History in the making
Any concept car from Pininfarina is special. But, when it bears the name ‘Sergio’, it takes on a unique resonance. Ian Adcock talks with company chairman Paolo Pininfarina
“Y
ou can imagine the level of emotion that is contained in this project,” says Paolo Pininfarina in the noisy
confines of the Geneva motor show, “This is not a special car; this is a super-special car, because we wanted to put the best of us, the best of the team, of myself, to remember and celebrate the memory of my father. A monument for our company and for the collaboration with Ferrari.” For 40 years, Sergio Pininfarina,
who died aged 86 last July, headed the company founded by his own father, in that time creating some of the greatest cars of the last half of the 20th century and, in particular, for Ferrari. Not only does this latest concept pay homage to Sergio, but it has
links back to the carrosserie’s founder, Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina, via the 1965 Dino Berlinetta Speciale that was the first car Sergio designed after Battista died.
THE PAST AND FUTURE LINKED “The first car my father drove with just me in, and not with my mother and brother,” Paolo Pininfarina recalls, “was a Dino, so I am sure my father would have said, ‘Think of the Dino’, a mid-engined, light, compact, sensual car, based on the current Ferrari 458 Spyder. “My father would have wanted us
to reflect on the past, but use it to move forward. This car is not, deliberately, a design of a Ferrari of the future; this is a design exercise to celebrate a man, a father.” It is also a showcase for
Pininfarina’s engineering skills and
aerodynamics know-how. The lack of a windscreen is not a styling whim to grab attention, but a serious study in the car’s airflow and the creation of a virtual windscreen. Eliminating the windscreen would subject the occupants to increasing air pressure and turbulence as speed rises. The engineers and designers at Pininfarina designed, built and tested an aerofoil placed in a recess on the front bonnet, which produces a double deflection of the air flow entering the passenger compartment. The first deviation is from the
wing itself, the second from the air 32
www.automotivedesign.eu.com May/June 2013
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