Battista Farina

Who was Battista Farina?

Battista "Pinin" Farina was an Italian automobile designer, the founder of the Carrozzeria Pininfarina coachbuilding company, a name associated with many of the best-known postwar sports cars.

Battista Farina was born in Turin, Italy. The tenth of eleven children, his nickname, "Pinin", referred to his being the baby of the family. Pinin started working in his brother Giovanni's body shop at the age of 12 and it was there that his interest in cars was born. He stayed at Giovanni's Stabilimenti Industriali Farina for decades, learning bodywork and beginning to design his own cars.

Battista formed Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in 1930 to focus on design and construction of new car bodies, and quickly gained prominence. Only Carrozzeria Touring was more sought-after in the 1930s. Battista's work for Ferrari, starting in 1952, would become his most famous, though much of it was managed by his son, Sergio, who ran the firm until shortly before his death, on 3 July 2012. Some time in the early 1950s Stabilimenti Farina was absorbed into the by now much larger Carrozzeria Pininfarina.