Ferrari Pinin

Information

The Ferrari Pinin was created for the 50th anniversary of the famed Italian design studio, Pininfarina. Pininfarina was founded in 1930 by Battista 'Pinin' Farina and joined with Enzo Ferrari to help design the bodies for his cars. The Ferrari Pinin was made to celebrate the long history of Pininfarina and the success of their partnership. While being a one-off concept car, it was talked about going into full production by Enzo Ferrari, but it never happened, and it still went down in history as the first four-door Ferrari.

The project was spearheaded by Sergio Pininfarina, son of Battista Farina, who wanted to design a competitor for the luxury 4-door market like the Jaguar XJ, Maserati Quattroporte, and the Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9. This project was approved personally by Enzo Ferrari and Eugenio Alzati, Ferrari's general manager. Leonardo Fioravanti led the design team on this project, the same design team that made most of the Pininfarina Ferrari designs of the 1960s, and the detail work was done by Diego Ottina. Fioravanti wanted a sports sedan style with a Ferrari flat 12 in the front. New headlights from Lucas Industries allowed the front to be lowered and made the iconic 'egg-crate' style of the grille. This went along with the new body colored tail lights.

In the mid-1980s, the Pinin was sold to Jacques Swaters, a Belgian racing driver, who ran Ecurie Francorchamps, a Ferrari endurance and race team. The Pinin was kept on static display in the basement of the Garage Francorchamps' showroom. It was displayed at the for Pininfarina's 75th anniversary to the 2005 Essen Motor Show. It was sold in 2008 by Swaters through RM Sotheby's for €176,000. The buyer was former Ferrari Chief Engineer Mauro Forghieri firm Oral Engineering and told them to make it run. They put in a flat 12 from a Ferrari 512 bbi, with the gearbox and differential from a 400GT added, and various components from various Ferrari models. The chassis was lengthened and strengthened, along with a bespoke wiring harness and fuel tank commissioned. The suspension had to be replaced due to the original having non-functioning springs. The whole conversion process took a year and a half.

The car first ran in March 2010, 30 years after it was made. It went up for auction by RM Sotheby's in London in October 2010, and had a guide price of £480,000 - £550,000. It did not sell due to it not reaching the £1 million reserve placed on it. It was placed on display at Museo Ferrari in 2012, as part of Pininfarina's top 10 greatest designs. In July 2015, the Pinin was put up for sale by Hemmings with a price of $795,000. It is currently owned by Prof. Dr. Anthony Nobles in California. It was displayed at Quail during Monterey Car Week in 2018. He had originally bid on it before the car went to the factory to be converted to drive. The next few years he would track it down to Maranello in 2017 and buy it. He now keeps it in the Nobles Family Automotive Museum and takes it to Cars and Coffee on the Pacific Coast Highway on occasion.