Looking ahead to the 2012 Geneva Motor Show this March, Italian coach builder Pininfarina has officially unveiled the first teaser image of their latest ground-breaking creation: the Cambiano.
As is the case with a lot of teasers coming out these days for Geneva, Pininfarina is keeping a closed lid on any information surrounding the Cambiano, opting only for a few descriptive sentences to kick-start our imaginations into complete overdrive.
In the case of this intriguing concept, Pininfarina has bared this nugget of information describing the car: "it is an elegant and refined sport sedan, conceived with great attention to the environment, both as to the engine and as to the materials’ choice."
Reading between the lines, it appears that the car could be some sort of hybrid sports car that carries the company’s distinctive and provocative styling. Consider us intrigued. As far as the name of choice is concerned, Pininfarina chose Cambiano as a tribute to the city hosting the Pininfarina Group’s headquarters. It’s also no coincidence that the car is being prepared as a celebratory model of sorts to honor of the 30th anniversary of the Styling Center and the 10th anniversary of the Engineering Center, two branches of Pininfarina that have played critical roles in the design and build of a lot of their ultra-exclusive exotics.
We’ll have more info surrounding the Cambiano in the weeks and days leading up to the Geneva Motor Show. For now, you can ogle over the teaser image of the car, which is what we’ve been doing for some time now.
UPDATE 01/13/2012: Pininfarina has unveiled the second teaser for their Cambiano concept; an image that reveals part of the side of the vehicle. It looks as though the Cambiano will have a short bonnet and a set of large alloy wheels. There also seems to be no air inlets, leading us to believe this could be a full-electric vehicle.
UPDATE 01/19/2012: We are getting one step closer to the official opening of the Geneva Motor Show and Pininfarina is offering us a new teaser image of their Cambiano concept. This was shows off the intricate detailing of the roof. Enjoy!
UPDATE 02/06/2012: Pininfarina is continuing its teaser session for the Cambiano concept with a new video of the car set to be released at the Geneva Motor Show. Enjoy!
Pininfarina, the epic auto design and coachbuilding company responsible for the likes of Ferrari and Maserati models, is taking its breakdown to the next level by announcing that it will no longer be producing cars. This news comes about two years after the company sold its auto assembly and painting business. From now on, Pininfarina will only be in the automotive design business.
"Unfortunately we are having to stop our production activities, given the way the car market is. So we are focusing on design and engineering," a Pininfarina spokesman said. Since this decision was made, Pininfarina has already begun laying off the first few of the 127 employees that will be losing their jobs, a task that is costing them a total of 2.9 million euro ($3,900,000 at the current exchange rates)
It didn’t seem as though Pininfarina had much choice in the matter considering their business had plummeted since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2008. There was a time when Pininfarina produced 40,000 vehicles in one year, and in 2010, that number dwindled down to 7,000. Now that their only focus will be on design, we expect to see great things from the Italian company.
While Pininfarina is busy designing models for Ferrari, concept designer Peter Norris is taking a break from his job in the video games and entertainment industry to design a future luxury sports car concept that is "clean, unfussy, elegant and fast." These attributes led him to the Pininfarina Coupe Concept, a front engined model combined with a rear wheel drive system.
Norris’ design inspiration for the Pininfarina Coupe Concept came from the love of his very own Fiat Coupe 16v Turbo with some Ferrari lines thrown in to polish it over. The Pininfarina Coupe’s look is characterized by the ultra low roofline and the accentuated front and rear fenders. The sleek profile is exaggerated further with large wheels that visually shorten the height of the sports car. At the back of the Pininfarina are a set of C-shaped LED taillights.
When talking about his concept, Peter Norris said: "much of my work is focused strongly on science fiction and the distant future, but with this project I wanted to create an elegant and unfussy design with classic lines that could be on the road today."
“The Pininfarina styling inside as much as outside just oozes with Italian flair and really was, and still is different to anything else on the road. Some people have referred to it as a “baby Ferrari”.
Somehow we don’t see a luxury sports car like this toting around the 190 HP 2.0L 16V Turbo engine as seen on the Fiat Coupe, but since the Pininfarina Coupe Concept was also inspired by Ferrari, we’d love to see something along the lines of the 458 Italia’s 570 HP 4,499 cc V8 engine. Not a likely scenario, but we can dream.
Could it be the world’s ultimate supercar? Combining the skills of legendary design house, Pininfarina, with the pace of an Enzo, this impressive coupe was set to turn the performance car class on its head when it was unveiled in the summer of 2006.
It’s the Ferrari 612 P4/5, a one-off model created especially for film director and stock exchange magnate, James Glickenhaus. The P4/5 started its life as an Enzo, but was transformed because Glickenhaus wanted a car that resembled the styling of Ferrari’s 1960’s race cars, the P Series. Designing, engineering, and building this special car was left in the hands of none other then Pininfarina. Their mission was to produce a unique vehicle inspired by sport racing cars with extreme vocations. This was not to be just a show-car, but a vehicle to be enjoyed on the road. And taking a close look at the final product, we have to admit they managed to do more than that.
UPDATE 01/06/2011: Check out the latest testing video for the Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina after the jump!
Hit the jump to read more about the Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarina.
Lancia may not be the first brand you associate with a supercar – it may not even be the ninth or tenth brand you’d think of – but the truth sometimes is stranger than what people think.
And the truth is, Lancia is making a supercar – they’re calling it the Stratos – and with the help of noted coachbuilder, Pininfarina, we may see a whole lot more of the car in the coming future.
For now, we’re going to settle for this video of the Stratos, which, at this point, is probably still a prototype, being taken for a quick run around the track by no less than Michael Stoschek, the man behind the entire project. We don’t even need to understand German to know that there seems to be a lot of expectations directed at this car, especially considering that the Stratos is pretty much a mini version of a Ferrari 430 Scuderia with the car’s engine being a Ferrari V8 and its chassis based on the aforementioned Prancing Horse sports car.
Like we said, we’re going to run off a lot more models of supercars before we come across the Stratos, but for what it’s worth, this Lancia/Pininfarina project should be making a name for itself sometime down the road.
