Book Reviews: Pininfarina and Touring

The Italian publishing house Giorgio Nada Editore not long ago launched a series of books about some of the country's most famous carrozziari.  I happened to stumble across one about Touring while browsing a Feltrinelli bookstore in Rome a few months ago.  Upon my return home I ordered one about Pininfarina.  My reaction to these is the subject of this post.

Cover designs and links to Amazon:

Pininfarina: Masterpieces of Style

Touring: Masterpieces of Style
Amazon cites Luciano Greggio as the author of both books, though on the books' information pages he is listed as "Texts edited by" -- whatever that might mean.

I bought the books because I wanted reference material on Italian coachbuilders, especially their work from the mid-1920s to 1965 or thereabouts, a period that interests me greatly.  I was very pleased with the Touring book because that firm was active from 1926 to 1966, almost exactly hitting my time criterion.  (The name was resurrected in recent years, but that firm's work is not covered in the book.)  It is an excellent research tool for my purposes.

The Pininfarina book is another matter, partly because the firm has been active since 1930, nearly 90 years, requiring a similar-sized book to deal with a greater time span.  I did find the pre-1965 material useful, and the information regarding more recent designs should also be helpful researching material for this blog.

One disappointment with the Pininfarina book was that its text struck me as being more like an extended press release than a scholarly presentation.  Here are two examples.

1984 Ferrari Testarossa
Text on page 148 includes the following:

"The second [1984] event instead concerned the presentation of the Testarossa berlinetta, unveiled in October 1984 by Sergio Pininfarina himself in the glamorous setting of the Paris Lido; this was a car with an extraordinary presence and stood out above all for the conspicuous slatted lateral air intakes in a softly rounded composition rich in aerodynamic appendages and the fruit of highly sophisticated research."

Not factually wrong, but there is a real public relations feel to it that I found annoying.

1995 Honda Argento Vivo
Part of the book's caption (page 177) for this photo reads:

"The Argento Vivo from 1995, an authentic star in terms of research and materials used, the car was born out [of] an emotive and technological research project by Pininfarina in collaboration with Honda...."

This is rather gushy, but care was taken not to say that the car was attractive -- I consider it something of a mess, styling-wise.

One serious (for me) defect in both books was that the actual stylists of the cars presented were not mentioned or at best only hinted at.

Also available at present is a book about Zagato that I am considering buying.  Forthcoming are books about Bertone, Ghia and Vignale.