Battista “Pinin” Farina broke away from his brother’s firm, Stabilimenti Farina, in 1928 and founded Carrozzeria Pinin Farina, with help from his wife’s family and Vincenzo Lancia. The company was incorporated on 22 May 1930 in Turin. In the 1930s it built bodies for Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Isotta Fraschini, Hispano-Suiza, Fiat, Cadillac and Rolls-Royce, and with Lancia became the first coachbuilder to build monocoque bodies.
After the war the Cisitalia 202 Coupe of 1945 established its reputation, and was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1951. That led to work for Nash, and to the Nash-Healey sports car, a Donald Healey design whose body was made at Pinin Farina’s Turin plant from 1952 to 1954. It also built the Cadillac Eldorado Brougham for General Motors in 1959 and 1960.
Pinin Farina’s son Sergio ran the company until 2001, then his grandson Andrea until he died in 2008. It was later owned by the Mahindra Group, which bought 76.06 per cent in 2015. Its clients have ranged from Ferrari and Maserati to Honda and Hyundai. It is based at Cambiano, near Turin.
