Took a Tour Today...

[J86]

Of Factory Five, up in Wareham MA.  Live 'bout an hour away and figured it might be a fun thing to do, particularly because pops has expressed interest in building one someday.  It was awesome!  Walked right in (parked next to an M coupe and a WRX, the workers' cars!) and started oogling the Shelby replicas they had on display.  About 6-8 in the room, most completed.  Couple of roadsters, a coupe, a club racer, and a couple of chassis and engines w/o the body.  I talked to the guy who came out for awhile (real cool dude, didn't brush me off at all but was happy to talk about his product), I had no idea the business was so large!  They ship 15-22 cars a week, 50 employees.  Not bad for a ten year old company started by two brothers who wanted to build a kit car...  Drove around back, watched the guys loading chassis and fiberglass bodies into a truck and peeked inside the factory floor- what a setup!  Spotless, with tons of very impressive looking equipment, all laser guided tooling to stamp out various pieces.  Now just gotta come up with 13 gs....

[Speed_Racer]

Do you have the address for their factory? I don't live too far from there, and i'm sure my dad would love to check it out with me.

[Run Away]

I've got their DVD, it's amazing.
I'd love to get one.

[Raza]

I've got their DVD, it's amazing.
I'd love to get one.

I got one of those too!

I really, really want one.  The only thing is, I don't have the expertise (I'd need help to build one from a couple of friends) and I don't want to use a Mustang engine and 5 speed.  What I really want is to shove an LS1 and 6 speed in there.  The car's lighter than a Miata...if you could harness the power properly, you would be one of the fastest things out there.

[J86]

Raza- they are developing a supercar-type performance model (as if the regular model isn't enough) that uses C5 Corvette drivetrain.  Kit is all bolt togehter, to welding required.

They gave me a packet with the DVD and a bunch of literature- fascinating!

Speed_Racer, it's located on Tow Road in Wareham, MA.  Just type that in to mapquest.  It's real easy to find, just get off exit 21 of 195 and its a half mile down the road.  It's fascinating to talk to them, no sales guys just engineers who walk out of the back to talk to you, turns out most of the display cars are egineers ownc ars.

[Speed_Racer]

Thanks! I'll have to spin by when I get back in late-April.

[Raza]

Raza- they are developing a supercar-type performance model (as if the regular model isn't enough) that uses C5 Corvette drivetrain.  Kit is all bolt togehter, to welding required.

They gave me a packet with the DVD and a bunch of literature- fascinating!

Speed_Racer, it's located on Tow Road in Wareham, MA.  Just type that in to mapquest.  It's real easy to find, just get off exit 21 of 195 and its a half mile down the road.  It's fascinating to talk to them, no sales guys just engineers who walk out of the back to talk to you, turns out most of the display cars are egineers ownc ars.

I'll look into it, but knowledge of cars is very much mostly from a journalistic point of view--I've got no mechanical background.  I like the idea of the Shelby Cobra replica though, the open top and gorgeous, timeless good looks.  

Did you happen to ask whether there is a snap-on top that makes the car 4 season usable?

[Raza]

Is this the model?

[Raza]

Or is it this one?

[Raza]

Some FFR models:

























Wow, I really want one of these.

[J86]

Raza, it's the second one you posted, the red one.  Factory Five does softtops (which the guy told me are basically useless and ugly), but he mentioned you can buy hardtops aftermarket.

[Raza]

I heard about the hard tops, but I'd be more interested in a soft top, for emergencies.

[thewizard16]

Raza, it's the second one you posted, the red one.  Factory Five does softtops (which the guy told me are basically useless and ugly), but he mentioned you can buy hardtops aftermarket.

That's beautiful.

[Raza]

It's also available without the rear spoiler, fits an LSx engine, and the kit is projected to cost less than 20K.  So, if you let them do all the work, you're looking at something that can run with an Enzo for 40-45 grand.  Makes the Z06 look overpriced, doesn't it?

[Raza]

[jadewolf123]

Or is it this one?

That is the most badass kit car outside of a Noble I've ever seen. The Noble hardly qualifies as a kit car though, its a work of art.  

[Raza]

The GTM would probably hand an M12 its ass.  You're talking about a 310bhp car versus a low of 350 and a high of 515 in a car with an identical weight.  The GTM is also fully backed on the aftermarket by Lingenfelter.

[TBR]

The Brock Roadster is a great looking car, probably the only kit car I would ever seriously consider.

[Raza]

57K plus engine and transmission.



~20K plus engine and trans.

[Raza]

The Brock Roadster is a great looking car, probably the only kit car I would ever seriously consider.

Are you talking about the Spyder GT I posted?

I have been thinking about buying one of your products for quite some time
now, and this new model has nearly made the decision for me.  But this
would be a daily driver, so I have a few questions for you:

Is there a top available?  Soft would be best, so I could keep it in the
car in case I get rained on.
Is there an HVAC system?
Is there a trunk of some kind?
Is there a stereo system?  If not, would it possible to have on installed?
What other car engines and transmissions can I use?  I'd love an LSx
engine with a six speed transmission, but if it's exclusively Ford, would
a 4.6L DOHC  supercharged Cobra engine and 6 speed manual fit?  It's quite
a popular engine among smaller manufacturers, I know that Qvale and Panoz
use it.

Thank you,
Raza
Automobear.com

Sent that to them tonight.  

[TBR]

The Factory 5 might be better in the straight line, but the Noble will pretty much undoubtedly be faster in the turns.  

[Raza]

The Factory 5 might be better in the straight line, but the Noble will pretty much undoubtedly be faster in the turns.

The GTM is an American V-8 powered, mid-engined car with a composite body shell and an aluminum and steel tube frame chassis.  The car uses GM Performance engine and suspension parts with four-corner coil-over shocks, huge brakes and a Porsche 911 Transaxle.

In the Factory Five tradition, the car is first and foremost a high performance car.  The GTM is light and aerodynamic, with  excellent weight distribution and precise race-car handling/braking derived from the Chevrolet Corvette C-5.

My impression is that it will feel a lot like a mid engined Corvette, kind of like a Mosler.

[TBR]

The Factory 5 might be better in the straight line, but the Noble will pretty much undoubtedly be faster in the turns.

The GTM is an American V-8 powered, mid-engined car with a composite body shell and an aluminum and steel tube frame chassis.  The car uses GM Performance engine and suspension parts with four-corner coil-over shocks, huge brakes and a Porsche 911 Transaxle.

In the Factory Five tradition, the car is first and foremost a high performance car.  The GTM is light and aerodynamic, with  excellent weight distribution and precise race-car handling/braking derived from the Chevrolet Corvette C-5.

My impression is that it will feel a lot like a mid engined Corvette, kind of like a Mosler.

Except there is no way it has had the amount of money put into it as the Moslers have (especially the MT900, though all of them (even the ugly ones) handle quite well).

The Noble is one of the best handling street legal cars in the world (in the company of the Ariel Atom and the Lotus Exige), I don't think the GTM can really compete with it. But, then, it shouldn't have to due to the $60k price gap.

And, Factory 5 builds a car based on the original for the Cobra Daytona except with an updated design. However, that would obviously be a coupe so I don't know what the hell I was talking about.  

[TBR]

Okay, so Superperformance is the one that makes the Brock Coupe:
http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?se...article_id=8017
http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?se...article_id=1681

[Raza]

Okay, so there's no doubt that the Noble would be better in the corners, but that doesn't mean anything, really--the GTM will definitely handle well.  If their MkII roadster could pull 1.00g, and go from 0-60 in 3.6 seconds with only 348bhp, the GTM should be able to smoke an Enzo, and even if it is a little slower than the Noble in corners, there's no way it will be far enough behind that the Noble would be able to keep up.  

[TBR]

True enough, though you have to wonder if it would be possible to put another engine in the Noble. I would think a Ford V8 would fit...

[Raza]

I looked at the article on C&D, and they say 360bhp and 2457 pounds, so it's actually about 200 pounds heavier than the projected weight of the GTM.  

And as for other engines, I'm sure it's possible (I mean, people put 5.0s into Miatas) but for a piece by piece car that comes from different continents to be put together, they seem adamant to stick with that twin turbo 6.  Factory Five allows for several different iterations, with more flexibility than the Noble has.    

But if you want to go into what ifs, what if you were to plop some real cash down on a Lingenfelter twin turbo kit.  

[Fire It Up]

Or is it this one?

Whoa! Thats amazing!

[Raza]

Factory Five Video Gallery

There should be some good videos there.  I've got one of the GTM loading now.

[MaxPower]

Those Shelby replicars are A-W-E-S-O-M-E I've got the DVD, but even before that the car was atop my list of "supercars I could afford".  Like J86, at one point my dad expressed interest in one and I encouraged him to get one.  Instead he decided to keep working on his '52 MGTD, a project on a very different vein.  And a whole lot of work he's done on it since then...