CCC Christmas Dinner - Bristol Hotel Warsaw - 14 December 2017

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. 

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. 

Islero

Also in 1968 debuted the exuberant Espada , another model carrying on the same thematic thread.

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,

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.

Urraco

then the Jalpa...

Jalpa

the concept Marzal... 

Marzal

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 13^th Century and the word means brio, fervour, vigour, vivacity, being related to gaiety. 

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. 

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. 

Murciélago 

Reventón , instead, a bull coming from Don Rodríguez breeding ranch, killed famous torero Félix Guzmán in 1943.

Reventón

Huracán was another outstanding bull from Ganadería Zamorana Conde de la Patilla. 

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.

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

·     Michael Moran (Chairman)