Pininfarina B0 (to be pronounced B Zero) is dedicated to the memory of Andrea Pininfarina who was a firm believer in the project.

“To think, draw, design and build cars is not only an enthralling mental process.
Nor is it simply a business choice. It is also and above all a great social responsibility.”

Andrea Pininfarina (1957-2008)

The B0: the solution for a cleaner world

Bolloré and Pininfarina have entered into a partnership featuring all the expertise required to launch serial production of an electric car which, thanks to its technical characteristics and its attractive styling, is bound to make waves in motoring circles.

This car will not be a prototype. It will be a mass production model, with the first units coming off the production line at the end of 2009, after which production will be ramped up gradually based on the availability of the batteries. Built in Turin by Pininfarina-Bolloré, a joint venture formed by the two family-owned groups, the B0 electric car will be powered by Bolloré’s proprietary LMP technology, using a combination of batteries and supercapacitors manufactured in Bolloré’s plants in Quimper, France and Montreal, Canada. The B0 will be a fully-electric vehicle without any carbon dioxide production, having been designed from the ground up with that aim in mind. Its batteries will be housed in a compartment specially designed for that purpose and located under the car, between its axles, lowering its centre of gravity and providing it with outstanding road-holding properties.
With its superb body styled by Pininfarina, Italy’s renowned vehicle design shop, the B0 electric car will be an elegant four-seater, four-door hatchback with an automatic gearbox. Its LMP battery, which will be rechargeable in a matter of hours from a standard domestic main socket, will provide it with a range of 250 km (153 miles). The B0 will have a top speed that is electronically limited to 130 km/h (80 mph) and will feature potent acceleration, reaching 60 km/h from a standing start (0 to 37 mph) in 6.3 seconds. The B0 will also feature solar panels on its roof and hood, so as to help recharge its electrical power reserves.

Physical characteristics
Volume (litres) 300
Mass (kg) 300
Communication bus CAN

Electrical characteristics
Power rating 30 kWh
Nominal voltage 410 V
Peak power output 45 kW(30s)
Min. / max. battery voltage 300/435 V
Capacity at C/4 75 Ah
Energy density per unit mass 100 Wh/kg
Energy density per unit volume 100 Wh/l

Thermal characteristics
Internal temperature 60°C - 80°C
Operating temperature -20°C à + 60°C

LMP: revolutionary battery technology

At the heart of any electric car, lies the battery. Bolloré is a highly diversified group of companies with a combined yearly turnover of 10 billion US dollars and 35,000 employees. For the past 30 years, the group has been the world’s leading producer of components for capacitors. Thanks to its acquired know-how in extruded polymers and the storage of electrical energy, Bolloré has been working for 15 years through its subsidiary, Batscap, to develop a solid-state lithium polymer battery. This battery is able to store, weight-for-weight, and it can be recharged in just a few hours. The battery does not require any maintenance and has a lifespan of around 200,000 km (125,000 miles). Another key benefit is its unmatched safety while in operation. Added to that, the B0 electric car does not emit any exhaust gases, nor any fine particles. The car’s LMP batteries thus help combat air pollution. The batteries of the B0 also contribute to reducing noise, another nuisance which affects people’s quality of life in urban environments.

Supercapacitors: boosting acceleration and recycling power

Supercapacitors are sophisticated energy storage components developed by the Bolloré Group. In an electric car, supercapacitors draw and store energy generated while the car is braking and feed it back into the system when the car moves off again. The result is greater acceleration, increased range and a longer lifespan for the car’s battery. The electric cars powered by BatScap’s LMP batteries and supercapacitors have a range of over 250 km. They are fast (with a top speed of 130 km/h), pleasant to drive, safe, and long-lasting.

Natural energy from solar panels

Because it is 100% electric powered, the B0 does not generate any pollution. But the process of generating the electricity which the car uses must also, as far as possible, not have produced any atmospheric pollution. That is why the creators of the B0 have designed it to incorporate every possible solution designed to optimise the car’s energy efficiency and use of clean energy sources. For instance, the B0 electric car is fitted with supercapacitors, which enable it to store and recycle the energy that is generated while braking. Similarly, the car’s roof and part of its hood are covered with highperformance solar panels which help power some of its equipment. It goes without saying that a responsible environmental approach must be coherent throughout. Which is why all the materials used to build the car’s body, battery and interior trim have been carefully selected for their low environmental impact. All are recyclable or reusable. The Bolloré Group is also in the process of developing straight-forward panels of photovoltaic cells which might be installed by individuals or in public places to fully or partly recharge the B0 electric car’s batteries using solar energy.

The combined power of two major industrial groups

Ergué-Gabéric / Bolloré
LMP batteries and supercapacitors were developed at the research centre of the Bolloré Group’s production site at Ergué- Gabéric near Quimper in Brittany, France. They were the outcome of a concerted research effort founded on the Group’s core activities, Bolloré being the world’s leading producer of ultra-thin extruded films used in the production of capacitors, another energy storage component. The success of its research programme led the Bolloré Group to form BatScap, a subsidiary dedicated to these activities, some 15 years ago. Nowadays, BatScap’s employees have access to the most advanced laboratory and production facilities and comprise more than 120 engineers, research staff and technicians.

Montréal / Bolloré
In 2007, the Bolloré Group bought the assets of Avestor, the only other company in the world which possessed the technology and the patents required to manufacture LMP batteries. Avestor’s Canadian team, which numbers some sixty highly qualified staff, thus joined BatScap. By pooling the talent, technologies and facilities of both sites, the Bolloré Group is able to wield major and highly sophisticated production facilities which are ample to cater to the production lines of the B0 and electric Microbus vehicles.

Cambiano / Pininfarina
World-renowned for the talent of its design teams which have created many of the world’s most beautiful cars over the years, Pininfarina is also a highly experienced carmaker which produces high-end vehicles on contract for many makes. The B0 electric car will be produced by the Pininfarina-Bolloré joint venture at a plant located near Turin. The joint venture will benefit from the
tremendous know-how and experience of Pininfarina’s personnel, who are proud to be involved in producing the world’s first serial production electric car powered by LMP batteries and supercapacitors under the company’s own badge.

Two concrete examples of LMP batteries in use

La BlueCar
Designed from the ground up to take advantage of all the benefits provided by electric propulsion thanks to the highperformance batteries developed by BatScap, the BlueCar was created by Philippe Guédon, the designer of Renault’s first Espace vehicle, in cooperation with the Bolloré Group and Matra Engineering. The BlueCar is a compact vehicle that is ideal for driving around town. The first sketches for the BlueCar were drawn in the early 2000s. The car was exhibited at the Geneva Motor Show in 2005 and is now in its second version.
BlueCar vehicles have been driven for tens of thousands of kilometres in all traffic conditions, acting as a testbed for Bolloré’s LMP batteries, which were officially approved for use in motor vehicles in Autumn 2007. The BlueCar has served as a mobile laboratory for the soon-to-be-released serial production electric car and has demonstrated that electric-powered cars are not merely a distant utopia but a concrete prospect in our time.

The electric microbus
In parallel with its work on private vehicles, and in order to ensure that the benefits of electric motoring are extended to public transport, the Bolloré Group has formed a second joint venture with the Gruau Group, a maker of buses and coaches, to design and build an electric version of the Microbus. Uniquely suited to urban transportation, this attractively styled, diminutive bus (5.46 metres long) features tremendous accessibility and is able to carry up to 23 people. The all-electric version, powered by LMP batteries and supercapacitors developed by Bolloré, will provide a simple and effective option for local authorities to offer their constituents a means of public transport which is environmentally friendly.

You like the Ferrari 360, but you say it's just not extreme enough for you? Well, then you're an obvious candidate for the 360 Challenge, the stripped-down, race-only version of the 360 Modena, and we think you have what it takes to convince the bureaucrats in your state that it deserves street-legal status. Before you can do that, however, you need to find one that you can afford (hey, all those lawyers ain't gonna be cheap), so we've found you this one for a paltry $40,000. No doubt you're having a hard time accepting that a genuine Ferrari 360 Challenge can be purchased for that kind of small-time cash, but it's for real. You see, it needs some work. Tell the truth, it's been in a bit of a fender-bender… or maybe a more accurate term would be chassis-bender. You know how most Ferraris come with an exhaustively documented history? How boring! Not so in this case, though; the seller states "I really can not tell you alot about this car,I do not know how it was wrecked,I do not know how many miles or hours are on this car." It appears that the engine was spared during the crash- though perhaps it was one of those throw-rod-then-hit-wall incidents- and the seller adds that he or she "was told engine was recently overhauled by ferrari of new england but i do not have the paperwork at this time." So there ya go- blurry photos, information-free description, no title, all on a hideously mangled somewhat battered factory race car. We like it!

Ferrari, Italy, Pininfarina… blah, blah, blah. Don't your eyes sort of glaze over when Italian-car geeks go droning on about "soul" and "passion" and all that noise? You want precision in your factory race car. Science! Naturally, that means you must start shopping for a BMW… but where could you possibly find one with a description as maddeningly vague as the Ferrari Challenge we just contemplated? Impossible! The bar has been set too high! Put your monocle back on, Helmut, because we've managed to find this BMW E46 M3 (go here if the ad disappears) for the steal-it-today price of 36 grand. The listing for this car- that is, if "car" is the right word in this case- is a genuine Craigslist masterpiece; we can't even figure out quite what's being sold here. The "factory built roll cage is up for sale," but there's also the "rolling chassis is as is in photos shown below." The photographs muddle more than they enlighten; we've got two blurred shots of what appear to be shipping labels, one shot of a car that appears to be a chassis that rolls only on pallet jack wheels, and one shot of a vehicle- perhaps the same one- surrounded by packing materials. Do you get a suspension? Does the cage come with the deal? How about ownership paperwork? We're pretty sure there's no engine involved, so you can go ahead and start building up a wild Bavarian six-banger now; we know you'll leap all the other hurdles as they come.

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Well, I haven't got much to say about this car.It's a Peugeot 404. It was in a pretty good condition, although it looked like it was repainted, so probably that wasn't the original color. Nevertheless, it looked great, with the chrome details looking good, and no visible rust, although It was a bit dirty. I think these cars were common in my country, specially in the northern part of my country, but in my city, they are a very rare sight. It's actually, the second i have seen here. The other, was, actually, in a scrap yard.

Could it be this Dino 246? Or what about the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider? Or is that the wrong era entirely? Maybe it was futuristic models like the Dino 206 Competizione or Ferrari Modulo that truly define the company's vision. What about the Maserati Birdcage or the P4/5? What do you think? What's the most iconic Pininfarina design?

Pininfarina's death comes at a time when the family-controlled company is in the midst of a crucial restructuring. Last year, Pininfarina's consolidated net loss increased to 114.9 million euros from 21.9 million euros the previous year. Andrea Pininfarina is survived by his wife Cristiana, and two sons and a daughter. We're told the company said it will issue a statement later today. [via Automotive News (sub. req.)]

I spotted this B parked while going out to dinner a few weeks back (on the same commercial strip where we saw the '71 Karmann Ghia). The sun was setting and I was using a borrowed camera, but I was able to capture this super-rare machine.


Yes, MGB fans, I know you can make these cars drive pretty well with huge swaybars, sticky tires, and more power... but in stock form they'll get blown away by your average mid-70s Civic.


That Pininfarina design sure is pretty, though! These things sold new for about $3,600 back in the early 70s, which was $1,300 more than a Datsun 510 and about $900 less than a BMW 2002.

Based on a Ferrari 512M, the FX keeps the 440 HP 5.0-liter flat-12 engine, but nearly everythng else has been redone. The body was made by Pininfarina, and utilized aluminum and carbon fiber. All very well and good, but the really impressive upgrade was the gearbox. Keep in mind that Ferrari did not yet offer an F1-style gearbox for their road cars. So, the Brunei royals went to the Williams Formula One team to supply a F1-spec sequential transmission. That meant, in 1994, the Sultan's road-going supercar had a 7-speed flappy-paddle gearbox — four years before the Ferrari 355 F1 would debut as a '98 model. And it was all downhill from there. [via Supercars.net]

The concept car acting as guinea pig for this windshield is called Hidra. The first layer of the windshield is a layer that filters the sun and simply repels water. Think of it as a giant Teflon pan. The second layer uses "nano dust"—whatever the hell that is—to magically get rid of windshield dust. It detects the dust with a third layer and employs a fourth, conductive layer to power the entire windshield.

Fioravanti says this technology could be ready within five years. I call BS, but I also would prefer to keep my old-fashioned rubber wipers, because i don't want no damn nano-robots living in my windshield, getting smarter and smarter, plotting my demise. [Sparkingtech]

The shiny webzine shows us how the designers took liberties with the flexibility of the fuel cell concept, and stashed little cells all over the car, allowing a more even weight distribution and freer design of human space. Another interesting feature is a bit more Star Trek. The car would be equipped with something unfortunately called Clancast which acts as a car-to-car communication system. The idea is the system could allow the elimination of standard safety infrastructure stuff like stop lights. The lights would be displayed virtually in a HUD display in the can, and cars would acknowledge each other and avoid accidents automatically. Hello, Jetsons?

According to the company, the plan is to have the first 1,000 vehicles available by late summer 2009 with production reaching 15,000 vehicles a year by 2012. Prices are supposed to be set at 500 Euros or approximately $720 dollars a month, which we assume is a lease. [Reuters]

Big Daddy Glick gives us a tour of his bespoke Pininfarina Ferrari P4/5, parked beside the classic P3/4 that inspired him to disfigure an Enzo to such a degree. It's filmed in the backyard of Jalopnik's New York compound, in Westchester County (motto: Come watch our bond traders procreate!). He also describes the process of backing up a Brinks truck full of cash at the Pininfarina headquarters in exchange for their coachworks efforts, and Ferrari's reaction to his plan. All that and how his wife got to pick the seat cover fabrics. Haters step off, this is the feel-good hit of the year. – Mike Spinelli

[via Carscoop]

Related:
Big Daddy Glickenhaus On The Ford/Ferrari War; Glickenhaus on Living With the P4/5 [internal]

So after writing about that Down On The Street '66 Lancia Fulvia, I figured there couldn't be any harm in checking out what kind of Lancia deals you can get these days. And what a deal I found! It's a '76 Lancia Scorpion (known as the Lancia Monte Carlo in Europe, but Chevrolet had that name nailed down on these shores). This one's in very nice shape, though of course it's got the horrible 1976 crash bumpers and zilch-horsepower smog motor. But it's still got genuine Italian style, buddy! The best part? According to the plaque, the car was originally built for a gentleman named Ray Falco. You just know he was a strip club owner in Tucson. – Murilee Martin

1976 Lancia Scorpion 53k miles very original, runs perfectly! - $12000 [Craigslist SFO]

Related:
Who Wouldn't Love a Lanciamino? [internal]

The Winding Road crew procured some shots of the new, Pininfarina-designed Maserati GranTurismo coupe being highly molested on Germany's N rburgring. Apparently, an aging rock singer was behind the wheel, and he was brooking no guff from the long-lens set. Still, it looks just about ready for a life behind wrought-iron gates and valet parking. Hopefully it won't always be that way. – Mike Spinelli

Spied: Maserati GranTurismo On The 'Ring [Winding Road]

Related:
Geneva Showcase: Maserati GranTurismo [internal]

The autophiles over at the UK's CAR tracked down Jean Michel Santacrue and Adam Burdette, TVR's new overlords, as well as teenage Russian baznillionaire Nikolai Smolenski who is expected to soon cut all ties with TVR and head back to Austria. Smolenski accepts responsibility for workers' ire at the Blackpool shutdown, but lays the demise of British-built TVRs squarely at the feet of the British government. Meanwhile, Santacrue and Burdette are planning to go with either Pininfarina or Bertone for manufacturing purposes (previous reports generally revolved around the latter), while retaining a crew of 20 engineers and designers in the UK.

The duo claims to be working with American authorities on crash and emissions standards. Will TVR return to American shores? Will TVR survive? This whole may seem more brain-melting than the ins and outs of the Chrysler situation...except TVR actually seems to have some semblance of a plan at this point. Which is more than we can say for the cats out in Auburn Hills or over in Stuttgart. – Davey G. Johnson

TVR interview exclusive [CAR]

Related:
TVR Out of the Terlet and Into the Florida? [Internal]

One of the cars in the above illustration is a '79 Renault Torino, while the other is a '65 Rambler American. Notice any similarities? The story of the Renault Torino isn't just the usual case of a US automaker selling the tooling for an obsolete model to a South American manufacturer, nor was it a simple re-badging of a US model for license-building abroad. No, the Torino is the result of an early chapter in the twisty tale of the Renault-AMC story, which resulted in a unique-to-Argentina vehicle, based on the Rambler American Rogue but with body redesigned by Pininfarina and a Kaiser-designed engine under the hood. The Torino became a legend in Argentina, selling like crazy and having a fair bit of racing success, including a major N rburgring triumph in 1969. Torino production halted in 1982, a dark year for car freaks in Argentina. – Murilee Martin

So What's A Torino? [Rambler Rogue Registry]

Related:
The Go-Anywhere Ford Falcon...From Argentina! [internal]

As we trundled our weary bones down to the bodega this overcast afternoon with Minuteflag's "Fetch the Water" spinning in the brain-pan, 1990 happened all over again. We spied a man wearing Oakley Razor Blades in a clean Cadillac Allant . The XLR's Pininfarina-bodied, wrong-wheel-drive older brother actually looked pretty damn good. In fact, we'd go so far as to say it's a future cult classic — especially the final 290-hp Northstar-powered models from 1993. Sure, the quality control was typically Italian, which, combined with the collective Seasonal Affective Disorder of the workers in Hamtramck who performed final assembly, led to some durability issues. Meanwhile, we're gonna go scour eBay for a pair of iridium-lensed Razor Blades. – Davey G. Johnson

Cadillac Allant [Wikipedia]

Related:
Exclusive Ad Watch: The Cadillac XLR-V is a Punk Rocker, Bored With Lookin' Good [Internal]

Ed Jim "Big Daddy" Glickenhaus has had a few months to toy with his Pininfarina-built, Enzo-based Ferrari P4/5, and the auto types over at Forbes commissioned Ted West (who did the Car and Driver P4/5 profile released just before the car's debut at Pebble Beach last summer) to speak with tha Glick about what the car's like to live with. He was careful not to dis the underlying Enzo, pointing out that the P4/5 is both an evolution and a result of technology that's four years newer. He then went on to point out that his machine is faster, louder and less likely to scrape on curbs than Ferrari's own basket-case-mad supercar. – Davey G. Johnson

Q&A: What It's Like to Own and Drive a $4 Million Ferrari [ForbesAutos]

Related:
You Are There: James Glickenhaus Drives His Custom Ferrari [Internal]

Lewis Black, always looking to cover things that've slipped through the cracks, decided to take on James Glickenhaus. Glickenhaus is the Ferrari collector who went and commissioned Pininfarina to build him a $3 million bespoke update of the Ferrari P4 over an Enzo chassis, the 612 P4/5. It'd appear that every time this car gets mentioned in the newspaper, it gets an upgrade of about half a million in the price tag. By Detroit, we're thinking they'll be pegging the price at about $9 million. As for Mr. Back In Black, wait for the always funny money shot at the end — we guarantee the punchline'll be worth it. – Ray Wert

Related:
Glickenhaus Unveils His New Ferrari 612 P4/5; Glickenhaus Ferrari in the Parisphere; You Are There: James Glickenhaus Drives His Custom Ferrari [internal]

According to Supercars.net, the Sultan of Brunei's custom Jaguar XJ220 Pininfarina surfaced recently — no mean feat considering the Sultan has approximately 5,000 cars to his name. The history of this rare cat traces to sometime in the mid-1990s, when the Sultan and his brother, Prince Jefri, went on a supercar-buying spree, subsequently having the cars redone by the world's top design shops. At the time, the XJ220 was the fastest car in the world, with a tested top speed of 212.3 mph — an obvious choice for a car nut with endless ducats. This particular specimen allegedly sat in a garage amid two McLaren F1 LMs, four bespoke, Pininfarina-designed Ferrari FX models and other such toys. Yes, but is he happy? – Mike Spinelli

1995 Jaguar XJ220 Pininfarina [Supercars.net]

Related:
It's Good to Be the Sultan: The Private Collection of Mr. Brunei [internal]

As debutante balls go, this one was a doozy, featuring all manner of exotica and just plain expensica. While our favorite car in the building was Spyker honcho Victor Muller's three-place vintage Rolls with a wooden deck and a side-mounted gun-rack built for some maharajah or other, all eyes were on the stage for the unveiling of James Glickenhaus' Pininfarina designed-and-built P4/5. We've written about it ad nauseum, and pix from Pebble have already appeared on the site, so this post is essentially an addendum to illustrate the sheer madness as the great washed (you think they let the unwashed through the gates at Pebble Beach, son?) swarmed the magnificent vision in carbon fiber. Still, Jim, we've gotta give you shit on the horrid Jock Jams you cranked during the reveal. Next time you drop four mil on a custom car, call us. We'll set you straight on the tunes. H sker D 's "New Day Rising" seems like it would've been the natural choice for such an occasion.

Related:
Coming Out: James Glickenhaus Unveils His Pininfarina-Built Ferrari P4/5; More from Pebble Beach [Internal]

After we'd finished ogling the 599 in the Ferrari North America tent on Friday, we stepped outside for a dose of nicotine (it's the pause that refreshes, after all), and stumbled right into Peter Kalikow's Pininfarina-massaged 612 Scaglietti, dubbed the 612 Kappa. We shot the shit with some Ferraristi and gleaned that with the GTC exhaust, the ram-air effect caused by the functional hood scoop and the downforce provided by the massive ducts behind the front wheels, the revised Scag should be able to top 200mph. While it's been overshadowed by the radically altered Enzo-based James Glickenhaus P4/5, the Kalikow car betters the standard 612 in practically every way. This is the 2+2 Ferrari should've built.

Related:
Another Billionaire's Ferrari: Peter Kalikow's Scaglietti; More from Pebble Beach [Internal]

James Glickenhaus may have produced such B-movie cult classics as "Frankenhooker" and "Maniac Cop," but the unveiling of his coachbuilt Ferrari P4/5 at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance this past weekend went directly to video. We're talking about streaming video, of course, and the venue is YouTube, not Blockbuster, and no one is maimed, wronged, or smokes "supercrack" (not that we can tell, at least). Check out a long-form vid of JG's speech, and a special, secret bonus trailer after the jump.

Related:
More on the James Glickenhaus Ferrari P4/5 [internal]

Our techie brothers at Gizmodo took a look at James Glickenhaus's Pininfarina-designed, rebodied Ferrari Enzo, the P4/5. They turned an electric eye toward the bespoke model's gadgeted-up interior, which has a few more e-trinkets than does the donor Enzo, including vid-mo and iPod Nano. Anyone want to guess what Big Daddy has on his 'Pod? We're going with Wagner's "The Ride Of The Valkeries" or Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf Op. 67." Either that or early Chemical Brothers.

Ferrari P4/5: Gizmolicious and One of Kind [Gizmodo]

Related:
More on the James Glickenhaus Ferrari P4/5; Pininfarina Releases Press Kit [internal]

The kidlets over in Maranello, after lending their badge to all manner of questionable tchotchkes (surfboards, cologne, etc.) have actually lent their blessings to the three high-profile coachbuilt cars to debut in the next few months, notable because it's a reversal of a 30-year policy. Peter Kalikow's Scag-based car, along with Yoshiyuki Hayashi's Zagato-bodied, 575-derived machine will both debut at Villa d'Este concours d'elegance in Como, while the much-debated James Glickenhaus P4 redux built by Pininfarina will bow at Pebble Beach.

Ferrari decides to allow logo on custom cars built for collectors [AutoWeek]

Related:
Another Billionaire Gets His Bespoke Ferrari On: Peter Kalikow's Scaglietti [Internal]

New York real estate tycoon and chairman of the city's Metropolitan Transit Authority, Peter Kalikow, is the latest in a crowd of three super-rich Ferrari enthusiasts who've commissioned Italy's coachbuilders to rebody their exotics. As collector James Glickenhaus did vis-a-vie his bespoke, Enzo-based P4/5, Kalikow's go-to firm is Pininfarina, which will create a yet-unknown Ferrari homage atop the bones of Kalikow's 612 Scaglietti. And like collector Yoshi Hayashi's Zagato-bodied 575 — dubbed 575GTZ — the finished product will be revealed late this week at the Villa d'Este Concours d'Elegance in Italy. No word on cost, but figure at least as much as one of the new #6 trains.

Coachbuilt Scaglietti for Peter Kalikow [Italiaspeed]

Related:
That's Not My Car!: Collector Answers AutoWeek's P4/5 Speculation; Zagato's Commemorative Ferrari 575 Revealed [internal]

World Car Fans caught a shot of someone who looks an awful lot like BMW's design chief Chris Bangle checking out the wares at Ferrari's Geneva show display. Will his next generation of Bimmers be influenced by the swooping lines of Pininfarina's Ferrari 599GTB Fiorano, or by the roundels on the model's blouse. Enquiring minds, and all that.

Bangle at Ferrari [World Car Fans]

Related:
Jalopnik Learns at the Foot of Bangle; Ride the Pentagrams: Ferrari Launches 599 GTB Fiorano [internal]

Ferrari president and CEO Luca di Montezemolo and Sergio Pininfarina picked four concepts to win Ferrari's New Concepts of the Myth design competition — dashing the hopes of our in-house design team and its "coffee cup riding on a chassis of pencils and Scotch tape rolls." The winning designers, students at three major design colleges, get internships at either Ferrari or Pininfarina. The chosen concepts are (clockwise from top left): Fiorano (Coventry University School of Art & Design, UK); Ascari (Istituto Europeo di Design, Turin); Millechili (Istituto Europeo di Design, Turin); Tre Diviso (Tokyo Communication Arts). [Thanks to CJ for the tip.]

Students impress Ferrari judges [BBC]

Related:
Design Students Rock the Ferrari Concepts [internal]

Students from four of the world's top auto design schools have been working since January to create new concepts for Ferrari as part of a contest sponsored by Ferrari and Pininfarina. The students from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Tokyo Communication Arts, Coventry University School of Art and Design, and the European Institute of Design in Turin, have turned in a ton of corsa-work (look that one up in your Dictionary of Sports Car Puns). They'll be judged by a dream congress of Ferrari / Pininfarina bigwigs: Luca di Montezemolo, Amedeo Felisa, Piero Ferrari and Senator Sergio Pininfarina. Not too much pressure. [Update: See also Leftlane News's gallery]

Okay kids, let s see if you can design a Ferrari [Times UK]

Photo Gallery: Ferrari - New Concepts of the Myth (I) (II) [Italiaspeed]

Related:
Top Design Schools Compete to Create Ferrari Concept [internal]