Lamborghini Veneno - What does it mean?

Was the Veneno the almighty bull Lamborghini has made it out to be?

“(It) is just an amazing mistake,” said Leopoldo Peña del Bosque, curator of the Spanish web site Los Toros Dan y Quitan, in one of the few sentences he provided me in English. The name of his web site translates to “bulls give and take away,” and it pays tribute to fallen matadors. Through the power of Google Translate, I was able to have a conversation with Mr. Peña about the name chosen for Lamborghini’s latest, extremely limited supercar, a 740-horsepower, 3-million-euro beastly bull that wears the name Veneno.

Lamborghini states in its press release that Veneno, which is Spanish for poison, is the name of one of the strongest, most aggressive and fastest fighting bulls ever. A bull that became particularly famous after it fatally wounded the famous torero José Sánchez Rodríguez during the bullfight in the arena Sanlúcar de Barrameda’s, Andalusia, Spain.

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However, Mr. Pena says Veneno only wounded José Sánchez Rodríguez and it sounded to him as if Lamborghini’s hadn’t investigated the story completely. He thinks that many people may have José Sánchez Rodríguez confused with his brother, Hipólito Sánchez Rodríguez, who was killed by a bull in Úbeda Anastasio Martin in 1915. Nonetheless, Mr. Pena has heard of this mistake before. In the book Victimas Del Toreo Novilleros, Author Dr. Juan Jose Zaldivar Ortega substantiates the claim, saying José Sánchez Rodríguez was gored by Veneno, leaving the matador with a wound that entered near a molar and went up through the eye.

Either way, the Lambroghini Veneno’s namesake may not match up to reputation described in the press release. Dr. Ortega describes José Sánchez Rodríguez as a novice and the whole thing as more of an accident, and Mr. Pena says that there is no real reason to describe Veneno as the “fastest” since the speed of the bulls is not recorded, only appreciated.