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Customer
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Russ Thompson -
One of our favorite parts of the Factory Five product and the
FFROG community is that every one of the 6000+ Factory Fives on
the road is different. Not just different colors, different
wheels and different gauges, but different builds
entirely.
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Michael Kadie -
We
love having a V8 powerplant in our Factory Fives. The throttle
response, the pull of good solid torque, the thrill of
horsepower winding up to high speed, the rumble at idle to the
roar at 5000rpm, and the rush of high-test fuel coursing through
our veins.
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The Weavers - The future Mr. and Mrs. Weaver are very
excited about their upcoming wedding. They are just as
excited, however, about the Factory Five roadster they plan to
build together that the only
thing that the couple registered for wedding gifts was an FFF 65 Roadster.
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Steve Moriarty and Kermit -
How exactly Steve has come to know everyone in LA is a
mystery to all of us, but when you hear Charlton Heston call him
by name in a Los Angeles fast food restaurant, you know there is
something to the legend.
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Rick Neveaux -
Most guys who are 6’6” would shy away from smaller cars, but not
Rick Neveaux. Rick has dreamed of owning a roadster ever since
he started assembling [Roadster] models (the recommended first step
for any future Factory Five owner) as a kid.
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Kara Shepherd rides to her wedding in style -
We
received a great email recently from Dave Shepherd of Hanson,
MA, sharing his joy of Factory Five ownership, sheer pleasure
in building the car, oh, and his daughter’s wedding.
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George Halleck -
George Halleck bailed us out of a jam this past summer and
donated his Factory Five to Ron Francis Wire Works for a display
at a NSRA show in Louisville. In the process of coordinating
the event, we realized that George has quite an interesting
story.
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Bakhnov & Melnikov
- Like most of us around the world, our first
[Roadster] sighting is a memorable one. The image is burned into our
grey matter forever, and it’s a hard memory to shake.
Alexander Bakhnov and Aleksandr Melnikov, in that way, are just like
you and me.
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Bill Haas - Bill Haas has been
messing with cars since he was old enough to hold a wrench, much to
the annoyance of his father at times. At age 10, he rebuilt his
first engine – a 1954 Ford V8.
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Mike DeGuire - It didn't take much for Mike Deguire to
get his FFR into his garage and on the road. After doing his
research and talking to several people on
the forum, Mike's arm was twisted and he was placing his
order for his MkII Roadster.
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Terry Krueger - Terry and his wife Josi love to drive
their Factory Five. So much so, that they find it hard to get
out of the car. in fact, since they purchased the (just broken
in, 6,000 mile) car from Jeff Collins and the talented crew at
Whitby Motorcars, he has logged in more than 8,600 miles.
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Mike Akens - Mike Akens is a different kind of customer.
He didn’t purchase a kit. He didn’t talk to a builder and work
with them to get his car built. Instead, Mike won the car and
could not be more excited about it.
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Richard Bassemir - In
March of 2004, Richard Bassemir opened his garage doors as
Stewart Transport delivered his MkII Roadster. Since then, Rich
has been diligently working to get his car build and proud to
say his build is finished.
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Alec Karacsonyi - Over the Patriot's Day weekend, we
received a very interesting e-mail from Alec Karacsonyi. Alec
and his two sons, Alex and Eric, built a MkI Roadster and
continue to enjoy it together.
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Joanne Koerner - Joanne (formerly Keller) felt it was
unfair that her fiancé had to fork out two months salary for an
engagement ring, and her new fiancé had nothing to show off to
his friends.
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Steve Flaten -
Steve Flaten has been a low key guy most of his life, and has never done
much to attract attention – that is, until he built his Factory Five in
2003.
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Phil Sprague -
Phil Sprague is a lot like most of our customers. He
has some experience working on cars, but an automotive mechanic
he’s definitely not.
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Help From the Kids -
From the
very beginning, we recognized that the products that we
had created would foster new friendships as well as
build stronger family bonds.
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Mike Gentile - After many hours and a lot
of money spent, Mike Gentle can only say that the first drive of
his Roadster "was a feeling of a lifetime." He brought it down
to the 2005 FFR Nationals this year to show off all the work he
did.
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Roy Bergen - Factory Five are not only
being built across the United States, but around the world. Word
has come in that one of our Coupe kits is now a registered
vehicle in Holland.
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Mirko Chardin -
Mirko Chardin is an
over-achiever – he’s a 24 year old History Teacher at one of the new
Boston pilot middle school in Dorchester, MA. In his “spare” time he
runs a men's support group called "Gideon's Army", and also serves as a
mentor/big brother to many of his students.
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Ralph Button -
As owners of Factory Fives, we all wish we could get more
driving time in our cars - more road trips, more weekend
getaways, more seat time, more track time. Unfortunately,
real-life gets in the way, families demand time, and well, what
if it rains?
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Robert Karlen - A native of Southern California,
Bob Karlen, grew up during the years Duke Kahanamoku introduced
surfing to the mainland. Along with surfing, the Beach Boys,
girls, sand and going barefoot, came his love of cars.
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Joe Laporte - Joe
LaPorte built his Mk3 Roadster in only four months to the day.
His kit arrived at his house on November 6th and he got right to
work on the 7th. By March 7th, he had completed his build.
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Ken Bush - When
you’re not married, the “honey do” list is much shorter, but the
drive for projects is still just as strong – only their all
yours. Ken Bush, still single at 46, for example, is one busy
guy.
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Chuck
Tatham - Chuck Tatham put together
this video to show us all how it’s done. Now there are no
excuses why you can’t finish your build tonight.
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Randy Jones -
My name is Randy
Jones and I’m a genuine car nut, airplane pilot, and Chevy guy
from the high school days (but that wasn’t too long ago
considering I’m in my mid thirties!).
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Rob Byrnes - With the exposure Rob
received from his extended family, it’s no wonder that he caught
the fever early in life.The combination of a detail-oriented
grandfather, a father with a penchant for flying, and a speed
freak of an uncle, meant that Rob had the opportunity to learn
all ends of the spectrum.
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Joe
Leone - Joe Leone has built a really
beautiful Mk2 Roadster that stands out everywhere it goes. House
of Kolor painted the car with a Black Sparkle Pearl that
really catches your eye. It has a 385 hp 351 Ford engine with
the Tremec 3550 transmission.
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Bill
Scholl - Bill carries on the FFR customer tradition of
winning at Run and Gun. This tradition dates back to guys like Greg
Lapoint (the original wheelie man), Pete Tork, Don Gibson, Richard Oben
and others (oops, forgot FFR’s Mark Smith King of the Hill in the
wrecked X-car from 1998).
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Carl
Johnson - Just to prove that it can be
done right and done on a budget, let us introduce you to Carl
Johnson. He and his wife, Sue, decided to build a Factory Five
Roadster, but knew that it had to be done for less than $25,000
for everything.
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Dan Gark - Dan Gark, from St.
Catherines Ontario in Canada began his project more than 20 years ago,
and although the details were not yet defined, he knew what he
wanted. This was back before he started his family, before
children, before he even knew what he wanted to do for a career.
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Horst
Geist - Like many of us, Horst is busier
than he cares to be. The proud owner of a successful
welding/construction company, and an active member of an
ambitious skydiving team, he has little free time for his
hobbies.
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Ken Reid -
Thanks to Portland Oregon’s Ken Reid
for the cool photos of his newly built FFR Spyder GT roadster.
Kens FFR 4617GT is one of the nicest one’s we’ve seen (and one
of the few!)FFR spyders are a rare sight.
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Michael Koerner - Men around the world
have been fighting the “two month salary” engagement ring rule
forever. Whoever came up with this “guideline” clearly has
never taken into account the importance of other things near and
dear to men’s hearts (like cars).
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Tim
Mundy - Tim tells it best in his own words
(excerpts form a nice letter...). “When I began the pursuit of
fulfilling a dream to build a (roadster) replica, I originally
made contact with Factory Five Racing to get information."
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Craig
and David Lindsey - For years now,
Craig Lindsey and his son Dave, have been talking about building
a car. Craig has always been a car guy, but David needed a car
project to begin his initiation. Little did he know how
“initiated” he would be.
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Bill
Hough -
Who
owns the first FFR Coupe? Well, that depends on who you ask.
The real answer is two guys. Longtime FFR builder and good
friend Joe Gouveia bought and owns the first FFR Coupe
prototype.
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Joe
Gouviea - Joe of New Bedford,
Massachusetts works in a family business, supplying grocery
stores in Southern New England with Portuguese specialty foods.
Joe has made many deliveries in this unique blue and white
vehicle (cuts down on the travel time but doesn’t do much for
carrying capacity).
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Gary
Cheney -
It seems Gary Cheney
can’t stop building FFR’s. This Coupe was purchased by him in
2001 and built in an amazing 3 months. The car was unveiled at
an FFR weekend event in the Spring. The Gorgeous blue Coupe has
been used to race and commute.
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Phil
Alexander -
FFR Owner Lance Green contracted to have Phil Alexander build
this subtle street-going Coupe. Hen he made this arrangement
little did he know that the car would win numerous car shows.
Most recently Lance earned second place in the FFR Nationals car
show.
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John
McIver - Many of you know John McIver by now. For
those of you who haven’t met him he’s one of the drivers who competes in
the FFR-NASA Challenge series.
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Ed
Gavin -
We
received this nice photo and letter from FFR Challenge car racer
Ed Gaven from Yuba City California. Thanks for the nice words
and congrats on your performance during the 2004 Nationals at
VIR this past September.
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Bill
Converse -
Factory Five customer Bill Converse stopped by the other day to
show off his completed car. While this isn’t an unusual
occurrence to have proud owners stop by the factory with their
newly built rides, what made Bill’s visit memorable was that it
was near freezing here in Wareham the day he stopped by!
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Phillip Deal -
Mark & Dave recently received this letter from Phillip Deal:
"From Kay and I, our sincerest...THANKS FOR THE CARS!
Two years ago at VIR I met Dave and in passing yelled
back..."Thanks For The Cars".
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Henry
Renaud - One of our local role models also
happens to be one of the more active FFROGs over the last five
years, building two roadsters, doing a stint in the Middle East,
a photo spread in Kit car magazine, and winning the best in
show award at the biggest roadster show in the country.
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Jim
This - We
received this nice note and killer photos of FFR customer Jim
This from Florida. Jim did his car in a bright white with
accented blue stripes. Contained in the stripes are some ghost
flames which are carried thru to the air cleaner.
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John
Tolve - John Tolve ordered his original
FFR Mark I roadster kit in January of 1996! John’s FFR1031 was
one of the first 25 FFR kits sold! The kit chassis was built by
Mark Smith. The kit was packed by Dave Smith and shipped on
April 17, 1996!
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Bill Pierce and Arnold Leong - Total
months to build kit : 11 months Color Scheme : House of
Kolors Candy Red over Silver Metallic. Engine Type/size used
: 351W, 430 HPTransmission: Tremic 3350HD, 5-speed
with 3.27:1 8.8" Ford rear end.
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Joe
Wirt - Joe did all the work on this
beautiful Type 65 Coupe with the exception of the body sanding
and painting. He is enjoying the car very much, and it is an eye
catcher everywhere he drives it.
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Judge
John Phillips and Rick Lacourse - Here
Comes Da Judge:
John Phillips from Jupiter Florida bought
FFR 1152 back in 1997 and started a five year 50,000 mile
odyssey. We've gotten to know John Quite well over the years.
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Chuck
Robertson - We're kicking off our Customer
Profile section with the man who won Best of Show at the FFR
Nationals 2003. Chuck Robertson, of Las Vegas, NV, is one of
those few guys who were actually driven to this project by their
wives (those of you who still have to convince the wife that
this is a good idea, take note).
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