Deluxe Masterpieces of Style: Pininfarina, Bertone,Ghia & Vignale 4 Book Set

The entire stylistic and industrial history of Pininfarina, a true bastion of the “Made in Italy” phenomenon, is contained in this book with its wealth of black and white and colour photos. For almost 90 years Pininfarina has been synonymous with Italian coachbuilding. Some of the most iconic cars in the history of not only Italian but also worldwide motoring have been clothed by a firm that has been recognised as the creator of true works of art. Battista Farina, known as “Pinin”, was the master craftsman who in 1930 founded in Turin the ‘’Società Anonima Carrozzeria Pinin Farina’’. The quality and the beauty of his creations soon established the firm’s reputation and well before the outbreak of the Second World War it could boast magnificent bodies on Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Fiat chassis. 1947 saw the presentation of a milestone in the history of Italian design, the Cisitalia 202. Between the 1950s and 1990s the company produced iconic designs such as the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider and the “o Duetto”, the Lancia Aurelia B24 and the Flaminia, the Fiat Dino Spider and the 124 coupé, not tmention the innumerable Ferraris bodied by the prestigious Turin firm that from 1952 had become Maranello’s coachbuilder of choice. Numerous 250 GTs, the 250 Le Mans, the 365 Daytona, the 308 GTB, the Testarossa and the 288 GTO are all Pininfarina-bodied Ferraris. The full story of this giant of Italian design finally told in a single volume.

For almost a century, Carrozzeria Bertone has created some of the most sensational models in automotive history. The extraordinary concept cars such as the B.A.T.Mobiles, the Testudo, the Canguro, the Carabo and the futuristic Stratos – to mention but a few – were joined by iconic sports cars, such as the numerous Lamborghini Miuras, Marzals, Espadas and Countachs and the Alfa Romeo Montreal, as well as more “down-to-earth” cars that went into mass production. This last category features the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint, the Fiat X1/9 and the Nuova Mini Innocenti along with the many Citroëns designed between the late 1980s and early 2000s. These are just a few of the models featured in the extensive and varied Bertone catalogue to which great designers of the calibre of Giorgetto Giugiaro and Marcello Gandini have contributed.

In-depth historical contextualization by Luciano Greggio, a great connoisseur of the Bertone marque, and a magnificent collection of photographs make up this latest volume in the series Masterpieces of Style.

This is the story of Ghia of Turin, a company active from the 1920s. The firm was responsible for some of the most important models in automotive history, frequently distinguished by daring and trend-setting styling. Tracing the history of Ghia brings to light models of particularly evocative appeal, such as the Fiat 508 Sport Spider (1934), various Alfa Romeo 6C 2500s and the 1900 SS Abarth (1954), not to mention a number of unusual Ferraris from the same decade. A decade that was of fundamental importance to Ghia that, one after the other, produced a series of opulent cars inspired by the styling canons in vogue in the United States in that period, but also styling exercises such as the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia (1955). The Sixties were no less prolific, with further "classics” such as the Fiat 2300 S (1960), the De Tomaso Mangusta and Pantera (1966 and 1970) and the immortal Ghibli from 1966. As was the case for other Italian coachbuilders, there followed a period of crisis that saw the Ghia marque change hands on a number of occasions before being acquired by Ford.

The history of Vignale, the coachbuilder that bodied the first unforgettable Ferraris of the 1950s – responsible for cars such as the 166 and 212 Inter, the 250 and the 340 MM – narrated through rare archive photos, many of which previously unpublished. The Masterpieces of Style series dedicated to the greats of Italian coachbuilding – including Zagato, Pininfarina Touring and Giugiaro – could hardly not have a title devoted to the Turinese atelier founded in 1946 by Alfredo Vignale. This book covers, model by model, the entire output of an illustrious marque that was at its peak in the Fifties and Sixties when, thanks above all to the extraordinary talent of Giovanni Michelotti, it produced numerous bodies for Ferrari chassis, along with diverse Fiats with special versions of the 500 and 600. Not to forget the various Lancias such as the Appia and the Flavia Convertible and the prolific collaboration with Triumph. W3 The history of Vignale, the Italian coachbuilder that bodied the first unforgettable Ferraris of the 1950s and 1960's, thanks above all to the extraordinary talent of designer Giovanni Michelotti.