Automobili Pininfarina has held its meeting in New York City, in conjunction with the Formula E street race this weekend, and not only revealed more sketches of the PFO hypercar but announced that Nick Heidfeld will serve as development driver for the car.
Heidfeld is one of the drivers for the Mahindra Racing team, like Automobili Pininfarina a part of the Indian automaker’s corporate structure.
“The opportunity to join the Automobili Pininfarina family and develop cars that will deliver performance unlike anything before them is fantastic,” said Heidfeld, a 41-year-old native of Germany who raced in Formula One with Prost, Williams, BMW Sauber and Renault, and also competed in the FIA’s World Endurance Championship.
“I will continue to race next year and I am looking forward to sharing my motorsport knowledge with the new engineering and design team at Automobili Pininfarina, which will support their ambition to create beautiful sports and luxury cars offering electrifying performance on road and circuit.”
The PFO (the car’s internal code name) is due on the road in 2020, the company previously said.
“PFO is born from the 50-year-old dream of Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina, to see a stand-alone Pininfarina-branded range of cars that are both beautiful and technologically advanced,” said Automobili Pininfarina chief executive Michael Perschke. “PFO will deliver enormous power and driver thrills in abundance.
“We have a specific strategy in place to develop road car technology inspired by motorsport. Nick Heidfeld has more experience racing in Formula E than any other driver and we are delighted that from next year he will help deliver race-bred, electrifying performance in PFO.”
Added Luca Borgogno, the company’s design director: “Pininfarina has an unprecedented heritage of delivering cars that are both beautiful to look at and technically innovative. Creating this combination in the first Pininfarina-branded road car is a dream come true.
“The design of PFO will espouse purity, beauty and innovation. Working closely with Pininfarina SpA we have created three new images that give prospective owners an exciting preview of the design features we will introduce on this incredible hypercar.”
