AutoWeek says Ferrari's broken ties with Pininfarina?

I bet Napolis would have some inside scoop on this....

 

Wagon... Does that mean a bench back seat and DVD players on the back of the seats and 37 cup holders?

 

Interesting. Well, if they have a former head designer of Pininfarina "in-house", then that could make sence. Wonder if it is indeed the truth.

 

Wonder if this has anything to do with the buyout/takeover bids going on:

http://autonews.gasgoo.com/china-news/baic-is-bidding-to-acquire-italy-s-pininfarina-ex-101228.shtml

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110104-702009.html

Erik

 

Interesting to follow...

 

Apparently the dash and instrument cluster on the new 458 was a Honda design based on what a guy told me at a recent show. He got the info from a guy who he was certain the info was reliable.

 

now that you mention this, it does remind me a little bit of the European Civic dash board...

 

Jason has finished the SSC redesign and works for Saab now, I don't think he will be leaving for a while.

 

Ferrari has its own design department, headed by Flavio Manzoni (ex-VW and formerly of Lancia), so not much chance of FIAT design getting involved.

The interiors of both the California and the 458 where said to have been designed in-house at Ferrari, led at that time by former chief Donato Coco, now at Lotus.

On a related note, it was reported that Pininfarina's design director, Lowie Vermeersch, resigned from his post just before Christmas.

 

IMO Ferrari no longer needs Pinin, Bertone, etc.
It is it's own self supporting brand.
In turn those design firms can also make much more money designing for Hyundai etc.

 

The very survival of Pininfarina as an independent entity is unlikely at this point.
The outlook was not good even before Andrea's passing. Now it seems the best they can do is to find a buyer who will respect their traditions.
Sad.

 

I thought Napolis was responsible for designing the new 458 Italia...well mostly.
Meaning that the P4/5 design was "used" to forge the design of the 458I as I see many resemblences between the two (cue Elvis' "suspicious minds" song).

 

While humourous banter, there may be truth to this.
Ken Okuyama was the chief designer for the Honda NSX project, then later worked for Pininfarina on Ferraris such as the Enzo, 599, P4/5, etc

 

very sad

given the history of Italian politics involved with it's countries own corporations, like Ferrari, it would been wonderful to see the Fiat group supported by government aid, to take Pininfarina inhouse IMO

 

I saw some official F151 sketches last week and it's still signed by Pininfarina...the rear looks very similar to a Z4 Coupé...

 

Yes, PF died w Andrea

 

I agree - the FIAT comment was only in response to the incorrect facts from the article quoted in the opening post. I noted in another post that they just re-hashed an article from the site AutoExpress saying the same thing.

Regarding Ferrari's in-house design team, I think they must surely be building it up to reduce their dependence on an outside supplier and they may eventually not use Pininfarina anymore.

I hope not though, and I hope Pininfarina survive. They have a very unique design culture that may be hard to replicate elsewhere. Regardless of who's designing or who's the design director, the results always have that Pininfarina feel about them - it would be a loss to not have them design future Ferraris. And I would miss seeing their logo on the rear fender!

In addition to the 458, the Alfa 2uettottanta concept from last year sums up their talents: beautiful, original and clean design instantly recognizable as a Pininfarina creation:
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Okuyama was still design director at the time of the 599, at least:

http://www.pininfarina.it/repository/Approfondimenti/Ferrari599/Ferrari%20599%20GTB%20Fiorano%20Car%20Styling_31-07-2006.pdf