On Thu, 9 Nov 1995, Denise Thorpe wrote:
> I've never _heard_ of a Farina Magnette. I thought the 1100 was _the_
> sedan offered in the days of B's and Midgets. It must be one of those
> cars that never made it over here. There's really no way of establishing
> a value for a one-of-a-kind car. The value is what the market, if there
> is one, will bear and what the owner will accept (as is true of all cars).
> I've heard Farina described as a coachbuilder, so it's possible that the
> Farina Magnette has the same relationship to the MG company as the Arnholt
> (sp?) bodied TD (TF?).
Denise,
You are going to think I am just sitting here waiting for you. I
swear, I'm not, I'm just taking a break. The Farina Magnette was a
production car, and was imported here; Farina Magnette is just a shorthand
reference to the last Magnette (at least the last I can remember being
imported). The years would be late 50s OR early 60s--anyway the successor
to the Z series. The Magnette was restyled with fins and chrome, with the
assistance of the coachbuilder Farina. You have probably seen them
without hearing the Farina nickname.
I think there were two Farinas in coachbuilding; I suspect the one
referred to was Pinin Farina, later spelled as one word. There was an
Austin variant with identical body but different grille and trim. They
were both nice family sedans. Farina did a lot of design consulting for
production cars. I think he did the design for the Nash of the mid 50s,
as well as the design for at least one of the Nash Healeys. Seems to me
he may have had a hand in the design of your beloved 1100s, but I could
easily be wrong about that. He did design a smaller Austin the name of
which escapes me (A40???)--it was a very early hatchback.
Ray
Ray Gibbons Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu (802) 656-8910
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