Murcielago - The Name

In Lamborghini tradition, Murcielago is named after a Spanish bull which, in 1879 had his life spared after a fierce fight by a famous matador. He was subsequently given to the breeder Don Antonio Miura and went on to father a formidable line of fighting bulls that extends right down to the present day.

True to the tradition, in which the bull has always been the symbol of the prestigious motor company of Ferruccio Lamborghini (who was born under the sign of Taurus), this is the latest in a succession of names linked to the world of the corrida (bull fighting), such as Miura, Islero, Urraco, Bravo, Jalpa and Espada.

Murcielago also means 'bat' in Spanish, or in its literal translation, 'bird that sings in the night'. It's an unusual name that effectively expresses the dynamism, elegance and power of the latest thoroughbred to merge from the Lamborghini stable. It also reflects the unique styling and aerodynamic features of the car such as the VACS which, with its outward opening air vents, lends Murcielago the 'look' of a 'bird that sings in the night' during high performance driving.

Murcielago is officially pronounced "Mercy - el - ago".

With the development of the new Bacardi rum, in 1862 Bacardi purchased a tin roofed factory building in which he planned to start a distillery. In the roof of the building lived a family of fruit bats, considered to be a good luck omen in Cuban mythology. To this day, the official logo of the Barcardi Company bears the likeness of a fruit bat in flight.

· Bacardi was born in 1862 when Spanish-born wine merchant Don Facundo
Bacardi Masso bought a small tin-roofed distillery for 3,500 pesos in
Santiago de Cuba

· The distillery had a colony of fruit bats in the rafters, which
quickly became the white rum's brand symbol. Cubans began referring to
the drink as "el ron del murcielago" - the rum of the bat