The Ferrari 812 Superfast has come and another era in Ferrari performance is arising: a 789-hp naturally aspirated V12 and four-wheel steering. It will be the most powerful front-engine Ferrari ever produced and push the design envelope for the company to new boundaries. However, as with every sunrise, there must be a sunset. This one is quite bittersweet. For as long as I have been alive, there has always been a small horizontal badge on the side of every Ferrari (with the exception of a few special models) that said “designed by Pininfarina. The coming of the Superfast also marks the end of the era of Ferraris wearing bodywork designed by this storied company.
Pininfarina, a company based in Turin, Italy, was founded in 1930 and drew up their first car for Enzo 66 years ago with one of the earliest Pininfarina-bodied Ferraris being the 1953 250 Europa. However, by the 1970s, Pininfarina was responsible for every Ferrari road car except for the Bertone-penned 308 GT4.
Ferrari established its own in-house design studio, Centro Stile Ferrari in 2011. The LaFerrari set a new course for the brand as the first-ever Ferrari designed entirely in-house. Go ahead, look down the side of the California T, 488 GTB, and GTC4Lusso. You won’t see a single Pininfarina badge and now, the only one left standing, the F12Berlinetta, is but a whisper in the wind.
Of course, all of Ferrari’s current lineup features Pininfarina influence, since all of its cars are heavily updated versions of models originally styled by the Turin design house. When the California T was launched, Ferrari described the styling as being “penned by the Ferrari Styling Centre in collaboration with Pininfarina.”
Indian automaker Mahindra bought Pininfarina back in 2015. The design house will debut a concept car named for F1 champion Emerson Fittipaldi at next month’s Geneva Motor Show. We will look forward to seeing what Pininfarina reveals.
Even though the partnership isn’t officially over, these two companies created some of the most beautiful cars of all time. It is a sad day for automotive design. It’s akin to a solid marriage breaking up. You just can’t imagine one without the other.
What are some of your favorite Pininfarina automotive designs?
