Ferrari Club Member of the Month: April


Thanh Trinh

A family affair….

Ironically, it all started in the depths of the winter 10 years ago in 2013 when I convinced my wife that it was the right time for us to realize one of my life long dreams of owning a vehicle adorned with the prancing horse.  You see, if you knew us and our life circumstances, you would say that it was exactly the wrong time for us to purchase such an impractical, high horsepower, small, and exotic vehicle.  At least, that’s what our friends and families would say as we had just had our first child a year earlier. Instead, our families were telling us to purchase a mini-van for the space our child and future children would of course need.  Minivan?  Never, would I own one was my response.  No, in fact we were going to build memories as a family in a 2014 Ferrari California 30/30.  On that cold fateful weekend after the holidays is when I ordered 15 different rear-facing infant carriers from all over the world trying to find one that would fit in the back seat of the 2+2.  As they started to arrive over the course of the next month, imagine the concerned and puzzled look on my local Ferrari dealer’s face when I would arrive with 4-5 bulky car seats at a time to test in the back of one of his two hundred and fifty plus thousand dollar cars.  He would watch intently as I tested seat after seat to make sure I didn’t put a scuff on any of the panels as I swapped them out in defeat.  This went on for several weekends and turned into a dealership wide spectacle with more and more people gathering to watch as more of the staff had caught wind of my seemingly idiotic quest.  Each weekend, I would arrive with such hope that I had found the right one and each weekend I would leave defeated.  It was not until I tested the last carrier when I had my goldilocks moment and found a seat that ALMOST fit.  It would require that the passenger seat be pushed all the way forward and almost upright but nevermind that! It technically fit, my wife was petite, and more than anything else she was a trooper!  Thank you wife!  

And thus started a family affair that would bring us on countless road trips locally, all over the United States, and even Canada.  From our home base in Westchester, NY we would travel several times in those early days to Maine as guests of the New England Chapter on their annual Maine trip.  There we would meet lifelong friends who we still see at FCA and other motorsport events even though the Maine trip no longer occurs.  Please bring it back if anyone’s listening!  We’ve been to several FCA annual meets as a family including one in Arizona that saw us ship the car out west and allowed us to rally to Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Route 66, and Las Vegas all for the first time.  While there we also experienced as a family for the first time going to a rodeo!  We’ve also been to several FCA annual experiences including the one at the Biltmore in Asheville, NC where we experienced real hot chicken sandwiches in all its glory!  Most recently, we road tripped to the 2022 FCA annual meet held in Mont Tremblant, Canada where we feasted on elk tartare, poutine, and my children tasted for the first time frozen maple licks on the side of a mountain.  This trip was especially memorable as we made a detour after one of the events to a drive through safari!  That’s right, we drove the Ferrari off road and fed towering moose and other animals dangerously adorned with sharp appendages carrots while driving with the windows down in our beloved California.  Here we felt as if we were actually one of the attractions as we drove through and passed the rangers and other families in their minivans, SUV’s, and pickup trucks.  We were pointed at as we passed just as much as the animals were and all of them came out of their vehicles to talk to us and hear our stories.  And to me this is what it’s all about, having the Ferrari and being part of the FCA allowed me to fulfill a lifelong dream but also make Ferrari memories with my family which is so much sweeter!