Battista Hyper GT adds a spark to the Pininfarina exhibition at Petersen Automotive Museum

Battista in Petersen Museum Peterson Automotive Museum

LOS ANGELES and TURIN, Italy, CNW - The Automobili Pininfarina Battista will take center stage in a new exhibition at the world famous Petersen Museum in California celebrating 90 years of peerless Italian car design and featuring iconic Pininfarina-designed models that have inspired the pure-electric hyper GT.

"The Aesthetic of Motoring: 90 Years of Pininfarina" exhibition will pay tribute to nine decades of design leadership and includes some of the earliest Pininfarina models, up to the inception of Automobili Pininfarina and the design and production of the all-new Battista.

In 2018, Automobili Pininfarina was created to fulfill Battista 'Pinin' Farina's dream of developing and producing a stand-alone range of Pininfarina-branded cars. The first of these vehicles, presented in early 2019, is the pure-electric Battista hyper GT – the most powerful road-legal car ever designed and produced in Italy. Just 150 will be created and, like many of those iconic Pininfarina designs from the past, each will be individually hand-crafted at the Pininfarina SpA atelier in Turin, Italy.

Battista in Petersen Museum with 1931 Cadillac Model 452A Boattail Roadster in foreground. Peterson Automotive Museum

Sitting at the heart of the exhibition is one of the original design models from 2019. It delivers the vision of the new business and shows how its design has been influenced by, and pays tribute to some of those historic models positioned close by.

Luca Borgogno, Chief Design Officer, Automobili Pininfarina, said: "The new Battista hyper GT is a unique design with beautiful detailing inspired by nine decades of design excellence, befitting the most powerful Italian car ever made. The unrivalled heritage of Pininfarina has allowed us to look back for inspiriration and honour some of the revolutionary vehicles of the past, to create an icon for the future. This exhibition gives visitors a unique opportunity to see how the future of electric luxury performance has learned from the lessons of the past and to appreciate the timeless quality of exceptional design first hand."

Alongside the new Battista are legendary designs from Pininfarina's past. These include a 1931 Cadillac Model 452A Boattail Roadster, the first Pininfarina body mounted on a non-Italian chassis, and a 1947 Cisitalia 202 coupe, famed for its sleek aerodynamics and regarded as revolutionary in its design. The quartet of design icons is completed by a 1966 Dino Berlinetta 206 GT Prototype – the first mid-engine Ferrari. This will be replaced with a 1967 Ferrari 365P Berlinetta Speciale "Tre Posti," the last vehicle bodied by Pininfarina for a private client.

The exhibition will also dive deeper into some of the incredible achievements and key moments over the past 90 years of Pininfarina history, stretching all the way back to 1930. It also highlights the ongoing family lineage, starting with the original coachbuilders, right through to the creation of the Automobili Pininfarina business back in 2018.

Nine decades of Pininfarina will be represented in the"Aesthetic of Motoring: 90 Years of Pininfarina" exhibition Peterson Automotive Museum

Petersen visitors will also get the chance to see other important vehicles from Pininfarina's back catalog, with a number of significant models displayed throughout the museum. In addition to the exhibition, a 1959 Ferrari 250 GT Interim Berlinetta, a 1989 Ferrari Testarossa, a 1991 Ferrari F40 and 2004 Ferrari Enzo feature in the ongoing "Supercars" exhibit. If visitors make their way to The Vault section of the museum they will find, among others, a 1953 Nash-Healey Roadster, 1972 Ferrari 365 GTC/4 and the 1982 Ferrari 308 GTSi from "Magnum PI", all of which owe their beautiful designs to Pininfarina.

Following the opening of the new museum exhibit, Automobili Pininfarina plans to return to the US ahead of Monterey Car Week in August this year. The pioneering hyper GT is currently undergoing the next phase of dynamic testing at the Nardò Technical Center In Italy with engineers, including ex-Formula One and Formula E driver Nick Heidfeld.

"The Aesthetic of Motoring: 90 Years of Pininfarina" opens on March 25, 2021, running until December 5, 2021. For more information about the Petersen Automotive Museum and its exhibits, visit Petersen.org.