Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., commonly referred to as Lamborghini, is an Italian automaker based in the small township of Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company was founded in 1963 by manufacturing magnate Ferruccio Lamborghini, who set out to create a refined grand touring car. The company's first offerings, the 350GT and 400GT, were noted for their refinement, power, and comfort. Lamborghini gained wide acclaim in 1966 for the Miura sports coupe, which established mid-engine design as the standard layout for high-performance cars of the era. After a decade of rapid growth, hard times befell the company in the mid-1970s, as sales plunged in the wake of the 1973 world financial downturn and oil crisis. After a bankruptcy and three changes in ownership, Lamborghini came under the corporate umbrella of the Chrysler Corporation. The American company failed to make Lamborghini profitable and sold it in 1994. Lamborghini would remain unprofitable throughout the 1990s, before being sold by its Indonesian owners to AUDI AG, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, a German automotive concern. Audi's ownership marked the beginning of a period of stability and increased productivity for Lamborghini, with sales increasing nearly tenfold over the course of the 2000s. A world financial crisis in the late 2000s saw Lamborghini's sales cut in half, leading CEO Stephen Winkelmann to predict continued poor sales for supercar makers.