Battista Farina

Giovanni Battista Farina was born in Cortanze, in the region of Piedmont. The tenth of eleven children, his nickname, Pinin (Piedmontese for 'Little Joseph'), referred to his physical resemblance to his father Giuseppe, and in later years it also referred to his short stature of 5 feet (1.5 meters). He started working in his brother Giovanni Carlo's body shop at the age of 12, and it was there that his interest in cars was born. He stayed at Giovanni Carlo's Stabilimenti Farina for decades, learning bodywork and beginning to design his own cars.

He formed Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in 1930 to focus on the design and construction of new car bodies, and quickly gained prominence. Only Carrozzeria Touring was more sought after in the 1930s. His work for Ferrari, starting in 1952, would become his most famous, though much of it was managed by his son, Sergio, who ran the firm until shortly before his death, on 3 July 2012. Sometime in the early 1950s, Stabilimenti Farina was absorbed into the by now much larger Carrozzeria Pinin Farina. The last design he contributed to was the 1600 Duetto for Alfa Romeo with Aldo Brovarone, which debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1966. He died less than a month later, on 3 April.