I was reminded the other day that we had let Pininfarina’s 90th anniversary pass without marking it, a heinous oversight and while it’s not possible in the space of a ViaRETRO article to dig deeply into the storied history of the company, nor to discuss every one of the scores of cars that came out of their five factories, I thought I would take a look at some of my personal favourites and celebrate just a few of the fabulous creations that designers working under the Pininfarina umbrella came up with, from the humble to the exotic with stops in between.
Founded by Battista “Pinin” Farina in May 1930, over the next decade the company built bodies for Lancia (check out the fabulous 1936 Lancia Asturia Convertible below), Alfa Romeo, Isotta Fraschini, Hispano-Suiza, FIAT and others and was the first coachbuilder to use the then-new unibody technique. Perhaps the car that established Pininfarina as a design house was the Cisitalia 202 Coupé of 1947. Beautifully proportioned, the 202 acted as a calling card for Pininfarina, and although only 170 were made, the company’s reputation grew enormously from this point.
The most celebrated relationship Pininfarina had was – and is – with the Prancing Horse, Ferrari, and it would be easy to fill this piece just with examples of their co-operation, so picking only a few is not so easy. However, for me, the two most beautiful cars from that partnership are the Dino 206/246, and the 250GT Lusso, the former delicate, the latter aggressive yet elegant, they’re both stunning cars. But then there’s the 330GTC, the Daytona…and so many more.
While Pininfarina’s work with Ferrari might be that for which it is best known, the company also worked on much more prosaic vehicles for mass market manufacturers, most notably Alfa Romeo, FIAT, Peugeot and possibly most unlikely of all, BMC.
In the case of BMC, Battista Farina was commissioned to redesign not just one model, but their entire range, resulting in three so-called “Farina” saloons, from the Austin A40 – often claimed to be the first mass-market hatchback – through the mid-sized Wolseley 15/60, also launched in 1958 and up to the larger Austin 99 Westminster, introduced in 1959.
Each of these was subjected to BMC’s practice of creating badge-engineered versions bearing the Morris, Riley, MG names across a variety of models., but shared very similar styling bar a few details, with their single most defining characteristic being their rear fins.
Working with Peugeot began even earlier, with the 403 in 1955 and with Alfa Romeo in 1953 on the little Guilietta Spider, and co-operation with both companies continued for many years. Notable designs for Peugeot included the 404 saloon, 504 saloon, coupé and cabriolet (the latter two deemed by many to be among Peugeot’s most desirable cars), and on to the acclaimed 205, 405, the big 604 and 605 executive saloons and into the 1990’s with the 306.
FIAT’s 2300 saloon was the first FIAT to be the work of Pininfarina, as far as I can work out, though it’s little more than a larger FIAT 1800, which was designed in-house – and there’s a case to be made that across several of the BMC/ Peugeot/ FIAT models from the 1950’s to mid-60’s, the company did little more than re-purpose a single design for each manufacturer – take a look at the Morris Oxford, Peugeot 404 and FIAT 2300 and spot the difference/similarities…
However, Pininfarina was also responsible for what I believe is the most gorgeous car to come out of Turin, the FIAT Dino Spider, as well as the very pretty 124 Spider. In fact, I’d say that coupés, cabriolets and sports cars were Pininfarina’s forté – just look at some of the cars already mentioned or designs such as the Lancia Montecarlo and Gamma, and while on the subject of Lancia, the utterly lovely Aprilia B20 is another that ranks high in the list of Pininfarina’s greatest hits.
Pininfarina’s most famous design for Alfa Romeo was probably the 1966 Spider, sometimes also known as the “Duetto” and immortalised forever in celluloid with Dustin Hoffman at the wheel in 1967’s The Graduate. Exquisitely pretty with its cigar-shaped profile this was perhaps their most successful single piece of work for Alfa Romeo. Subsequent updates were not an improvement. Before that, though, came the equally svelte Giulietta Spider in 1955 – to my eyes, elegance on wheels.
Pininfarina was also responsible for some dramatic prototype designs – as if their work for Ferrari wasn’t dramatic enough – and some of these have achieved mythical status, such as the BLMC 1100 and 1800 Berlina Aerodinamica which stylistically presaged the Rover SD1, and the Citroen CX even more so. Our own Claus Ebberfeld wrote about them a couple of years ago – you can read his piece here.
British Leyland decided not to put either the Pininfarina 1100 or 1800 into production, and they also – bafflingly – neglected to give the green light to the pretty ADO34 sports car, an update on the MG Midget that would surely have been a success. It’s also easy to overlook – thanks to its relative ubiquity at classic events – Pininfarina’s influence in the shape of the MGB GT.
Some prototypes found their way into production with few concessions to (relatively) mass manufacture, such as the Dino Ferrari, while others, despite being strikingly beautiful, never got beyond being either a one-off or at best built in a handful of examples – I’m thinking here of the Corvette-based Rodine from the pen of Tom Tjaarda – also responsible for the FIAT 124 Sport Spider – or the ultra-stylish FIAT Maremma, itself based on a beautiful Pininfarina design that did go into production, the FIAT 130 Coupe.
There’s no doubt that in its 90 years Pininfarina has been responsible for some of the most iconic, dramatic, beautiful, and elegant designs to grace our roads, as well as bringing Italian design flair within reach of the everyday motorist. Now owned by an Indian automotive conglomerate – Mahindra – the company ended motor car production in 2010 with the Alfa Romeo Brera Coupe and Spider models – and while it still designs cars, it’s also involved in architecture, boats, trucks and even consumer products. For me though they will always be associated with some of the most beautiful cars made, so enough words – while there is no substitute for seeing such beautiful cars in the metal, the next best thing is to enjoy them in photographs – so here are just a few of some of Pininfarina’s fabulous creations; enjoy!
