The 2017 CCC Christmas Dinner at the Bristol Hotel Warsaw on December 14th attracted a record number of diners - 24 - in fact this was the capacity of the Slowacki Salon. Not only male members but also their wives or lady friends had been invited which lifted the spirits immeasurably and produced a truly convivial occasion. The 4 Course menu was memorable (there a new excellent chef at the Bristol) and the wine was excellent and plentiful.
The after dinner lecture was given by the polymath Grzegorz Grątkowski. He selected as a subject the names of different models of various famous marques of cars (Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Maserati, Lancia) and the origins of these names. I am unable to print the entire illustrated lecture but include below an extract from his fascinatingly researched text and illustrations of the section devoted to the Lamborghini.
It’s widely known that Ferruccio
Lamborghini used his Zodiac sign, Taurus, is the logo for the machines he
built. True, but vague.
Being more specific, he got the idea after having
visited, in 1962, la Ganadería Miura near Sevilla, the ranch of Don Eduardo Miura Fernández where
fighting bulls were bred.
The first Lamborghini named after a bull or a
corrida-related theme came in 1966 and that was, of course, the Miura.
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| Miura |
Next
was the car given the name of a phenomenal bull that, in 1947 in Linares,
killed the matador Manolete. The man was such a superstar that after his death
General Franco ordered three days of national mourning in Spain. The name of
the bull, and two decades later of the car, was Islero.
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| Islero |
Also in 1968 debuted
the exuberant Espada , another model carrying on the same thematic
thread.
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| Espada |
We might think that at the same time an
exception was made and Lamborghini called its model, the Jarama ,
after a racing circuit where in those days the Formula 1 Spanish Grand
Prix were held. Wrong! The producer from Sant’Ágata was well aware that, his involvement
in motorsport being minimal or inexistent, it would be flagrantly unjustified
to call a car after a racing venue. Actually, Jarama, the area just north-east
of Madrid, not only hosts the circuit,
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| Jarama |
but also some ranches from which first-class fighting bulls originate (above). Then there were Lamborghini models named after other strains of bulls, including a sort of a baby Lamborghini, a sleek mid-engined coupé called Urraco, definitely an underrated model.
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| Urraco |
then the Jalpa...
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| Jalpa |
the concept Marzal...
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| Marzal |
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| Gallardo |
and, in more recent times, the Gallardo. The latter name is really interesting. Gallardo is an ancient breed of bulls, rooted back in the 13th Century and the word means brio, fervour, vigour, vivacity, being related to gaiety.
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| Gallardo |
The French gaillard signifies “plein
d'allégresse et de vivacité”. In fact, in his Histoire de la France, André Maurois
describes François d’Angoulême, later the king François le Premier as un splendide gaillard, jeune, ardent –
brave, young and ardent. Or, to quote from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem Eldorado: “Gaily bedight, a gallant knight, in sunshine and in shadow, hath journeyed long…”
Finally, the names of particular eminent bulls, in the
vein of Islero. We had the Diablo, a legendary bull which
confronted the torero José De Lara known as “El Chicorro” in an epic duel held in
1869 in Plaza de Toros in Madrid.
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| Diablo |
And Murciélago which in 1879 earned a rare
honour – it fought so brilliantly that the matador Rafael “El Lagartijo” Molina
Sanchez decided to spare it and send it back to the Miura ranch as a sire bull.
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| Murciélago |
Reventón ,
instead, a bull coming from Don Rodríguez breeding ranch, killed famous torero
Félix Guzmán in 1943.
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| Reventón |
Huracán was another outstanding bull
from Ganadería Zamorana Conde de la Patilla.
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| Huracán |
It fought matador Frascuelo in Alicante
in 1879, while Aventador hit the arena in Saragossa in 1993 and faced Celestino
Quadri Vides with so much courage that it was awarded, albeit posthumously, the
Trofeo de la Peña La Madroñera for its bravery.
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| Aventador |
Finally, the Urus, the name of
the brand’s most recent model. It means the
aurochs, tur in Polish, an extinct –
or, earnestly speaking, exterminated – species of supercattle once living in
vast forests of Europe. 
CCC Members present at the Dinner:
·
Erik Hallgren
Grzegorz Gratkowski
Adam Widmański
Zofia Widmański
Błażej Żuławski
Tadeusz Wesołowski
Ewa Wesołowska
Mirek Staniszewski
Michal Wrobel
Barbara Adam
Solveiga Wallach
Jerzy Bylica
Dorota Żylewicz-Nosowska
Agnieszka Cybulska
Jaroslaw Cybulski
Ian Booth
Iain Batty
Agnieszka Booth
Paul van Arkel
Tessa van Arkel
Richard Kaluzynski
Guy Pinsent
Emma Pinsent
Erik Hallgren
Grzegorz Gratkowski
Adam Widmański
Zofia Widmański
Błażej Żuławski
Tadeusz Wesołowski
Ewa Wesołowska
Mirek Staniszewski
Michal Wrobel
Barbara Adam
Solveiga Wallach
Jerzy Bylica
Dorota Żylewicz-Nosowska
Agnieszka Cybulska
Jaroslaw Cybulski
Ian Booth
Iain Batty
Agnieszka Booth
Paul van Arkel
Tessa van Arkel
Richard Kaluzynski
Guy Pinsent
Emma Pinsent
· Michael Moran (Chairman)
