Coachbuilding: The Car as Body and Chassis

A coachbuilder designs and constructs the body that gives a vehicle its shape. In MoMA’s Cisitalia 202 account, that body sits on a separate chassis. The car makes visible the collaboration between mechanical foundation and shaped outer form.^[1,2]

Battista “Pinin” Farina founded Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in Turin in 1930. Its early work comprised special bodies commissioned by individual customers and small production runs, joining tailored design to a workshop able to build it.^[1]

The Cisitalia 202's aluminum body panels were hammered over wooden forms and assembled over a separate chassis. Between 1947 and 1952, 170 Cisitalia 202 cars were built. Wood forms, metal panels and chassis each played a distinct part in the finished car.^[1,2]