Background
During the summer of 2005 my parents were visiting us here in Seattle from Michigan.  Sitting in the backyard, having a couple of beers, my dad mentioned he didn’t understand how anyone could find anything on the Internet — he’d tried, but couldn’t find anything worthwhile.

In an effort to show him how easy it was, I asked if there was anything he was interested in learning more about so we could do a Google search.  When he didn’t immediately come up with anything, I thought back on something I always wanted to do: build a replica of Caroll Sheby’s mid-sixties AC Cobra.

After entering the terms "cobra kit car" into Google, the first hit was Factory Five Racing.  While we were sitting there talking about the great information on the Factory Five site, I went ahead and ordered up a brochure and DVD.

Over the winter of 2005 I studied the brochure and watched the DVD over, and over again.  It was during this time that I also discovered the Factory Five forum.  This discussion board has years and years worth of dicussions covering all aspects of building a FFR roadster and is a great resource for anyone thinking about putting together one of these cars.

Fast forward to the summer of 2006 and my parents are visiting Seattle again and my dad & I are sitting in the backyard having another beer.  I mention that I’d been in contact with a member of the FFR forum who lives here in the neighborhood who said he’d be delighted to show us his car — would he like to go check it out?

That afternoon we spent about an hour talking with KCKingCobra and looking at his pristine Guardsman Blue MkI FFR Roadster (I tried to find some pictures of the car, but the links in the forum don’t seem to be working anymore).

As you can guess, one thing led to another and I ended up deciding to pull the trigger and build one of my own.

Below are links to the entire build diary. I hope you enjoy my journey!

–Joe

• Build Expenses
• Cobra Links
• Build Specifications