The Torino 2006 Paralympic torch by Pininfarina

As Official Supplier of Torino 2006, Pininfarina is responsible for the design, the engineering and the manufacturing of 150 numbered Torches for the Paralympic Games

According to the partnership agreement with Toroc, then handled by COM.PAR.TO. (Torino 2006 Paralympics Committee), Pininfarina is in charge of the design, the engineering and the production of the Torino 2006 Paralympic Torch. In particular, 12.000 numbered units for the Olympic Games and 150 units for the Paralympic Games have been produced at the Pininfarina plant of Grugliasco (Turin). The first Paralympic Torch will be lighted on March 1st in Rome under the Arch of Constantine.

“Pininfarina wanted to contribute to the success of Torino 2006 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games designing and realizing the Torch. We are a company that supplies services to the industry in the field of design, engineering and manufacturing. We thought to transfer our knowledge into the Olympic Flame’s design. A binding work, but our controlled Pininfarina Extra, managed by my brother Paolo, has been able to develop a final product which we are satisfied and proud with. The Torch has a close relationship with the car because for us the design is aesthetics applied to the function and to the use”, says Andrea Pininfarina, CEO Pininfarina Group (in the picture with the Torch).

The Torch is a Pininfarina’s competence-concentrated product. Pininfarina is Official Supplier of Torino 2006 with a significant economic investment. Compared to the Torch of Athens 2004, the flame designed by Pininfarina had to respect requirement far stricter. The performances required by Toroc had leaded to prefer a fine-looking flame with great visibility and resistance. More in details, the requirements for the Olympic Torch by Pininfarina were: visibility to the distance of 100 meters also in the daylight, resistance to rain, snow, temperatures from –20°C to +25°C, to the wind up to 120 km/h to altitudes up to 5000 meters.

Last December the Torch received the “Lorenzo il Magnifico” award, the highest recognition of the Biennale of the Contemporary Art in Florence with the following motivation: ”Lorenzo de Medici ‘Il Magnifico’ bows before the beauty of pure synthesis of the Olympic Torch born from the multiform Turin-type genius and from the sublime Master of design, Pininfarina”.

“Our Torch is simple, functional and transmits the value of dinamism, like it has to be dealing with a sport symbol” ends Andrea Pininfarina.