Pininfarina, 90 years of age and not hear them News

There was a time, straddling the middle of the wonderful 90 years, Pininfarina will be celebrating next may, that from the atelier of turin, came out only masterpieces. The world of the car was continually open mouth and there was a row of builders who dreamed of having at least one of their cars designed, if not directly manufactured, by the turin coachbuilder. The Ferrari first of all, but not only. The Alfa Romeo Giulietta and Duetto, Fiat 124 spider and Dino Spider, the Lancia Flavia Coupe or the amazing Peugeot 406 Coupé are among the figurines, the most beautiful of the album, but not the sun. It didn't matter to the customer, the solution was always magical.

The founder, Battista Farina said “Pinin” that would be for Giuseppino, given that so much resembled his father, Joseph, was already leaving the leadership of the company to his son Sergio, who will be able to enjoy the most shining continuing the vision of paternal with a modernity entrepreneurial admirable that he will command the Confindustria and to sit in Parliament as a life senator. Sergio had not yet 4 years old when the father, in the 1930's gave way to the activity with the support of the fundamental Vincenzo Lancia, who became his bodywork some of its cars prestigious and opened doors to a prestigious clientele, and rich who was happy to show off the cars in the tailoring industry. Above all, Sergio was 24 when he accompanied his father to meet with Enzo Ferrari that the company will be an extraordinary collaboration with over a hundred cars born beautiful and become the queens of the collectors.
From the Ferrari to the Duetto Alfa Romeo: the success of the designer
As was told it just Sergio Pininfarina in an afternoon in the hot July 2000, in a square of Maranello, hammered by the sun: "I know that I push my father to meet with Ferrari? Those two were a tough guy, not them smuoveva none. They met halfway, in Tortona. For all the time that they were together, I said never a word. Then, during the return journey to Turin, drove my father and the car was a Lancia Aurelia B20, I suddenly heard the words: “Ferrari is one of our customer, an important customer; occupatene you”. I was astonished, but touched the sky with a finger. The only one not happy was the Ferrari. I was too young and he had a lot of confidence. For the first few years I did a bunch so, he was never well anything. But over time I had managed to get more and more and at the end he loved me like a son. Even if you scold me always to make machines that are too heavy. Yes, I was torturing its own with the weight. Do you think that once I said to him: woe to you if the new car is more than 800 pounds when he knew very well that already in 1200 would have been a few. And, in fact, the first born he weighed in at 1280... should throw it away, he commented on him. I then went home and I did weigh all the parts that arrived from Ferrari. The engine, transmission, brakes, and chassis. They only weighed 805 pounds! I went back to Maranello with all the cards in the pocket and very timidly him, I mentioned. I believe in it? For two or three years I turned more to the word."

it Is impossible to separate the history of the Pininfarina from the house of Maranello, too many masterpieces for over half a century, the dream car as the Daytona, the 250 GT California, the Dino 246, the F40, GTB, or the Le Mans without listing the other hundred that remain. But Pininfarina, which bears the name of the founder, joined the family name from the 1961, at a certain point had become too great to satisfy the continuous requests that it received. Plants in Italy and in Sweden with the assembly sfornavano models for Volvo, Ford, Fiat, Alpha Romeo, Peugeot, Mitsubishi, even for the Cadillac with the comings and goings of aircraft on the route Torino - Detroit to make an impression. A summary of 90 years crazy is not possible in a few lines, however, the maximum point of success turned out to be a problem rather than a bargain. Now 90% of the turnover came from construction of vehicles to third parties, and only 10% from the pure design, and a bit of the soul of the origins. It was folded all over, until, with the arrival of the new millennium, the production model went into crisis: large-scale manufacturers began to take everything in the house and the orders are going to end up with the same speed when they arrived. Were closed establishments and the whole of the manufacturing activity was abandoned to focus only on the design.

Silvio Pietro Angori, ceo of Pininfarina, made it clear a couple of years ago and what happened was, without too many unnecessary words: "In 2007, when I became general manager of Pininfarina, we were only a mile from the brink but we were right on the edge of the abyss. We had a debt of over 600 million and 5 thousand employees, then the shareholders would not proceed with the capital increase and the actions were taken in pledge by the banks. In these conditions, it was difficult even to find a buyer". That, however, came - the indian Mahindra - and has arranged every thing leaving that a return to the origins, to the reputation of the brand, what the company knows how to do best: to design, in short, and on the eve of 90 years you can look forward calmly even though today it is more appropriate to speak of the Pininfarina as a services company rather than a creator of incredibly beautiful automobiles.

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