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Life Is Too Short To Drive Boring Cars
GINO S.P.A.
Heart rate speeds up, your hands start to sweat and you would ask for this moment to never end. You forget to tell your girlfriend you’ll be late for dinner and all that matters now is to live that dream with open eyes, that moment you never would have thought it was at hand and that in one way or another is right there in front of you. Life is only one and for complicated that it is, it’s always able to offer us priceless moments of adrenaline and moments to treasure forever. For us petrolheads, where cars represent a significant portion of our life, driving boring cars would be a real waste of time, and thankfully we do not have to be Formula 1 drivers to smile 365 days a year. With this in mind, in a cool late summer morning I am driving towards Cuneo, reaching the headquarter of Gino SPA, where Alessandro Gino, the general manager and the face of the company, is waiting for us to tell why he has given birth to a new reality revolving around sports cars and called “Gino Luxury & Motorsport”.
What distinguishes a simple businessman from a businessman who breathes a proper passion lies in the attitude that Alessandro puts in his job. A volcano of ideas that allow him to split from the desk of the family business, now at its third generation, to the wheel of exciting supercars, without forgetting his substantial commitment in National rallies, where during the last 10 years he collected important successes. Just entering the showroom you realize it’s not a place like the others, it’s not a cold showroom where the only goal is about selling cars, here they sell emotions. You understand that through the area devoted to the angriest Mercedes on the market, those of the AMG department with the fantastic AMG Performance Center (the only exhibition area in Italy where it seems to be in the pit lane of a GT3 championship race), or through the corner dedicated to the BMW Ms, icons of performance and of the deepest driving pleasure that wink to everyday usability. There’s something for everyone, whether you’re looking for something track focused, as in the case of Lotus, since the boys are official dealers for the North-West of Italy (remember our test at the wheel of the Evora 400?), whether you’re interested in a more classic and dignified charm, as in the case of the last brand acquired by the company, Maserati. The moment I realize this is not Toyland and I stop drooling to dwell on all those models which are literally whispering “Drive me, drive me!”, I go upstairs and begin a long chat with Alessandro Gino, businessman engaged at 360°, with clear ideas and a specific purpose – to share the passion. Yep, a fixed point on which Alessandro insists is just the one he thought and wanted in order to bring car guys to those cars that have a soul, those special cars that make you turn your head when you see one in the street and for those you would eat bread and onions for months, only for the sake of getting behind the wheel. Fortunately this will not be necessary, because one of the key points of “Luxury & Motorsport” is precisely to make this fantastic world accessible, pipeline flow for those who want a special experience and also proving ground occasion for potential customers, especially those who already have in the garage a sick car and who can finally make an in-depth test drive, in order to better choose their next purchase.
Our conversation continues and there would be hints to write a ten volumes encyclopedia, where at each of my questions a precise answer explains to me all the possibilities that the “Luxury & Motorsport” project offers to its customers, both for occasional users or long term ones, the latter definitely better for a series of advantages that will inextricably bind them to the Gino brand. AMG, BMW M (without forgetting the exceptional 3-turbo diesel, both sedan, wagon and SUV) and i8 (led on the hairpins of our “Col de Turini Tour”), as well as Maserati and Lotus, brands on which a man with speed in his veins, look on very closely. If you can’t pick only one, you can choose them all, in fact the GINO SCUDERIA program is just that – the opportunity to plan along a 6-months period (for example), a team of 5 different cars and make use of a convenient final average discount. Yes, if you are starting to see this as a kind of club, you just had my same perception. Forget the coldness of the classic car salesmen, or the detachment of those who welcomes you only to sign a contract. “For 50 years, we want to outdo ourselves with passion in order to make sure that each of our customers become our best fans” – replicates Alessandro. I nod, increasingly intrigued as he keeps explaining to me that you can book a car on a daily basis, for a weekend or weekly, without forgetting the Scuderia program, of course. And then, finally, in the mind of every car guy, the opportunity to sit behind the wheel of a pure sports machine as the new Elise S Cup, or an elegant supercar like the AMG GTS is no longer an unattainable dream, but the schedule for the following weekend. So, like a drug, but less dangerous and more fulfilling, you’ll discover that perhaps saving for your next vacation in the Caribbean is not your primary goal, and that with all that time you spend at work, you deserve a beautiful new sports car. Did you said Evora 400? Do you like the idea of showing the look of an authentic supercar, with a rigid and lightweight chassis and 400 horses, with the convenience of a 911? Ok, do your things and take advantage of the “Evora Mondays” booking a test drive and becoming protagonist of a driving experience that you will not easily forget (every Monday, from 12 September 2016, starting at 6.00pm dialing +39 0171 410700). Then you will want more, and there is no problem: the fleet is rich and is waiting to be taken out for a ride. My eyes are bouncing from a coupe to a convertible, from an elegant Maserati to a GLE AMG – it seems you’ll have your hands full while selecting your new toy, but the solidity and professionalism of this company is something that can surprise in the same way, and so you start to talk to a couple of sellers. Buying a car is a delicate procedure, an emotional one too, and should be lived in the right way, not to mention the details of the configuration process and what will happen next to your purchase, where you can count on a team of experts, both for servicing, for advices and so on like this. There are seemingly endless possibilities, and even if you find yourself a few hundred kilometers away, plan a trip here in Cuneo. You won’t leave disappointed, and quite possibly you’ll come back home with a brand new steering wheel in your hands.
“The time you spend driving … is the most rewarded in life” – words of a certain Niki Lauda and words were never well-aimed to feed our relentless desire to always experiment a new thrill. So you find yourself climbing on board a noisy car and that doesn’t know half measures. You feel like a racing driver, you feel accomplished: all that matters is that you feel happy, finally. You’re crowning a dream that you have to fuel time after time, thanks to these people who thought that a passion should be shared to all those who have cars as a fixed point in their lives. Sure it’s easy to imagine feeling much better while opening that door and getting on board, start the engine and go, rather than wondering how all this would ever be. The proposal is wide and it’s addressed to all those who need to deepen their knowledge with a particular car, without filters or limitations, without having to listen to the words of boring journalists like us (come on, we are not so boring!). If you want something, do it by yourself. If you think about buying a performance car, for example the new M2, go and take it for a couple of days or an entire week. Drive it, feel it, live it and then choose the color you prefer, because you’ll end like being madly in love with it.
Hours pass quickly and the end of the day arrives. A day that has paid me with the certainty that there are far-sighted people, who want to make an important contribution creating something innovative and above all functional. In this case the future is not only made of numbers and marketing graphics, but by the desire to satisfy a growing number of customers, expanding the area of action thanks to a series of high-level proposals that they know how to satisfy different customer segments . The future of Gino speaks clearly and Alessandro has no intention to stop. He confirms that there are major ongoing projects, such as a series of driving courses to train new customers and those who are already owners of sports cars as well as a permanent presence in the most important events in the area, such as “Cars and Coffee” and the initiatives of our magazine too, and I am also referring to the all-new column that will kick off in a couple of months and that will host various test drives on the hungry asphalt of breathtaking roads (keep an eye on our “Performance Tour” sponsored by GINO). Coming out of the showroom I look at the yellow G500 4×4² and I smile – I have yet another confirmation that here everything is different and could be experienced differently than you expect. Forget all preconceptions about big companies, in this case solid foundations are the roots of a business handed down from generation to generation and it’s a fixed point for those customers who need a service that is up to the product itself and especially to their expectations. It’s like driving – many can go fast, but doing it in safety and with the right car has a completely different flavor.
Words by Alex Marrone
Photos by Marco Polidoro
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