Pietro Frua

Pietro Frua (2 May 1913 - 28 June 1983) was one of the leading Italian coachbuilders and car designers during the 1950s and 1960s.

Early years Frua was born in Turin, the centre of coachbuilding in northern Italy. He was the fourth son of Angela, a seamstress, and Carlo Frua, an employee of Fiat.

After school he was educated as a draftsman at the Scuola Allievi Fiat, where he underwent his apprenticeship.

Design career Frua's professional career began at the age of 17, when he joined Stabilimenti Farina as a draftsman. At the age of 22, he became Director of Styling at the Stabilimenti Farina, already a leading Turin coachbuilder employing several hundred people. Some credit him with having influenced early designs of the iconic Vespa while at Farina. Frua had been recommended to Kalikow by Derek Hurlock, chairman and managing director of AC Cars, in part because of his work on the AC 428.

In the 1970s Frua reduced the frequency of his presentations, but in the sixth decade of his life he still demonstrated his good taste and craftsmanship to the younger ones who already had taken their role in the industrial process. There was no longer a demand to build completely detailed and functional prototypes in less than ten weeks, and no more customers for special bodied one-offs. One of his last designs to enter series production was the two-door GT Maserati Kyalami first shown at the 1976 Geneva Motor Show.

Later years In 1982 Pietro Frua developed cancer and had unsuccessful surgery in the autumn of that year. He married his long-time assistant, Gina, shortly before he died on 28 June 1983, a few weeks after his 70th birthday.