Italian car designer Sergio Pininfarina, who was responsible for the sleek shapes of dozens of Ferraris, Alfa Romeos, Maseratis and many other sports cars, has died. He was 85.

Pininfarina, who had reportedly been ill for some time, died during the night at his home in Turin, a spokeswoman for his company, Pininfarina, said on Tuesday.

Tributes poured in for a man who was described as an “ambassador of Italian style,” by Turin daily, La Stampa.

Turin Mayor Piero Fassino, hailed the part played by Pininfarina “in the history of the automobile and the history of the city”.

“A man who through a creativity that was universally recognized, made industrial design one of the hallmarks of Made in Italy” products, Fassino said.

Pininfarina was born on September 8, 1926, as Sergio Farina in Turin, home to car giant Fiat and capital of Italy’s automobile industry.

After completing university studies that included mechanical engineering in his hometown and also in Britain and the United States, Pininfarina took over the design company founded by his father Battista “Pinin” Farina, a coachbuilder-turned-car-designer who died in 1966.

In the 1960s, he also added his father’s nickname “Pinin” to his surname thanks to a special Italian presidential decree.

By that time the brand name Pininfarina, had become closely associated with the elegant and also futuristic shapes of some of the country’s famous sports cars.

In 2000 Pininfarina unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show, the Ferrari 360 Spider, the 164th Ferrari model to be designed by the company. In 2010 to mark the firm’s 80th anniversary Pininfarina launched a two-seater electric city car.

An entrepreneur, Pininfarina, oversaw the company’s expansion and technological innovation including the construction at its plant in Grugliasco near Turin of one of the world’s first wind tunnels to aid aerodynamic design.

Named a senator for life by Italy’s then-president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in 2005, Pininfarina in later years increasingly left the running of the company to his son, Andrea.

But tragedy struck in 2008 when the younger Pininfarina, then 51 years old, was killed when a scooter he was riding was hit by a car on a road outside Turin. Andrea’s younger brother, Paolo, subsequently took over as Pininfarina chairman.