Folks once scoffed at the idea of a hybrid race car, but with Toyota announcing its TS030 Hybrid car for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Porsche already well on the hybrid race car bandwagon, it might not be too much of a stretch to believe these rumors that the Ferrari-powered, Pininfarina-designed P4/5 Competizione is going green.

Reports from Europe are coming in that the GT prototype is looking to make a return to the Nürburgring VLN series with a hybrid powertrain. It appears that the hybrid system will be provided by Magneti Marelli and will be similar to the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) that was developed for Scuderia Ferrari in F1.

We’re sure the primary source of power will still come from the 4.0L V8 powerplant, but the addition of an electric motor will definitely help the P4/5 Competizione compete on the Nürburgring where reliability is sometimes more important than power.

[Source: Autoblog.nl]

Pininfarina has unveiled the first teaser image of their new Cambiano Concept that’s scheduled to make its official debut at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show on March 6th, 2012. The Cambiano Concept will be an elegant and refined sport sedan but will be plenty green.

Pininfarina announced that the Cambiano Concept was conceived with “great attention to the environment, both as to the engine and as to the materials’ choice.” The Cambiano Concept appears to be the culmination of Pininfarina’s hard work in styling and engineering, naming the concept after the city where Pininfarina’s headquarter is located. The debut of the concept also celebrates 30 years of their Styling Centre which started operations in Cambiano back in 1982. It’s also a 10-year celebration for their Engineering Centre which opened in 2002.

Legendary design firm Pininfarina is ending its auto production business, but will retain its engineering and design divisions. Pininfarina said it will shed 127 jobs due to the division’s closing.

“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 told Reuters.

Pininfarina has a long and storied history, having designed most Ferrari and Alfa Romeo vehicles, as well as numerous other vehicles.

[Source: Reuters]

Nothing lets your peers know that you’ve “made it” quite like parking a Ferrari on your driveway. And nothing lets your fellow Ferrari owners know that you’re a connoisseur quite like a one-off. Now, an opportunity to own such a specimen has arisen.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Pininfarina, Ferrari unveiled the “Pinin,” a Pininfarina designed sedan, at the 1980 Turin Motor Show in Italy. Now, you can have the chance to bid for it at the RM Auction at London, England.

With proportions suggesting an Italian interpretation of the earlier 1976 Aston Martin Lagonda sedan, this low slung, wedge shaped four door is the work of designer Diego Ottina under the direction of Leonardo Fioravanti, who was behind the work of many iconic Ferraris including the Dino, Daytona and P5.

Originally, the Ferrari Pinin was only a design study, and remained a static concept until the current owner of the Pinin decided to have Ferrari outfit it with 512BB’s 4.9-liter horizontally-opposed 12-cylinder engine with Weber carburetors and a double overhead camshaft, producing 360-hp. A 5-speed gearbox was taken from a Ferrari 400GT to transfer power to the rear wheels. Finally, chassis strengthening, the addition of a fuel tank, and a set of suspension and brakes completed the car.

Ready to be sold at the RM Auction in London, experts predict the car will be priced somewhere in between $742,000 – $850,000.

GALLERY: 1980 Ferrari Pinin

[Source: carscoop]

Volvo Cars plan to discontinue production of the Volvo C70 convertible at the Pininfarina Sverige AB plant of Uddevalla, Sweden, by 2013. Established as a joint venture between Italian design house Pininfarina and the Swedish Automaker since 2005, the plant is responsible of building only the C70 model and employs 600 workers for the task.

Volvo CEO Stephan Jacoby explained that while the plant produces high quality vehicles, it isn’t cost effective at current levels of production. “A Car manufacturer of Volvo’s size cannot, from a financial standpoint, justify a plant that manufactures one single model in the low volumes we have today… The production capacity in Uddevalla is only utilized to 65%.”

According to Volvo, the 600 workers of the Uddevalla plant will be moved to other facilities after its closure. However, there has been no word on the C70′s fate. Once the Uddevalla plant is closed, Pininfarina and Volvo will end their joint venture, shifting plant ownership solely to Volvo.

GALLERY: Volvo C70

Volvo has a history of getting into bed with Italian coachbuilders for some of its more exclusive models, first Bertone and then Pininfarina.

In 2003, Volvo and the latter launched a joint venture, to build the former company’s second generation C70 retractable hardtop/convertible at a dedicated factory in Uddevalla, Sweden.

However, that arrangement is now coming to an end; Volvo stating that it will assume full control of Pinnfarina’s Swedish operations in May 2013.

Research group JATO dynamics said sales of the C70 were down by some 1.7 percent last year, versus 2009; only 4,703 examples were sold for 2010.

[Source: Autoweek]

In a victory more deserving than the Oscar for The King’s Speech, Pininfarina has been selected for the best concept of 2010 by Car Design News, for their stunning Alfa Romeo 2uettottanta concept.

The 2uettottanta was chosen by both design experts as well as enthusiasts who responded to the survey by Car Design News, who conducts it every year. Past concept car winners have included the Saab Aero X, BMW Concept CS, and Mazda Furai.

“Winning the Car Design of the Year award makes us particularly proud,” said Paolo Pininfarina, the company’s chairman, “because it represents the viewpoint of car design experts, who include the Chief Designers of the most important international companies. Our design team were asked to interpret a theme that is firmly rooted in Pininfarina, the Alfa Romeo 2-seater convertible. The results confirm the excellence of the work done by our young people.”

So congratulations, Pininfarina and Alfa Romeo. Now, just put the gorgeous convertible into production.

De Tomaso is back! But not with the Pantera, arguably the company’s most legendary model. No, the troubled Italian company, constantly flirting with bankruptcy and liquidation and angry customers, has introduced for Geneva the SLC, a Pininfarina-designed crossover in the mold of the BMW 5-Series GT.

Unfortunately, the overall effort is underwhelming; the oddly-proportioned car has a gaping mouth, de rigueur of so many modern cars, the rear end of a Dodge Avenger, and the side profile cachet of your neighbor’s Lexus IS. It’s certainly not compelling enough to make us excited for the revival of a company that gave us the Mangusta, the box-flared Longchamp, and Elvis’s bullet-ridden Pantera.

The “Sports Luxury Car,” as it’s imaginatively called for now, will sport three engines: a V6 diesel, a 300-horsepower V6, and a high performance V8 with 500+ horsepower. At that rate, it should be able to outrun its own looks.

Ultimately, the company wants to find 3000 buyers per year for the SLC, at $135,000 to $175,000 when it goes on sale at the end of this year. We wish them well, because sales of the SLC will fund the development of a more traditional sedan and a coupe–which will then bring back the De Tomaso we remember so fondly.

[Source: Car Advice]

It has styled some of the most memorable cars in history, including scores of Ferraris, but more recently the famed design house Pininfarina, has fallen on hard times. It’s been up for sale for several months, though now, might have a potential buyer, in the shape of Bejing Automotive Industry Corp (BAIC).

Fueling the speculation that BAIC is in the process of a serious bid for Pininfarina, are quotes from a Chinese website (ee0.com) which said that an unnamed BAIC executive recently returned from Italy where he was in discussion with Pininfarina regarding collaboration on a new car based on the Saab 9-3.

BAIC currently owns the tooling, intellectual property and powertrain technology from the current Saab 9-3, which it purchased from General Motors and is already working on several new cars based on this platform, a new Pininfarina styled 9-3 could be one of them. If such a car does indeed materialize, it will probably make its debut at the 2011 Beijing Auto Show.

However, besides BAIC, that same media website (eeo.com), also reported that other Chinese firms, Anhui Jiangling and Brilliance, have also expressed interest in acquiring Pininfarina, along with India’s Mahindra and Canada’s Magna International. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

[Source: Inside Line]

When Bugatti unveiled the new Veyron Super Sport by announcing it had reclaimed the record as the world’s fastest production vehicle, the former record holder, Shelby Supercars (SSC), welcomed the challenge. Announcing that it would seek to top that record, SSC has also announced it will debut a new car (or at lest a new design) in order to do so.

SSC has now released the first teaser image of the upcoming successor to the Ultimate Aero, designed by none other than Jason Castriota who is known for having penned the famous Pininfarina P4/5 for James Glickenhaus.

Accompanying the photo are the words “The next generation is coming soon…” and, “Because life begins at 250.”

Set to debut in September, we expect the record setting attempt won’t be for quite a while after that, but we’ll be sure to keep on top of this story to see how long the Veyron Super Sport’s record stays intact.

[Source: ShelbySupercars]