Pininfarina will design, produce and supply the Olympic Torches for the Winter Games of Torino 2006. The partnership agreement was presented today at the Pininfarina plant of Cambiano in the province of Torino.
Among those present were the Pininfarina managing director, Andrea Pininfarina, Valentino Castellani president of the TOROC, deputy president Evelina Christillin and the chief executive manager of the TOROC Paolo Rota. Pininfarina will have to study the style, the design, the planning, the development and the engineering of this key Olympic symbol. The company will then manufacture, supply and deliver 12,000 torches to the TOROC.
The Olympic Torch must conform to specific technical requirements: it cannot be relit, the flame must not go out even in adverse weather conditions like rain, snow and wind up to 70 kph; the free flame in the air
must not burn higher than 10 cm and each torch must have an autonomy of about 20 minutes.
To be visible day and night on television, the flame generated from the combustion must have a yellow-red colour; the smoke must be non-toxic and odour free. Pininfarina will collaborate constantly with the Image and
Communications management of the TOROC that is responsible for the route of the Torch and the look of the games. The torch must be coherent with the position and the vision of Torino 2006, and compatible with the primary elements of communication of the XX Olympic Winter Games: the emblem, the concept of fervour and the graphic format.
The project should express the pre-eminence of Italian design around the world and at the same time be a demonstration of the universal values promoted by the Olympic Movement. It will have to distinguish itself from previous Torches and have an artistic and design harmony.
‘It is gratifying for us,‘ said Pininfarina managing director Andrea Pininfarina ‘to be a partner of the Olympic Games and to support a project that the entire country believes in. This partnership with the TOROC offers us not only the possibility to make a contribution, but also to enter and become part of a team that will work together to set up the Games.’
‘Moreover, this assignment will enable us to underline the role played, by the Torino district, and Pininfarina in particular, in the front line of contemporary industrial design.’
‘We are proud,‘ added TOROC president Valentino Castellani ‘that Pininfarina, interpreter of the highest traditions of Italian design, of industrial culture and of Torino’s creativity, has shown its faith in Torino 2006.
‘The experience and the passion that this company is making available to the Games are a further guarantee of success of the Olympic project, that finds in the Torch and in the route it will follow its finest expression.’
For further information contact:
Torino 2006 Press Office
Tel: +39 11 6310510
Fax: +39 11 6310574
pressoffice@torino2006.it
www.torino2006.org