Pininfarina Wind Tunnel Celebrates 50 years of Excellence

Turin, Italy – Pininfarina celebrates another important milestone in its history: half a century of excellence in aerodynamic and aeroacoustic research. In 1972, exactly 50 years ago, Pininfarina became a leader in this sector when then Chairman Sergio Pininfarina inaugurated the Wind Tunnel in Grugliasco, near Turin. It was Italy’s first wind tunnel to be built for testing full-scale cars, at the time one of only seven in the world.

For this important milestone, the Pininfarina Wind Tunnel hosted the round table entitled “Aerodynamics and sustainability, from electric cars to buildings” to explore how two key drivers in the history of Pininfarina, aerodynamics and sustainability, play a crucial role not only in the automobile, but in all sectors in which Pininfarina is fully committed. The Wind Tunnel, in fact, has already proved to be a powerful tool for testing and developing products across different fields. Examples include aircrafts, high-speed trains, yachts, buildings, wind engineering, industrial design and sporting goods.

“The Wind Tunnel”, comments CEO Silvio Pietro Angori, “has given our Company a considerable competitive edge, being the only design company to own one. Born as a tool with which Pininfarina developed its own projects, today the Wind Tunnel is a strategic asset for the Group thus expanding the portfolio of services that we offer to the market: an activity that supports other sectors beyond the automotive, from transportation to architecture, from nautical to industrial design”.

The Wind Tunnel has always been a cutting-edge strategic tool for OEMs in the automotive sector. The advent of electric mobility, introducing new challenges in the field of aerodynamic and aeroacoustic development, has made it even more decisive in the search for increasing autonomy and interior comfort.

The Pininfarina Wind Tunnel, which also boasts a new logo made especially for its first 50 years, is future-oriented. Its testing capabilities are being constantly improved thanks to the development of innovative measurement techniques in both the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic fields. It’s also one of the few in the world to have a TGS – Turbulence Generator System able to create various conditions of controlled turbulence, associated with gusts of wind, overtaking manoeuvres, cross winds and vortices generated by cars ahead. The Ground Effect Simulation System, instead, allows faithfully reproducing real vehicle motion conditions. 

Shell Egypt

In addition to applications in the automotive sector, use of the Tunnel is strategic with respect to all-round sustainability, understood as a reduction in consumption and greater comfort for high-speed trains, trucks, aircraft, yachts, fabrics and sports items. The wind tunnel can also foster architectural sustainability and safety by studying, through scale models or portions of real buildings, how wind exposure affects buildings and infrastructure. Therefore, the Pininfarina Wind Tunnel runs aerodynamic and aeroacoustics tests to identify and solve potential pain points, guaranteeing maximum levels of structural performance and noise comfort.

“I am very proud and also touched”, said Chairman Paolo Pininfarina at the anniversary event, “to share with you the celebrations for something that was born out of my Father’s genius. Without a doubt Pininfarina has a real passion for aerodynamics. And it’s a passion that has lasted more than 50 years, long before my father decided to build this structure. It all began with my grandfather Pinin, whose visionary intuition in aerodynamics is exemplified since the Lancia Aprilia Aerodinamica produced in 1936”.

Souk Al Sayarat مجلة سوق السيارات

Related posts:

Ezz Elarab Celebrates 115 Years of Alfa Romeo’s Legacy and its Continued Commitment to Italian Automotive Excellence in Egypt Egyptian Automotive & Trading Company launches the New Third-Generation Audi A5 in Egypt Genesis Expands Regional Prescence with First-Ever Showroom in Egypt and unveiling premium EV Models