Hyundai Matrix's Designer died

Andrea Pininfarina, 51, the chief executive of the Italian car design firm founded by his grandfather that counts Ferraris and Alfa Romeos among its creations, died Thursday in a road accident near the northern Italian city of Turin. Pininfarina was driving a scooter along a provincial highway when he struck a car whose driver failed to stop at an intersection.

He was the third generation to run Pininfarina SpA, founded in 1930 by his grandfather Battista "Pinin" Farina -- who combined his nickname and last name to create the company's name and new family name.



Pininfarina SpA has designed cars for Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Cadillac and Volvo, among many others, but is perhaps most closely associated with Ferrari, designing nearly all of Ferrari's models since the 1950s. They include the convertibles California Spider and Daytona Spider.

Among those super stylo sport cars like Ferrari P4/5 & Maserati GranTurismo, my humble Hyundai Matrix was also designed by Pininfarina. Now I've another reason to drive on for another 5 years before scrapping it.