According to a famous story, Lamborghini exists because Enzo Ferrari insulted a tractor maker. This lesson tells the story of one of the great rivalries in the car world, from the 1960s to today’s race to go electric, and gets students talking about pride, competition and brand loyalty. This B1 version tells the story of the tractor maker who decided to build a better car than Ferrari.
Level: B1 · Time: 45 to 90 minutes. Pick the activities that suit your class. They work in almost any order.
Lesson Activities
- Warmer: What Car Is This? – Reveal the picture tile by tile. What is it? Which country is it from? How old is it? (It’s a Lamborghini Countach, the famous 1970s and 80s poster car.)
- Prediction: Ferrari or Lamborghini? – Students guess which company each of 10 facts is about (horse or bull logo, Formula 1, tractor maker, Volkswagen…), then check after reading.
- Vocabulary: Pre-teach the Key Words – Match 10 words from the text to their meanings before reading (complain, proud, factory, shock, supercar, championship, challenge…).
- Reading: Ferrari vs Lamborghini, the Tractor Maker Who Took On Ferrari – A graded text with 12 gaps. Choose with a word bank or without a word bank.
- Discussion: Cars, Pride and Rivals – 10 conversation questions about dream cars, complaints, motor sport and electric sports cars.
- Speaking: Ranking – How do you beat a rival? Students rank nine business strategies, from making a better product to buying the competitor, then compare with a partner.
Teacher Tips
- For a shorter lesson, use the warmer, the reading and the discussion cards.
- Language focus: the reading uses the past simple for the story and the present simple for today. Students retell the story in their own words using the timeline: 1950s, 1963, 1966, 2025, 2026.
- Business English classes: discuss the ranking task in terms of the students’ own industry. How do they compete with their main rival?
- Follow-up: students present another famous rivalry, or design their own supercar brand with a name, logo and slogan.
Teaching a stronger group? Try the B2 version of this lesson.