1980 Ferrari Pinin Concept

Battista "Pinin" Farina founded his design house in 1930. After World War II began he work with Enzo Ferrari on designing bodies for his road cars, to allow Ferrari to create funds to continue his motor car racing. Based on a donor Ferrari 400GT chassis, the Ferrari Pinin was a one-off concept car created by Pininfarina to celebrate the design studio's 50th anniversary. 

The drive for the project came from Sergio Pininfarina, who had dreamed of designing an Italian competitor for luxury 4 door saloon. Pininfarina designer Leonardo Fioravanti, who led the design team, proposed a sporting sedan design, powered by a forward-located Flat-12 engine. New headlights from Lucas Industries allowed the front to be lowered, creating a thin egg-crate style grill. The design also included body-coloured rear lights by Carello, a concept which is now common on production vehicles. From the side, the A and B pillars were disguised by using smoked glass, and exaggerating the C pillar, creating a coupe-style side view.

The modern design interior used tobacco-coloured Connolly Leather, and a dashboard designed by Borletti akin to that in the Aston Martin Lagonda. The centre flat-screen display and all the dials were produced by Veglia, but are only visible when the ignition key is inserted. The car included a mock-up flat 12, mated to the shell of a five-speed manual gearbox.

Tthe proposal to turn the concept into a production vehicle was however dropped and the car remains a singular concept model and the first four-door Ferrari ever built. The car was sold in 2008 by RM Auctions for €176,000. Then Oral Engineering was commissioned by its new owner to make it a running vehicle. In order to fit and cool a working flat 12 engine, the chassis was modified and strengthened, mated to an original Ferrari 400GT gearbox, and commissioned a bespoke wiring loom. The car is currently on display at the Ferrari museum, as part of a show of Pininfarina's ten greatest designs. (wikipedia)

(Photos from ultimatecarpage.com, autowp.ru, supercars.net, evo.co.uk

flickr.com, conceptcarz.com, supercarfrance.com)