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My name is Steve Watts, and I've been watching Factory Five Racing's progress in the world since they first started advertising
their kits in 1995.
I watched them battle the legendary Carroll Shelby in court over the use of the word "Cobra", spending millions of dollars
of their own hard-earned money trying to defend the fact that they were only offering replicas of "Cobras". They certainly
were never trying to make anyone believe they were getting a "real Cobra", nor would anyone be so stupid to think so. Now
they are not allowed to use the word "Cobra" in any of their advertising. They have to call their Cobra replicas "Roadsters"
instead. It still disappoints me that Shelby felt it necessary to attack such a hard working family business. That would have
been enough to put most companies out of business. Maybe that's what he wanted. But not Factory Five Racing. They kept right
on going.
I was bound and determined to build one of their Cobra replicas someday, but I just haven't had the spare time, space
or money. However, in late 2005 I was fortunate enough to be able to buy a finished FFR Cobra replica from
a great guy up in Seattle, Washington named Chris Wacker. He built this car for himself in early 2004, and being a professional
mechanic it only took him about 6 months to build. Over the next year and a half, he was only able to put 400 miles
on it. Then circumstances changed, as they often do, and he decided he needed to sell it to start his own business.
I am truly sorry for him, but happy for me!!! I now find that I am part of a nationwide Factory Five Racing Owners Group
that is a very close group with almost 9200 registered members. Although the majority of FFR owners have built
their own car with the attendant pride that goes along with that accomplishment, I see no bias toward those like me that
opted to purchase one already done. They run an excellent online forum where members can exchange information, ask questions
or just share the progress on their own builds with everyone else. It is quite something. There is a link to their site on
the "Related Links" page.
On this site, I'm planning on posting some pictures of FFR4776, discussing the California registration
process for specialty-built vehicles and if I can figure out how to do it, I will include an Excel spreadsheet of everything
I could think of that went into the building of this car, including a lot of part numbers and all prices. Probably 99.9%
of everything in or on this car is accounted for in the spreadsheet.
I will also add some pictures of a couple of other "toys".
I may not get everything posted at first in my eagerness to publish this site to the web, but I will eventually get it
all on here.
Steve Watts
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