TURIN.- Andrea Pininfarina, chief executive officer of the company that bears his last name, was killed in a motorscooter accident. Pininfarina was riding a scooter when it was hit by a car driven by a 78 year old man in Trofarello, near Turin.
Pininfarina was the CEO of the coachbuilder of his family's name, Pininfarina. In 1981 he graduated from Polytechnic of Turin as a mechanical engineer and in 1982 was employed by Freuehauf corporation in the United States of America. In 1983 he joined the family business as Program Manager of the Cadillac Allanté project at Pininfarina. In 1987 he was promoted to Co-General Manager of the company, and in 1988 he became General Manager. In 1994 he was again promoted to Managing Director, and in 2001 he assumed the responsibility of chief executive officer.
Pininfarina S.p.A. is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder in Cambiano, Italy, founded in 1930 by automobile designer and builder Battista "Pinin" Farina (following the company, his family name became Pininfarina in 1961, as a result of combining his nickname and surname).
Over the years the company has been employed by many automobile manufacturers, notably Ferrari, Maserati, Cadillac, Nash, Peugeot, Jaguar, Volvo, Alfa Romeo, MG, Cisitalia, and Lancia. Since the 1980s Pininfarina has also provided industrial design and interior design consultation to corporate clients. Furthermore, over the years the company has designed trams (e.g. those in Lille), trains (e.g. Dutch domestic high-speed trains currently being built), and trolleys (e.g. Boston Green Line). Up to his death on August 7th, 2008, Pininfarina was run by Battista's grandson Andrea Pininfarina: the new responsibility designation is presently pending. The Pininfarina Group employs more than 3,000 people in subsidiary company offices throughout Europe, as well as in Morocco and China.
In addition to production vehicles, Pininfarina creates prototype, show, and custom cars for auto manufacturers, as well as private clients. Most prototypes -such as the Ferrari Mythos- have served solely as concept cars, although several have become production models, including the Ferrari 612 and Ferrari F50.
A recent privately-commissioned custom example was the Ferrari P4/5 of 2006, a one-car rebody (changing the exterior design) of the Enzo Ferrari according to the client's specifications. Its design began in September 2005 with sketches by Jason Castriota moving through computer aided sculpture and stringent wind tunnel testing. More than 200 components were designed especially for the car though the engine, drivetrain and many other components are simply modified from the original Enzo Ferrari. The Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) is unchanged from the Enzo it was derived from. The P4/5 was publicly revealed on August 18, 2006 at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elégance and shown again at the Paris Motor Show in late September. Another recent prototype is the Pininfarina Nido, a two seater sub-compact that could possibly make airbags obsolete.
