Pininfarina Sintesi

red dot
red dot award: design concept 2008

company:

Pininfarina S.P.A

 
Pininfarina Sintesi is a new concept sports car that explores the car of the future. The Sintesi makes bulk a thing of the past.
 

Sintesi, displayed for the first at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show, is a sports car with four doors and four seats that was developed with a highly innovative approach: it does not consider the car as a shape that covers the mechanicals, but one that gives a shape to the mechanicals around the passengers, starting from the latter. This approach, which is known as “liquid” packaging, has overturned traditional volumetric balances, improving weight distribution and lowering the centre of gravity, which are important elements for driving dynamics.
 

This was made possible by close collaboration with Nuvera, which developed the Quadrivium Fuel Cells system, the various components of which were distributed around the car, with four fuel cells positioned near to the wheels. The result is that the space for passengers is much more generous (in proportion to the total volume of the car) without detracting from the sporty line with a sleek, tapered and aerodynamic (Cd = 0.27) profile. The modular nature of the fuel cells, combined with the batteries and a sophisticated overall electronic architecture (developed with PI Shurlok), allows for modular use of the available power depending on driving conditions.
 

The Sintesi was imagined in a setting of transparent mobility which, thanks to Clancast®, the radio technology developed by Reicom after years of research, envisages that all cars act as nerve cells, creating a dynamic communications network managed by a disseminated intelligence – a real “living connective tissue” on which data and information about traffic and security, audio and video, Internet and cross-media content can travel. The idea involves a concept of wireless connectivity that establishes a continuous, transparent dialogue between the town, the road and the vehicles that we will drive in the future, without limiting the motorist’s autonomy, but increasing the sense of freedom.
 

This futuristic scenario, based on concrete, existing technology, opens the door to advanced active safety solutions which in turn have made it possible to design the car with volumes that are not conditioned by today’s bulky passive safety systems.
 

The important role played by electronics in the Sintesi project is also evident in the design of the interior and the lights. Inside, the facia symbolises the flow of information in which the car moves. Created as a single semi-transparent piece by Materialise, using the additive technology of personalised manufacturing, its shape disseminates the information around the passenger compartment with an intuitive use of colour and light.
 

The lights become focal points through which the car dialogues with its environment. In addition to the innovative LED system supplied by Osram, which made it possible to create a simple, strong shape that underlines the car’s central axis, the ‘headlights’ also incorporate the telecameras and the proximity radar system.