Ciao Gabriele! As you approach the end of the first phase of production, on average, how long does a car take from starting production to handover?
“I would say that for the first few cars, it took a little bit longer, because to build this type of car from a certain point of view, it's even more complicated than starting from scratch. You have certain rules that you have to respect. Now we are looking at around eight months from the start of the production to the final delivery to the customer.”
When you opened up the orders originally, were you surprised by the global reach of interest that was coming in?
“Yes, we were surprised, honestly, because we are not the average car company, we didn't do any kind of events other than the one launch where we showed the car for the first time. We didn't show any renders or teasers before, we just wanted to show the car. That was the first prototype that is now used daily by Eugenio. We only have Instagram, because that's how we wanted to do it, something different. And then we had a massive reaction on the day of the unveiling of the car and in the month after it. And still nowadays, the reach, the numbers, the appreciation, the comments we receive is something unexpected, huge, and we're really glad to see that. We are proud to be sending these cars to countries like Hong Kong, the USA and Japan. It really surprised us.”
With the cars that you're building, have there been any special requests for extras, or are they built as was originally intended?
“We had a strong policy at the beginning that we do not want to be like the major manufacturers, to propose a car and then propose a lot of options that always increase the price. We do not think that's a really honest approach to true passionate car collectors and owners. So, we decided to propose the car with a standard price for everyone; included in that you have any kind of colour that you want for the exterior or interior, you can choose between a lot of materials. Unless it's a very strange request where we have an extra cost.
“In the past few months, some customers asked us to have more parts with carbon fibre, such as the rear spoiler, and that was not a problem for us. And we also had some requests for mechanical parts, such as a sequential gearbox like in rally cars. And we talked with the customer to understand if it was worth it. Because the cost of such a modification wasn’t, in our opinion, worth it for the product that we want to deliver. And we want to deliver something with a manual gearbox. So we tend not to have big changes. One customer asked us to remove the rear seat and we came up with something different, a true rally-style space. But basically, there are no options on the Futurista.”
Once all the cars have been built, is there any intention to try to bring all the cars and their owners together for an event?
“We would love to, yes. We have a lot of owners in Europe, so it would be quite easy to do something. Of course, it would be done in Italy because it's easy to organise something here, where we have so many favourite places. So definitely yes. It's something that we would love to see in the future – to see most, if not all, of them back together, maybe in the countryside, where Eugenio lives, which is a special place for him. All of the names of the colours of the cars are based on locations around where he lives, such as Lago Maggiore, Monterose – all these colours are inspired by what he sees every day when he wakes up.
That's a nice touch! Obviously, there's the electric-car plan in the pipeline. Do you think there could ever be another Restomod-style car done, like an Alfa Romeo or anything like that?
“I don't want to say 100% no, but I think that's not the direction we want to go. We did something very special with the Futurista. That's why we decided to go in a completely different direction, to start from scratch and with a project that’s really looking into the future, but in a segment where no-one has gone so far; maybe a lot of players will arrive later on. But I think that it’s something quite special that we are developing. It will take time, because again, we are not the average big car company.”
Does Eugenio continue to personally develop his car?
“Yes, absolutely. It's a laboratory on four wheels, since it was shown to the public, a lot of things have changed. We improved the car a lot, and then we put that into the customers’ cars. So, we updated the first ones that we delivered and we are improving the ones that are coming, thanks to the developments on Eugenio’s car.”
What is the rough estimate for delivering the final car?
“That's a good question. We are now undergoing the final stage of assembly of the last two cars of the first batch. We are talking about car nine and 10 that are almost ready to be delivered to the customers. We've started the production of cars from 11 to 15, and we will start in the next few months the production of cars 16 to 20. It's complicated to give out numbers right now, but for sure, by the middle of next year I think, they will all be delivered.”
Awesome. Is there anything else you would like to add at all?
“I would like to say thank you to our followers – especially to Classic Driver for supporting our projects, which was really important, because we do not have many friends and partners that we can also call friends in the industry. You're definitely one of them and we are also huge readers and followers of Classic Driver!”
Photos: Tommaso Bertotti
