PININFARINA
Car
Design History - Automobile and Car-body designer
In 1995, Sergio Pininfarina received the Compasso d'oro for lifetime
achievement. Pininfarina had "succeeded in applying a sense of continuity
as well as innovative ideas to automobile design," the posthumous
award speech declared. "With his designs for Ferrari he has also
made a significant contribution to Italy's image in the world." Pininfarina
in fact defined the entire look and style of Ferrari's sports cars, from
the organically shaped 250 GT SWB of 1960 and the GTB4 "Daytona"
of 1968 to the flashy 1984 Testarossa and the futuristic Mythos of 1989.
Founded
in 1930 by Sergio's father Battista "Pinin" Farina as a bodymaking
workshop for luxury automobiles, the company today employs more than 2,000
people, but has essentially remained a family business. Sergio's children
are now in charge of management. The overwhelming number of its designs
for Alfa Romeo, Lancia, and Ferrari,
and more recently for international manufacturers like Peugeot, Rolls-Royce,
Audi, Cadillac, and Jaguar, were highly successful.
Pininfarina's early creations, such as the meticulously designed, streamlined
Alfa Romeo 6 C 2300 "Pescara" Coupe
and the sleek, aerodynamic Lancia Aprilia Coupe from the 1930s
are now celebrated as legends of luxury carmaking. After the Second World
War, Battista Farina's Cisitalia Coupe, with his voluptuously
rounded, flowing form, set a new standard for Italian car design. Battista's
reputation reached such heights that, in 1961, Italy's president, Giovanni
Gronchi, made his nickname official, changing the name of the family,
and thus the firm, to "Pininfarina."
While Battista and Sergio were always the haute couturiers of car design,
they also created such successful mass-produced models as the Lancia Aurelia
B 20 Berlinetta, the Peugeot 405, and the Alfa Giulietta Spider,
27,000 of which were sold.
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