VISION EXPRESS

Pininfarina's new e-LUV concept - electric luxury utility vehicle - channels its past while pointing to the future. Beauty or beast?

- JASON BARLOW 

"Oh. I'll put this one to the CEO to answer because maybe you think I'm telling you bullsh**t?

So says Automobili Pininfarina's design boss, Davide Amantea. All TG had wondered, aloud, was whether it was actually possible to make a series production car that looks like the concept version of Pininfarina's proposed second model. He's smiling as he says it, so while no offence was intended, none has been taken.

Besides, it's not a daft question. The Pura Vision, as it's known, is almost bang on six metres long, two metres wide and 1.7m tall. So it's big, gargantuan in fact, an automotive land yacht from the country that gave us the eternally stylish but noticeably more compact Riva speedboat. The nautical parallel is encouraged by Amantea, who says the Pura Vision looks especially like a boat from above. The plan view is not one designers often laser in on, but in this case it's irresistible. It's the car drones were invented for, maybe even as a launchpad. You can picture this thing as the villain's wheels in a Marvel film.

Electrification was supposed to liberate designers from the strictures of traditional proportion, but many brave pills remain unpopped. Perhaps Pininfarina is the one to light the way ahead. It certainly has the legacy. The company was founded 95 years ago, and swiftly established itself as arguably the definitive Italian carrozzeria. Me, I love the 1936 Lancia Astura Tipo Bocca cabriolet, but it was the post-war Cisitalia 202 that made the world take notice, with its long bonnet, curvy tail, and fully enclosed body. Enzo Ferrari was definitely paying attention because in 1951 midway between Modena and Turin - he met Battista Farina and asked him to be his official design partner. Yep, every significant historic Ferrari owes its form to Pininfarina.