the gondoleria, that's bull ranch,
01:06 of Don Eduardo Miura Fernandez.
01:09 The brute force and agility of his Miura bulls so impressed Lamborghini
01:13 that he adopted the bull logo for his automotive operation and named his second car Miura.
01:18 Nearly every Lambo since has borne a bullish appellation.
01:22 Halpa, Yaraco, and Gallardo are bull breeds,
01:25 Rama is a bullfighting region,
01:27 Espada and Estoque are swords used by the bullfighters,
01:31 and the rest are named for particular bulls.
01:33 Murciélago fought so valiantly in 1879 that his life was spared.
01:38 That's a rare honor granted to only about three-tenths of a percent of all bulls today.
01:42 Reventon and Islero killed their respective matadors, and Diablo and Aventador died in the ring in 1869 and 1993.
01:50 The word "Countach", if you were wondering, is a Piemontese expression akin to "Va va va voom".
01:56 This new Aventador succeeds the Murciélago, Diablo, and Countach as Lamborghini's most extreme supercar.
02:06 Upping the technical ante for this generation is an F1-inspired carbon fiber monocoque tub
02:11 made using a new lower-cost RTM Lambo process that clamps dry carbon fiber mats in a mold,
02:17 injects the resin, and cures it.
02:19 The finished product reportedly weighs 324 pounds and is three times as rigid as the Murciélago's structure.
02:26 Higher compression, new combustion chambers, and a more sophisticated engine controller
02:30 boost the V12's output to 691 horsepower.
02:33 A new wider-ratio, seven-speed, single-clutch automated manual improves both launch performance,
02:39 0-60 in 2.8 seconds, and top speed, acclaimed 217 miles per hour.
02:45 Now, if I just set the nav system to go straight to Zaragoza, we could make it there in 13 hours.
02:51 I could have dinner there.
02:52 But Lamborghini has lent me this car for an entire week, so we're going to take in some great roads.
02:57 A couple of roads that the Tour de France bicycle race uses,
03:00 including the highest mountain pass in Europe, the Col de La Bonette in France.
03:04 But for the first stop, this humble Midwesterner is a little uncomfortable in such an ostentatious car,
03:09 so I want to go someplace where it blends in.
03:12 Monte Carlo, Monaco.
03:26 This pocket principality has long served as a haven for profits, supercars, and jumbo yachts,
03:31 but today its population has tripled with camera phone-wielding tourists,
03:35 all intent on capturing this orange spaceship.
03:37 Most peer inside, hoping for a glimpse of Bow Wow, Young Jeezy, or Soulja Boy,
03:46 only to discover some old white guy.
03:48 We attempt a lap of the Formula 1 circuit, but parting a sea of pedestrians with this
03:52 fire-breather is an exercise in frustration, so we escape to nearby Nice, France for the night.
03:57 [Music]
04:06 We're here in the Maritime Alps on Europe's highest paved road,
04:10 across the Col de La Bonette Pass.
04:12 It measures 9,192 feet above sea level.
04:14 It's kind of interesting, the pass is actually a little lower than where we are right now,
04:18 but then someone else paved a higher pass, and the French added this little loop that
04:22 goes over another mountain to get the bragging rights back.
04:26 The Tour de France bike race has come up here four times, the most recent one in 2008.
04:31 Now, there are higher paved roads in Europe, one in Austria and one in Spain,
04:36 but those are dead-end spurs, and we needed a road that goes someplace,
04:39 because we've got places to be.
04:41 [Music]
05:05 Light Tuesday morning traffic allows the big Lambo to stretch its legs,
05:09 bellowing with each "arancada" (the bullfighting term for a charge)
05:12 between one hairpin and the next.
05:14 The gigantic carbon brakes display equally impressive "frenard"
05:18 (that's when a bull makes an ABS-grade stop to gore the matador instead of following his cape through).
05:23 The low windshield header and fat A-pillars severely limit my view of uphill switchbacks
05:27 in either direction, however, and in the first few sharp left-hand hairpins,
05:31 my ankles get drenched in air conditioner condensation.
05:37 The Aventador is considerably tamer than its Murciélago predecessor,
05:40 but it still seems a rather blunt instrument by comparison with the top Ferrari.
05:44 Its enormous engine, tires, and all-wheel drive generate epic acceleration and grip,
05:49 but after reaching the summit in unbelievably short order,
05:52 I feel more relieved to have survived with only damp ankles than proud of my own driving efforts.
05:57 We overnight in Aix-en-Provence, hometown of the renowned artist Paul Cézanne,
06:02 whose work bridged the gap between 19th century Impressionism and 20th century Cubism.
06:08 In the morning, we head for the Roman city of Arles,
06:10 where the Dutch Impressionist Vincent van Gogh painted the majority of his work,
06:14 300 paintings in 15 months.
06:17 We visit the Espace van Gogh, a former hospital where Vincent was admitted after cutting off his ear.
06:22 A tortured hook to our bullfighting narrative is that matador Emilio Muñoz fought the bull
06:27 Aventador so well that the crowd petitioned the ring president, via applause and handkerchief waving,
06:33 for "oreja," the awarding of an ear as trophy.
06:37 Gnarly, huh?
06:38 Here we are in Arles, France, attracting a crowd, as usual, in front of the amphitheater.
06:43 This amphitheater was built by the Romans in 90 AD, mostly for chariot racing and gladiator fights.
06:49 Then with the fall of the empire in the 5th century,
06:51 they fortified it into its own little city with 200 houses and two churches inside.
06:56 They cleared all that out in the early 19th century and reopened it as a sporting event arena
07:00 in 1830 with a bullfight, and they're still holding bullfights here,
07:03 although it's quite a different style here in France. We're going to check it out tonight.
07:06 Each bull spends 15 minutes in the ring, during which several raceteurs attempt to
07:17 remove tassels and threads from its horns using claw-shaped hooks.
07:21 The action is fast-paced, and we see more than a few close calls as the bulls repeatedly chase
07:26 the men over the fence. It's an interesting role reversal in which the bulls face no real danger,
07:31 living to play again with the best ones becoming famous.
07:33 Today we make for the Spanish border, scaling the Pyrenees via the Col d'Espagne,
07:44 which has been featured in 66 Tour de France bicycle races. At 4,885 feet, it's a much easier
07:51 climb and it's choked with two-wheelers on this sunny Thursday morning. But soon enough,
07:56 we emerge from a long tunnel in sunny Spain. Our destination today is the GanaderÃa Lunes y
08:01 Estac, which raises fighting bulls of the Atanasio Conde de la Corte lineage,
08:06 descendants of the Gallardo line.
08:08 Hemingway said, "The fighting bull is to the domestic bull as a wolf is to the dog.
08:17 A domestic bull may be evil-tempered and vicious as a dog may be mean and dangerous,
08:21 but he will never have the speed, the quality of muscle and sinew,
08:24 and the peculiar build of the fighting bull." We pasture our Aventador and open a gate to let
08:30 the mothers and calves get a look at this distant mechanical cousin of their Gallardo forebears.
08:35 They stampede, bucking and snorting in apparent approval.
08:37 [Music]
08:49 [Spanish]
09:09 How do you name the mothers then?
09:11 [Spanish]
09:35 [Spanish]
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10:49 And so we've reached the end of our epic drive, having brought Lamborghini's Aventador
10:53 here to the famous Plaza de Toros in Zaragoza. It was in this very ring on October 15, 1993,
11:00 that the Aventador's namesake fought so valiantly against the famous matador Emilio Muñoz.
11:05 Hemingway compared the matador to a pipe organist, saying, "A bull that does not charge
11:12 is like an unpumped organ, and the performance a bullfighter can give with such a bull
11:16 is only comparable in brilliance with that of an organist who had to pump his own pipe organ."
11:21 His point was that the typical foreign tourist who sees one bullfight isn't likely to witness
11:26 high art, and will probably storm out of the ring repulsed by the bloody animal cruelty.
11:31 That was certainly my reaction during a vacation visit to Madrid in the 90s,
11:35 and I doubt that I would have reacted much differently if that fight had featured Muñoz
11:39 in Aventador. But after taming this wheeled bull over the course of 1310 miles, spending $807
11:47 on 108 gallons of premium, watching the Jutoran, getting to know several practitioners of this
11:53 ancient art, and making a few arrancadas at our matador on the very same yellow albero sand
11:59 where Aventador died, I have a better understanding of Ernest Hemingway's,
12:03 and Ferruccio Lamborghini's, love for this deeply rooted tradition.
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