The Olympic Torch realised by Pininfarina is set to arrive in Turin. On February 9th, the emblem of Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games will pass through the streets of Piedmont’s chief town where, in the evening, it will arrive at the City Hall and be welcomed by the Mayor, Sergio Chiamparino. The day after, on the occasion of the Games Opening Ceremony, the Torch will light the Olympic Brazier, also designed by Pininfarina, officially inaugurating the Torino 2006 Games.

It left from Rome on 8th December 2005, and for two months the Torch has been passing through Italy visiting all the regions and provinces on a 11,000km journey. The rigorous programme has confirmed the Torch's excellent performance: even though over 10,000 units have been lighted, Pininfarina have not experienced neither a flame extinction, nor any other inconvenience.

The Torch is a Pininfarina’s competence-concentrated product. According to the agreement signed with TOROC as Official Supplier of Torino 2006, Pininfarina was responsible for the design, the engineering and the manufacturing of 12,000 numbered Torches of the Olympics and 150 for the Paralympic Games. 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 to a more fragile and light one. 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.

“Pininfarina wanted to contribute to the success of Torino 2006 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games by designing and realising the Olympic 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," says Andrea Pininfarina, CEO Pininfarina Group.
 

"A binding work, by Pininfarina Extra, managed by my brother Paolo, has seen us develop a final product which we are satisfied and proud of. The Torch has a close relationship with the car because for us the design is aesthetics applied to the function and to the use”, added Andrea Pininfarina.

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”.