Paolo Pininfarina, who has died after a long illness aged 65, was not only the custodian of a great Italian automotive institution, but also the man who steered the Pininfarina company into the modern age of global industrial design.
His family’s design house was responsible for some of the most famous cars ever made – more than 500, including Ferraris, Maseratis, Lancias, Alfa Romeos, as well as the Peugeot 205 and a range of defining 1960s British cars such as the MGB GT coupé, the Austin Cambridge, A40 and the 1100-1300.
Pininfarina cars were renowned for their timeless elegance, notably in the latest Ferraris. Yet by the time of the global financial crisis of 2007, its future was uncertain. As manufacturers had gradually turned to their own design studios, the age of Italian car designers as go-to masters had faded. The rival Italian design house Bertone went bankrupt.
Pininfarina survived, however, thanks to the diversification that Paolo Pininfarina had driven in the 1990s. “We are a design house, not a museum,” was his mantra, as Pininfarina moved into marine design, trains, architecture, furniture, and household appliances. He was the first director of this new division, founded as Pininfarina Extra in 1987, and he rose to be overall chairman in 2008.
The design house soon became famous for its boats, designing super yachts and power boats from Beneteau, Fincantieri, Oceanco, Rossinavi, Abeking & Rasmussen, and the English yacht builder Princess Yachts. Paolo Pininfarina also oversaw the design and building of skyscrapers, including the 102-metre-tall Ferra Tower in Singapore in 2013, and Juventus FC’s new stadium interior in Turin.
But despite its illustrious history, advanced technical design centre and wind tunnel for hire, by 2008 Pininfarina had sustained losses over three years of more than £100 million. Several external investors were found, and in 2015 the Indian car-making conglomerate Mahindra bought a large stake in Pininfarina’s parent company.
Anand Mahindra convinced Paolo that Mahindra would turn the Pininfarina family’s dream of a car under their own name into a reality. Unveiled in 2019, the Automobili Pininfarina Battista – one of the world’s fastest electric hypercars – was Paolo’s tribute to the engineering tradition begun by his grandfather Battista.
Battista Farina (1893-1966) had worked with his brother’s coach-building (carrozzeria) company, founded in 1906 as Stabilimenti Industriali Farina. They soon added Battista’s nickname “Pinin”, meaning “baby”, a nod perhaps to his stature (he was five feet tall). He officially changed the family name to Pininfarina in 1961.
Paolo, born on August 28 1958 in Turin, realised he was part of something unusual when, aged seven, he witnessed thousands of people queuing in the streets at his grandfather’s funeral.
Battista Pininfarina had admired English taste and design and was a member of the Royal Society of Arts. His son Sergio (who also served as an Italian senator) and grandsons all spoke perfect English – in Paolo’s case with a mid-Atlantic accent worthy of a character on television.
The Pininfarinas retained their place at the cutting edge of car design into the 1980s and beyond, ranging from Peugeots to Cadillacs, and more prosaic offerings from Ford and east Asian manufacturers.
Paolo joined the family company after graduating from Turin Polytechnic as a mechanical engineer, working for Pininfarina in the US and Japan. His first design work was in 1982 on the Cadillac Allanté; built by Pininfarina at its Italian factory, it became a bestseller. He also worked on the original Honda NSX supercar, unveiled in 1989.
After his grandfather’s death, his father Sergio continued the Piedmontese tradition of couture in steel, handing over the reins in 2001 to Andrea, his eldest son. When Andrea died in August 2008, knocked off his Vespa by a pensioner in Turin, Paolo took over the presidency of a company already affected by the global recession and debts.
An early advocate of sustainable energy, he was named Italian Personality of the Year in 2011 for his work in Paris on the Autolib electric car-sharing project. He was also a founder of the Association of Industrial Design in Milan, and vice-president of the Automotoclub Storico Italiano.
Paolo Pininfarina was a quiet character, who spent his time pondering the details of engineering and construction. He also had a passion for football, particularly Juventus.
He is survived by his wife Ilaria and five children.
Paolo Pininfarina, born August 28 1958, died April 9 2024
