Below you will find pages that utilize the taxonomy term “Pininfarina”
Against the Bougainvillea: A Ferrari 308 GTS in Taormina
The Ferrari 308 GTS does not require a good photograph to look like what it is. It requires only sufficient light and a clear line of sight, and the rest follows inevitably from the Pininfarina body and the Maranello badge. The photograph taken somewhere below Taormina — the white hotel building visible on the hill above, the bougainvillea erupting in deep magenta from the volcanic rock, the cypresses marking the sky — provides considerably more than sufficient conditions, and the result is the strongest image produced by this Sicilian rally and possibly the best argument for the event’s existence.
Number 26: The Fiat 124 Spider and the Long Argument for Undervaluation
The Fiat 124 Spider has spent most of its existence in the shadow of cars that were more expensive, more powerful, or more famous, and has spent the last two decades quietly becoming one of the more sensible investments in the Italian classic market. Rally number 26, a sage green Series 2 example photographed on the same Sicilian road as the Giulietta Spider that preceded it by a few car lengths, represents the argument for taking the 124 seriously on its own terms.
Number 33: An Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider in Its Natural Habitat
There is a category of car that does not need to be anywhere other than where it already is. The Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider — Pininfarina’s body on Alfa’s twin-cam four, produced between 1955 and 1962 — belongs unambiguously to that category, and the blue example photographed on a Sicilian road as rally number 33 makes the case without any assistance. It is on an Italian island. It is Italian. The argument is closed.
Number 5: The Alfa Romeo Duetto and the Shape That Ended the Argument
The Alfa Romeo Spider Series 1 — universally known as the Duetto, though Alfa Romeo used that name only briefly before a trademark dispute ended it — was Pininfarina’s last personal design project before Battista Pininfarina’s death in 1966, and the body he signed off on is one of the few in automotive history that can be described as definitive without overstatement. The round boat tail, the low beltline, the long hood, the simple windscreen — these were not design choices that admitted of alternatives. Rally number 5, a red example photographed on the same Sicilian corner that has already hosted a Giulietta Spider, a Fiat 124, and a Beauford replica, is the car that makes all of those other open two-seaters look like they were working toward something.
The 1962 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso Is What the GTO Looks Like When It Dresses for Dinner
If the 250 GTO was Ferrari building a racing car with a license plate, the 250 GT Lusso was Ferrari building a road car with no ambiguity about its purpose. The Lusso — Gran Turismo Lusso, grand touring luxury — was a car for the owner who wanted to drive from Milan to Monaco in the morning and attend the casino in the evening, and who expected the machine doing this to be as beautiful as anything else in either city.