Pure Pinin: Master of Design

Pininfarina’s partnership with Ferrari began in 1951 with a meeting between the great Enzo Ferrari and the founder of a noted car design and coachbuilding firm, Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina. The summit to discuss a possible collaboration was held at a neutral venue – a small restaurant in a town named Tortona – which was halfway between Modena and Turin, where the two companies were based respectively.

It was Battista’s son Sergio, aged just 25, who arranged the meeting, unaware of how the resulting decision would affect his own life. 

The neutrality of the venue was required because neither man wanted to cede ‘home advantage’ as it were, but this was not a meeting with any animosity at play; both were very respectful of each other’s achievements and potential. 

The meeting went so well that an historic agreement was made that would see Pininfarina in charge of all design aspects of Ferrari from that point on. Sergio himself remembers being told in the car on the way back from the meeting what was to happen. 

He said: “There was Enzo Ferrari, Mr Gardini from Ferrari, my father and myself.  My father told me, “You will take care of Ferrari. And I said, ‘what?’ and he said, ‘you will take care of everything, design, planning, cost, production.’ I was a young man. I had graduated.”

Sergio eventually inherited the company from his father in 1961, and few people would have dreamt what a run of truly iconic vehicles would be about to come thanks to the immense engineering prowess of Ferrari and the sensuous lines that emerged from Pininfarina. 

Toward the end of the 1950s the astonishing 250 GT Berlinetta was unveiled, and It’s almost hard to imagine the impact of seeing the design when it emerged - suffice to say it must have been like witnessing the arrival of a car from outer space. 

Under the hood was a 3 litre V12 Colombo-designed engine that put out some 280 horsepower and would send the car to 62mph in just seven seconds. In 1959. 

Another huge leap forward came in 1968 with the unveiling of the 365 GTB/4 Daytona at the Paris Motor Show, a car that by all accounts revolutionised Ferrari design. Gone was the famous oval grille that had become a hallmark of the Prancing Horse, instead Pininfarina focused on aerodynamics, with the headlights placed under rectangular covers. 

The 1970s saw more technical innovations in terms of Pininfarina design and Ferrari engineering, and 1976’s 512 BB was no exception. Notable for being the first time the now-iconic rear headlight arrangement of two round lenses either side of the car was seen on a Ferrari, the fibreglass bottom panel was often painted black, contrasting with the classic rosso of the upper section. 

It was in the next decade however, that a model was launched that genuinely changed the idea of what a sports car could look like. There is iconic, and then there is the Ferrari Testarossa. One of Pininfarina’s most recognisable designs, it was a car that adults wanted to buy and children wanted to have on their bedroom walls. Iit went on to become the most successful Ferrari ever made. 

In 1997 the 550 Maranello became Ferrari’s flagship performance car, and it is a design that has aged so well that many cite it as one of the most beautiful Pininfarina-helmed cars even 25 years on.