Anyone have any experience with "Kit Cars"??

[Boz1911]

I plan to order a Factory Five racing 33 Hot Rod kit very soon. This company seems very reputable with a great kit. My plan as of now is to install
a Ford Coyote racing engine and some type of manual transmission. Could use advice on trans rec's and any experiences anyone has with this company or other kit manufacturs. I looked a Streetbeast Cobra kit for sale last week. It appeared to be the POS everyone says they are and the guy was a little squirrely anyway. Anyway, any thoughts or comments are welcome.

 

[shadowchaser59]

good luck on your adventures with the kit/car. I have saw the factory five cars on some of the TV shows on Speed and Spike. they did get good feedback from there. I don't know anyone personally that has built one. from my experience in the street road world it is cheaper to buy on complete or almost there than to build from the ground up. I have had some type of hot road , street rod, or muscle car sense I was sixteen. with factory five or any aftermarket body it is best if the doors are prehung in my opinion to avoid you having to do all the cutting and alining. that is if your planning on this being a do it yourself project. I don't know your background so please don't take any of this wrong. I have two drivers and three project's that have been setting for years. health and money have them on hold, you can get burn out and or broke or quick. I love car's that's my number one passion always has been.
back to topic there is a company in Florida called monster transmission. they will build one to your spec's or have one that will work. I have talked with guy's at shows that have run them with no problem and they stand behind their product's.
http://www.monstertrans.com/

I know a couple people who have sold cars at Streetside Classic's there on I-20 just past six flags if you want to look at what they have for idea's. try to make some shows till you fully decide on what you want. http://www.streetsideclassics.com/
Good luck look forward to seeing the route you take

 

[woodstock]

Timely question- big write up on factory five in recent hot rod, or was it car craft that you might find informative. They ran some of the factory five cars against a lamborghini on a race track too

 

[tomtomgt356]

I've actually been looking into this, but I'm thinking of Lotus 7 style car. I've heard good things about factory five and if they had what I'm looking for I would be all over it. One thing I would recommend before pulling the trigger is to look into the laws for kit cars and how you would get it registered. If you register it as a kit car/homebuilt, an you are in an emissions county, then you will have to pass emissions for the year it is originally registered ( if you register it today you have to pass emissions for a 2013 vehicle).

There are some people that have bought a running donor with a clear title and then "modified" it and kept the original registration. I'm not sure how legal this really is, but I've done some searching (more than just Google) and I haven't found any Georgia laws limiting how much you can modify a car.

I just wanted to give you a heads up before you put all the time and money into building one and then not be able to drive it.

Good luck with the project and I look forward to a build thread!

 

[hotrodchevrolet]

I did a ton of research on factory five about 15 years ago when I first got interested in doing a cobra replica. This was when you still paid for internet by the minute at slooooooooooow speeds, but they did kindly send a VHS tape and promotional material via USPS upon my request. At that time (15 years ago) I had done some research and found their product to have the best combination of quality, price, parts availability (compatible with the fox bodied mustang for most of the parts), etc. Writeups in Kit Car magazine and Car Craft at the time also gave high praise to their products. College, family, etc made it so that I never did order or build the kit but had I been able, factory five would have been the way I did it. Good to hear that they have seemingly been able to weather the economy over the last 10 years or so. Based upon my ancient research, they should be a good one to go with. Also, may want to contact Fraser Dante in Roswell. I know that they have bought/sold many cobra replicas along with their classic car sales, they may have some input as well.

 

[gre36]

Call unique motorcars in Gadsden Al. Talk to Maurice weaver (owner) I have had one of their 427 Cobras for several years. Very nice people to deal with. Only about a couple hours away. 256 546 3708

 

[Boz1911]

I've actually been looking into this, but I'm thinking of Lotus 7 style car. I've heard good things about factory five and if they had what I'm looking for I would be all over it. One thing I would recommend before pulling the trigger is to look into the laws for kit cars and how you would get it registered. If you register it as a kit car/homebuilt, an you are in an emissions county, then you will have to pass emissions for the year it is originally registered ( if you register it today you have to pass emissions for a 2013 vehicle).

There are some people that have bought a running donor with a clear title and then "modified" it and kept the original registration. I'm not sure how legal this really is, but I've done some searching (more than just Google) and I haven't found any Georgia laws limiting how much you can modify a car.

I just wanted to give you a heads up before you put all the time and money into building one and then not be able to drive it.

Good luck with the project and I look forward to a build thread!

Yeah I've been thinking about that a lot. Looks like I have narrowed my choice down to a LS-3 engine. If I title it as a 2013-2014 and it follows current regs it will be exempt for three years, after that I should be able to make things work any way. A build thread might be in order, although I won't be in any hurry.
Thanks

 

[Boz1911]

I did a ton of research on factory five about 15 years ago when I first got interested in doing a cobra replica. This was when you still paid for internet by the minute at slooooooooooow speeds, but they did kindly send a VHS tape and promotional material via USPS upon my request. At that time (15 years ago) I had done some research and found their product to have the best combination of quality, price, parts availability (compatible with the fox bodied mustang for most of the parts), etc. Writeups in Kit Car magazine and Car Craft at the time also gave high praise to their products. College, family, etc made it so that I never did order or build the kit but had I been able, factory five would have been the way I did it. Good to hear that they have seemingly been able to weather the economy over the last 10 years or so. Based upon my ancient research, they should be a good one to go with. Also, may want to contact Fraser Dante in Roswell. I know that they have bought/sold many cobra replicas along with their classic car sales, they may have some input as well.

I haven't found anything bad about Factory 5 yet. I plan to order the car next Wednesday. Been researching engine/trans combos which had been very difficult to decide.

- - - Updated - - -

Call unique motorcars in Gadsden Al. Talk to Maurice weaver (owner) I have had one of their 427 Cobras for several years. Very nice people to deal with. Only about a couple hours away. 256 546 3708

Thanks, but my goal has always been to do it myseld. Any pics of the Cobra??

 

[FbodTrek]

Depending on how often you plan on driving it, and how fast you think you can go in the chassis (do you WANT to go fast?), a Fuel injected LS motor might be more trouble than it's worth. I can think of a dozen streetable carbed setups that could compete for less money, less fabrication expense, and less headaches (unless you're one hell of a fabricator, in which case disregard ).
Fuel injection is money though and pretty trick

 

[Boz1911]

Depending on how often you plan on driving it, and how fast you think you can go in the chassis (do you WANT to go fast?), a Fuel injected LS motor might be more trouble than it's worth. I can think of a dozen streetable carbed setups that could compete for less money, less fabrication expense, and less headaches (unless you're one hell of a fabricator, in which case disregard ).
Fuel injection is money though and pretty trick

Won't be driving much but when I do I want fast as an option. My engine of choice at this point will be a carbureted LS3 GM performance engine rated at 515HP, and I think I can tweek a little more than that. The coils and timing will be controlled via a seperate module so no ECM will be required. The other option near the top would be a Ford 5.0 coyote engine that is fuel injected and requires a seperate ECM and harness. I want to avoid catalytic convertors and oxygen sensors if possible more for asthetic reasons than anything else.