[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

Re. Ferrari parts: The urban legend is that Enzo Ferrari insulted Ferruchio Lamborghini and Lamborghini went off and designed his own V12 supercar to get revenge. The truth is that Lamborghini tried to get an appointment at Ferrari to have the clutch replaced on his Ferrari, but they couldn't give him a slot soon enough. So Ferruchio had his own shop foreman or chief mechanic or whatever--an entirely competent guy, since Lamborghini manufactured farm tractors--do the clutch replacement himself.

After the job was done, the mechanic came into Lamborghini's office and put a clutch on his desk. "This is the clutch from your Ferrari," he said. "It cost us 500,000 lira [or whatever]." He put another clutch next to it, and it was obviously identical. "This is the clutch we use in our [model so-and-so] tractor. It costs us 2,500 lira."

Stephan