More recently Pinninfarina has designed the Peugeot 406 (I think) Cabriolet.
Nice looking car! He is probably most famous for the Testarossa. I can give you
some more works of his when I get home!
I have a Mazda 1500 circa 1966/67 and I have been told the body was designed
entirely by an Italian. It doesn't look too bad.
I also have seen a BMW 1600 (in Aus) -it looked just like a 2002 but might have
been a smidgen smaller.
zac
> Hi All,
> Justin -I must agree with Zac on the 1600 rear suspension design.
> Pininfarina only style bodies
> as far as I am aware, mostly for Ferrari. Also they are an independent
> styling house and are not
> part of the Ferrari (FIAT) company. As for the body stylist of the 1600? - I
> hav'nt a clue, but
> whoever it was is a genius! OK I am biased, but the 1600 is beautifully
> proportioned and does bear
> a slight similarity to the old Fiat 128, but much nicer. Around the time of
> the birth of the 1600 the
> Japanese were still copying a lot of other western companies ideas, although
> the styling of bodies
> was outsourced alot and some designers from Europe were used. For example,
> Mazda's first in-house
> styling job was the original RX7, before that they must have outsourced
> their design work.
> As most of you will know, when the 1600 was released, it was ahead of its
> time. The only other similar
> sized vehicle to offer front discs and independent rear suspension (IRS) was
> the BMW 2000 (or 2002?).
> It would not surprise me if Datsun had pinched a few ideas from BMW.
>
> BTW I have 3 1600s, all from 1972. One I bought recently reeeeaaallll
> cheap, minimal rust, original paint
> and license plates, and is totally stock. For a laugh I bolted on an
> electronic dizzy, twin SUs (no head mods),
> new seatbelts, bucket seats and fire extinguishers and entered into my first
> rally, the Classic Challenge 2001
> here in Perth. My 1600 was easily the LEAST race-prepared car there,
> especially considering I still had the original
> steel rims (with stock hubcaps) and skinny tyres and the old un-modified
> suspension (great over speed humps
> and nothing else). Onlookers reported a hysterical amount of body roll
> during the Autokhanas but we were
> one of the few cars to always receive applause during the spectator events,
> probably because they could see
> I was pushing the car to its absolute limits and beyond. I was happy with
> our results (see below) and had
> a complete blast, even with only 68 horsepower at the rear wheel!! I'm
> hooked! I recently purchased a
> L20B race motor in Melbourne (from the Ozdat classifieds) which should pump
> out nearly 200 horses at the
> aluminium flywheel, with a ceramic plate, brass button clutch, extractors,
> twin 45 Webers, 240K 5-speed etc.
> This will NOT be going in the stock Datsun, (it's too nice in its original
> condition) but in another body which I
> will be seam welding and adding 280ZX front struts and all-round discs to.
> This should improve our placings
> in the next rally somewhat ;)
> Considering we were up against much more expensive and powerful cars,
> including a Lamborghini Diablo VT,
> Ferrari 360, a posse of Porsches, Falcon GTHO, Mini Cooper S, Honda S2000,
> Subaru Liberty Turbos, WRXs,
> and various rotary powered Mazdas, we more than held our own, finished the
> whole rally (3 cars withdrew) and
> most importantly had heaps of fun.
>
> For the Classic Challeng Rally, Perth WA I have listed our results below in
> the format: placing / total cars in category.
> Full results if you're interested available at the AEM website:
> http://www.classicrally.com.au
>
> Navigation (Touring Class)
> Navigation 1 (day one, when we totally stuffed it) 25th /29
> Navigation 3 16th /29
> Navigation 4 (day 2 when we kicked ass) 5th /29
> Navigation/performance combined 17th /29
> Navigation overall 19th /29
>
> Overall combined Touring/Navigation 84th /86
>
> Autokhanas and sprints (Handicapped)
> Kwinana Autokhana (We went the wrong way-DNF) 85th /85
> Bunnings Sprint 57th /86
> Smeaton Sprint 1 (one lap in the morning) 73rd /85
> Rockingham Autokhana (carpark event with crowd) 68th /85
> Smeaton Sprint 1 (two laps in the afternoon) 64th /85
>
> Autokhanas and sprints (no handicapping)
> Kwinana Autokhana (We went the wrong way) 85th /85
> Bunnings Sprint 65th /86
> Smeaton Sprint 1 (one lap in the morning) 80th /85
> Rockingham Autokhana (carpark event with crowd) 68th /85
> Smeaton Sprint 1 (two laps in the afternoon) 75th /85
>
> With better preparation and hindsight we should get
> some major improvements next time.
>
>
> Cheers all,
> Rob
>
