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Today I went on a tour of the Factory Five Racing factory. If you're not familiar with Factory Five, they are best known for their Cobra replica car kits (known as the Roadster), but they also have a Daytona Coupe replica kit (Type 65 Coupe), two hot rod kits, the GTM "supercar" kit, and the 818 (uses Subaru Impreza bits and turns it into a mid-engine RWD monster). I am looking to start an 818 build once I buy a house that has garage space, and a friend knows a guy who knows a guy who happens to own Factory Five, and so a (rather large) tour was arranged. I apologize for the quality and cropping on some of these pictures, as the showroom was packed with cars and people, and a lot of the photos were constrained by the fact that there were so many people. First, the showroom: Type 65 Coupe  Type 65 Coupe (bottom) and Roadster (top)  Roadster  Cut-away Roadster  33 Hot Rod without body  From there we went into the R&D area. I double checked to make sure pictures were okay in this area and they gave me the go-ahead. 35 Hot Rod Truck being built with a Roush Yates engine. This was for someone whose name I can't recall but seemed to be a name a lot of people recognized.  Unreleased prototype (allegedly going to be built with a V12, not sure if front or mid-rear engine). This is why I double checked on whether or not photos were okay. It was pretty neat to see this, though not real yet. It looked very nice. They said it had already been shown, but I can't seem to find it anywhere on the internet (not looking particularly hard, tbh).  Not too much going on in here aside from those two things. They also had a VR setup that I didn't get to try that looked pretty cool. They put you in a car seat and then they can load up the different car models around you. Next is the factory area. It was tough to get pictures because of the crowd, but they are the least car pictures anyway. I didn't get a snap of the massive laser cutter they have, but it is quite gigantic. It makes their 5 axis CNC robot look puny in comparison (but less cool that the robot). Speaking of the 5 axis CNC robot...  ^^^ For scale, the last large axis was about five feet off the ground. Here are some of the molds and fixtures they use for making body panels  The rest of the photos from the factory area were too crap to bother uploading. That was the end of the tour, after that was milling-about time. The warehouse area had some interesting things to take pictures of... 818C (bottom) and GTM (top)  Part of a GTM  Have some roadster bodies  Left to right: 33 Hot Rod, Type 65 Coupe, 818R  The 818R in blurry glory  There were two customer deliveries happening while we were there. The first was a very large trailer receiving a GTM kit. The trailer was quite large and quite full. I believe the GTM kits come with a lot more parts than, for example, the 818, which makes use of a lot of parts from the donor Impreza. No pictures of this delivery. I did snap some shots of an 818 getting loaded into a U-Haul.   Quite small in comparison. I went around and snapped some shots of what people had driven to the event. A pretty good variety I would say.      ^^^ Yes, someone flew a helicopter to the tour. This last one is what I got to ride shotgun in for the day...   E: It's pretty likely I am going to have a sore back from the contortions required to get in and out of the McLaren three times. The drive home in my base model Mazda 3 (with the 2.0L) after riding shotgun in the 570s was probably the slowest drive I've ever experienced. At the end of the day, the whole trip was a smashing success, as the real reason for it was so I could see if I could actually fit in the 818. I couldn't at first, but that's because I failed at raising the steering column so my legs would actually slide under. It was definitely more difficult than the McLaren (neither had handles on the roof to pull yourself up by), owing to the supports that partially block the door being square tubing that digs into you a bit rather than a nice rounded fabric covered dealy in the McLaren. carticket fucked around with this message at 06:17 on Dec 17, 2018 |
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Dec 16, 2018 02:50
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You should have given me a buzz, I live 15 minutes away. They're good people.
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Dec 16, 2018 03:38
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sharkytm posted:You should have given me a buzz, I live 15 minutes away. They're good people. I did not know that (that you live nearby). I did find out that they're good people. I got to chat with Jim (their R&D guy) about different engine options for an 818 (notably using a newer engine than their typical range, EJ255 from a 2009-2013, or an FA20DIT. They apparently will both fit, but the CANbus has caused problems for people. It still needs running gear from a 2002-2007, though, so I'd probably just target getting like an '06-'07 donor and if I want to play with trying a different engine, I can do that later. It turns out their employees really like cars and talking about cars. Who knew? E: I will probably go back after I sell my condo in the spring to go over all the options with someone and get a total cost for the kit. I will let you know. You can stop by and check out my sicknasty base model Canadian Mazda3. carticket fucked around with this message at 04:29 on Dec 16, 2018 |
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Dec 16, 2018 04:11
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Cool post, not familiar with them. Where is this?
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Dec 16, 2018 05:17
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They're in Wareham, MA. I only knew of them because someone on the local Subaru boards built a Roadster long ago. I was looking for a project and checked them out which kicked this all off.
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Dec 16, 2018 05:40
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Mr. Powers posted:I did not know that (that you live nearby). I did find out that they're good people. Hell yeah. I've met their welders and design engineers before, they all seemed like really cool people who loved what they did. Definitely give me a buzz, we've got a spare room and could put you up for the night. We're across the bridge on Cape Cod.
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Dec 16, 2018 16:22
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If you valued your labor at $0, how much does it cost to get one of these on the road? Looks like $10-14k for the kit. Maybe $6-8k for the donor? Then a couple grand for maintenance parts while you have the donor torn apart?
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Dec 16, 2018 20:37
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Kastivich posted:If you valued your labor at $0, how much does it cost to get one of these on the road? Looks like $10-14k for the kit. Maybe $6-8k for the donor? Then a couple grand for maintenance parts while you have the donor torn apart? If you assume the donor has no parts that need to be replaced, it's about $20k (can be less depending on your options, how good you are at deal hunting, and what year you are using as a donor). I think $25k is probably a reasonable budget if you assume you'll have to do things like replace all the seals on the car, maybe rebuild the engine, replace some wear items in the suspension, etc. I think my plan is going to be to buy a running donor in early 2019 and drive it for fun until I buy the house and kit. The donor would be a second car at that point, as I'd keep my Mazda 3 since I'll need it once I take apart the donor but before the 818 is together.
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Dec 16, 2018 21:56
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Mr. Powers posted:If you assume the donor has no parts that need to be replaced, it's about $20k (can be less depending on your options, how good you are at deal hunting, and what year you are using as a donor). I think $25k is probably a reasonable budget if you assume you'll have to do things like replace all the seals on the car, maybe rebuild the engine, replace some wear items in the suspension, etc. I just can't get over how bad the 818 looks compared to some of the original sketches. I was considering one but may just build a locost 7 instead or this thing https://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=19631
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Dec 17, 2018 04:16
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The revised 818 nose looks way better than the original. I honestly don't know how you could get to $40k on it unless you're doing a lot of custom work.
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Dec 17, 2018 06:15
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https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2014-factory-five-818/ Buying someone else's completed project seems like the way to go tbqh.
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Dec 17, 2018 19:14
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Residency Evil posted:https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2014-factory-five-818/ Old style nose, not built by me. You can buy all sorts of things, but then you don't have a car that you built. E: I've been poking around and there are some '06-'07 driveable WRX specimens around for about $6k. I think I am going to pick one up once I clean out my garage as a reward. I still have my old 5x100 steel wheels, so I can get my snow tires moved back over to them for the winter. carticket fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Dec 18, 2018 |
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Dec 17, 2018 22:35
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I own a FF Mark IV Cobra, used a terminator 4.6L SC engine for the power plant, which started out as a Mach 1 block. I built it back in 2012-2013. Apologies for the old pictures. I also owned for a time a GTM v2, kit, however I returned it to them for a number of reasons. This is how they come from the factory, gel coated fiberglass body in a bigass truck with a SHITLOAD of boxes. Finished product, going down to the dyno. Patrick O'Goreman does my tuning, same dude who has the record with a Ford GT on the Texas Mile right now.  I also visited the factory about the time I put in my order for the Cobra replica. I probably have some opinions about FF that may not align with how others think and feel about them, but I think its fair that anyone looking to assemble a kit gets differing opinions. I'm just going to summarize a few things from my perspective of my relationship and experiences with them. 1. These kits are not build it and yer done kits. Many of the materials are raw, requiring you to be able to cut, bend and fabricate. In example I really had to expand the driver foot box because my feet aren't exquisite ballerina sized. If you can assemble a kit airplane, you can do this with what you have in your shop no sweat. It requires a lot of shop space, many different tools and skillsets, and franly, too much drat time in some cases. The fiberglass bodies they produce aren't that good. They're kinda... well, poo poo. You are going to be spending more time sanding poo poo than anything. Especially when it comes to the GTM, which is a complete trainwreck of a kit. If this is your first time ever doing a kit car, you're better off starting with the '33 Roadster. It takes the least time to assemble, very forgiving and friendly for customization later. 2. Stuff like gas caps/gas fillers, ornamentation, trim, mirrors they provide for the replica cars tends to be pretty low quality chinesium, still a bit of a sore point. Be aware of this before you buy, and look to their forums - there's better quality parts that other vendors have. 3. For cars with fiberglass bodies - spend the time and build a good, versatile body buck cart. You are going to need it because you're going to literally age while you sand out the infinite imperfections, misaligned edges, bubbles and assorted other bullshit those chucklefucks let go out the door. If you don't have good fiberglass or autobody skills, you might want to outsource that part of the project. 6x check your body fitment on the chassis before you send it off (or before you get ready to start painting) otherwise your're going to drop a grip then have to cut/chop grind and reglass for some bullshit a welder did to your frame because it was Friday @ 4:50 on the assembly jig. Matter of fact, when you do anything major, like drop the engine/transmission in, rear ends, etc. be ready to check the body/drivetrain/frame clearances. Guess it goes without saying. You'd be surprised how quickly geometry changes. 4. The GTM among many things, is not inexpensive way to build the supercar of your dreams. Nope. IMO just go buy a beater C5 or C6 and build it up, don't look back. For starters, the engine placement in the mid-car means you can't use something like the vette trans/rear parts. The FF way is to get a Porsche G50 transaxle and try to build it to hell and back to withstand the punishment of a high torque of a american V8, it might hold up for a while, or get a third-party Mendoza unit that was built specifically for the application, costs more than the loving car-kit did, and LOL still manages to have 5 forward gears. Yes. If that isn't good enough, go read up on how horrible the functionality of the front-end suspension geometry is, pure bump-steer, or the absolute maddening rube-goldberg doors with power windows are to get working properly with no leaks. Then there is the body. Prepare to basically re-glass everything so you even have a chance of properly aligning anything, door fitment, body to chassis alignment. Even after all that, you will then be challenged, very challenged to get everything sorted out if you plan on going faster than 125 mph. Others have done it, but at great expense. You'll need time in a wind tunnel. Or you can forget this exists, get that Vette project going and have a very well sorted car that will be fine at the big end of speed. 5. 818 seems to be a very good and competent car to build with far less drama than the older kits. If I was going to do another FF kit I would definitely go for that. Fun factor is off the hook. 6. In my opinion, the FF '35 truck is a half-assed idea and needs to go back to the drawing board. The cab is hilariously small and the bed is useless faux cover for the rear. Come on, guys. Anybody can get a 40's-70's GM or Ford junked and fab up a sweet tube chassis for it for not much money. Just build it up to about F-100 sized and give it a little more bed and it will be fine. Won't even gain that much weight. 7. I was in the process of building a new-at-the-time GTM v2 kit for running the Texas Mile as were a couple of other of people. The issue was, FF claimed at the time the car was wind tunnel and track tested and should be as good or better than a C-6 vette. Unfortunately this was not the case, the cars proved to become very unstable for a myriad of reasons above 125-135. As I mentioned earlier, there was a whole crapload of issues with everything from suspension geometry, transmission solutions, body/door issues, frame issues, etc. For my part I think I was overly optimistic on my expectations of the kit being a supercar post assembly. People have spent a lot of time and money and have generally gotten better results with the car lately, A lot of them handle great on the track and one went 194 at the Texas mile a few months ago. FF worked with me to transfer the car to another builder and I wound up losing very little money invested. I think that was fair enough. So if anyone has any questions on building the Mk4 Cobra or the GTM, just ask. R-Type fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Dec 18, 2018 |
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Dec 18, 2018 06:07
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My grandfathers brother (great uncle that WORKS AT NINTENDO TOO tyvm) had a blue and white striped 427/428 rep. I think he sold it after it was said and done for 55-65k? Not sure. He replaced it with a Boxster S. ^^^ he was huge in to DYI stuff, he had a RC Piper Club float plane that had a ten foot wingspan. So if RC airplanes are something in your ally, then you could buy and finish one of these. Probably.
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Dec 18, 2018 06:41
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R-Type posted:
Thank you for completely putting out of my head the thought that maybe I should go for a GTM. My coworker warned me about the fiberglass work. He was looking to build a Type 65 but ended up going with an airplane kit (a real one, not RC). I have some exposure to a lot of these different skill sets, but not a lot of depth in most of them. I plan to use this as a learning experience project. I am fortunate to have a lot of very skilled people I know that would be willing to teach me as well. Also, do you have more build pictures (of either)? carticket fucked around with this message at 13:28 on Dec 18, 2018 |
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Dec 18, 2018 13:25
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I used to work on two FFR spec cars for NASA. Father and son team, spent about 3 years crawling all over them. One even finished 3rd at the Nationals one year. (Cobra style but full cage) I will second that you need be ready to do some serious fabrication. Nothing project binky levels but I hope you like rivets and welding. That being said they worked great, and honestly it was easier to deal with fab and maintenance on them than it was on unibody cars. I can go digging for pictures and what not if you're cool with this becoming factory five chat station.
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Jan 12, 2019 01:47
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I'm cool with it. I'm still one house with garage space short of being able to buy the kit and start on my journey, but I did buy the donor in the mean time.
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Jan 12, 2019 17:07
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This is sweet, thanks for the pictures! I've always wanted a Daytona Coupe. Hot rod magazine took a few of their cars to a track and raced them against a Lamborghini. It's seriously impressive how well they handle, although I'm sure there's a fair amount of sorting that has to happen to get them to this point. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V96-AQ1FghI
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Jan 13, 2019 02:37
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