Behind The Scenes - Riley Meets The Dream Merchant

Behind the Scenes

Image by Ferrari

Riley Meets The Dream Merchant

You're Never Too Young For A Test Drive

Story and Photography | Harry Pegg

My grandson, Riley, at the age of 11 is a certified car nut. Just like his grandpa. He dreams of owning a Ferrari -- a 488 Spider to be specific.

Last summer, Riley met the Dream Merchant, Carlo Galasso, who says he’s more than the purveyor of highend automobiles. “I sell dreams.”

Carlo is dealer principal of Calgary’s newly-opened $15 million dealership which sells Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Rolls-Royce vehicles.

There, Riley got up close and personal with cars he never gets to see back home in Fredericton.

“ He won’t soon forget his day with the Dream Merchant and the cars of his fantasies.”

Carlo has lived Riley’s dream. As a young boy, he too dreamed of owning a Ferrari. He has achieved that dream. And then some.

“When I was eight, I decided that one day I would own a Ferrari.” Looking around, he says. “Oh boy, do I own a Ferrari? My dream has come true.”

Carlo and assistant general manager Patrick Kirkwood rolled out the welcome mat, treating Riley as they would a valued member of the dealership family, including him in every staff introduction and explaining building features as they would to an adult.

Riley was hugely impressed. So was I because this was not a performance, it was all done naturally and caringly. We got a complete tour of the impressive new facility which houses three showrooms.

Alfa Romeo is on the ground floor while Ferrari and Maserati share showroom space on the north half of the top floor leaving the south side to Rolls Royce. Each brand has its own unique architectural style and it works well. Sunlight is abundant.

Furniture is all Italian designed and Italian made. Even the Ferrari/Maserati showroom lighting is unique: Composed of squares of multiple LEDs under two layers of stretched cloth, the result is a near-daylight quality.

The crowning touch is the Ferrari “configuration room” which contains every wheel choice, every steering wheel, every paint scheme, every leather choice and seat configuration. And there’s a big screen TV (with 8K resolution) that records every choice and displays it in a “finished” vehicle.

Carlo says the resolution is so sharp “you can not only see the stitching, you can see the little hairs on the stitching.” This room, and a similar but slightly less grand room for Maserati are worth a cool $1 million.

The bottom floor is given over to mechanical rooms and shop space with a total of 18 service bays located below grade. It’s a study in effcient use of a small-ish footprint (as dealerships go) Riley got to sit in three exceptional vehicles during his visit. He started grinning early on and never quit for the rest of the day.

His first photo was taken in a one-off 70th anniversary Ferrari which, he was told, was worth “about a million.” His grin got bigger.

Despite the price, it wasn’t his favourite. That honour went to “the blue one” in the Ferrari showroom – a 488 Spider.

During the tour Carlo asked Riley his school average.

“They don’t give us an average,” said Riley. “They just give us a number like three or four.”

“I tell you what,” said Carlo. “You figure out an average with your mom and grandpa and if you raise that average five points, when you come to visit next year, I will take you for a ride in a Ferrari.

“And if you’ve continued to improve your average, when you’re 16 I will let you drive one.” Incentive? Riley’s eyes fairly glowed.

Further into the tour, he said to Riley: “I think you dropped something” and handed him a flat red box. Inside was a leather-bound presentation volume which is given each new Ferrari owner. It’s going to have a prominent place in my grandson’s bedroom – after he shows it off to his buddies back home. Usually you have to buy a Ferrari to get one of those. Then came the final touch.

“How would you like to take a Rolls-Royce for lunch?” I can’t adequately describe the boy’s reaction. So, we took a Rolls to lunch at a place where I felt comfortable leaving a Ghost unattended.

All too soon – after some picture taking -- we had to take the car back. Riley had Carlo and Patrick autograph the presentation box and thanked them for about the fourth time for all they had done for him.

Riley was pretty quiet on the way home as he digested all that had happened during the day. Then he turned to me, saying “I never once thought I would be able to sit in those cars and even take one to lunch. It was awesome.”

Sold: One big dream!