The first units of the Torch to be used at the Turin 2006 Olympic Winter Games came out from the Pininfarina plant at Grugliasco yesterday. In fact, according to the partnership agreement with Toroc, Pininfarina is in charge not only of the style and the engineering of the Torch, but also of the production within December 2005 of 12,000 numbered units for the Olympic Games, and 125 for the Paralympic Games.

“It has been a demanding work but our subsidiary company, Pininfarina Extra, managed by my brother Paolo, has been able to develop a final product which we are satisfied and proud with” asserts Andrea Pininfarina, CEO Pininfarina Group. The stylistic concept at the basis of the Torch’s drawing is a modern reinterpretation of the traditional wood Torch in which the metal is the material to catch fire ideally and to burn. In order to develop this concept it was created a dynamic and innovative shape that could remember both a ski tip and the “Mole Antonelliana”, Turin’s icon monument.

The engineering, on the other side, needed to consider particularly three significant elements: atmospheric conditions, television visibility and the Torch bearer’s safety. The Olympic Torch includes a whole of elements studied to be simple, strong and reliable in different climatic conditions and to guarantee a top level safety for everybody who will bear it.
 

In particular, the flame shouldn’t burn out even in adverse climatic conditions like rain, snow and wind up to 74.56 mph, it should resist to temperature from -4°F to +77°F and work both at the sea level and at high altitude. “The Torch is a Pininfarina’s competence-concentrated product”, adds Andrea Pininfarina. “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. The Torch has a close relationship with car because the design, for us, is aesthetics applied to the function and to the use. Our Torch is simple, functional and transmits the value of dynamism, like it has to be dealing with a sport symbol”.

There is less than one month left to the beginning of the Olympic Flame’s trip. The flame will light up, like tradition wants, in Greece, at Olympia, at the end of November and then it will come to Italy. Over 11,000 Torch Bearers will be involved into this run across all the Italian Regions and Provinces. Among the main stages we remind: Roma on December 8th and 9th 2005; Palermo on Christmas; Napoli on New Year’s Day; Cortina d’Ampezzo on January 26th 2006 (50th Cortina’s Olympic Game open’s anniversary); Milano on January 26th 2006; Turin on February 9th and 10th 2006.

Moreover the Torch is coherent with Turin 2006’s vision and positioning and to be compatible with the main communication elements of XX Olympic Winter Games: brand, concept, passion and graphic format. “It’s a honour for Pininfarina to be a partner in the Olympic Games and to support a project in which the entire country believes”, concluded Andrea Pininfarina. “What is more, it gives us a chance to underline the role of the district of Torino and, in particular of Pininfarina, in the Italian industrial design avant-garde.”