Discovery

I can’t remember exactly how I learned about Factory Five. I believe it was a result of browsing a forum about dream garages. It was 2007 and I’d just moved to a new house with the first two-car garage I’d ever had. I was excited about the potential for that garage and so I spent hours exploring what other people had done to their garage.

At some point, one of those posts diverted away from the garage improvements and into a conversation about the Shelby Cobra sitting in the garage. The owner corrected everyone – it’s a Factory Five Roadster and he’d built himself. 

Well, that was an intriguing statement for a number of reasons and it quickly led me to a second rabbit hole – the Factory Five forums. I started to read the in progress build posts by Sergio, ChevyGuy, etc. and over time it occured to me that this was something *I* could do. I could build my own car in my own garage. Even better, I could knock out the back wall of my garage and add a third bay with plenty of room for a tool bench, a fridge, a tv, and those tool chests that let everyone know you’ve graduated from shade tree mechanic, turning wrenches as a way to save a dollar –  or a hundred – to a serious hobbyist. 

As with all things, reality intervened and none of those things happened. I would wait more than a decade before starting to build my roadster. But I’d be driving one in less than a year.