Customer Profile – Steve Flaten

FFR 4429, Burnsville, MN

forum handle:   sflaten

email:   sjflaten@comcast.net
 
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.
 
 

Since then he has been a local celebrity in south-eastern Minnesota (although it’s hard not to be one when driving a Factory Five). 

 

Steve’s car, however, is different than most of the 5500+ customer built Factory Fives.  Steve’s pride and joy, a silver-on-titanium gray roadster has been featured in a national advertising campaign, and was voted the Koolest Car in the Twin Cities in a radio station contest.

 

Both of these stories deserve more time than we have here, so we’ll only give you an overview (Steve can fill you in on the details if you desire).
 

When Winnebago Motor Homes contacted Steve (he was president of a local sports car club), they were initially looking for a production convertible to help showcase their hot new recreational vehicle.  After setting the ad agency up with one of the member’s car for the photo shoot, Steve sent the agency a photo of his Factory Five to tease them about what they could have had.  Those photos stopped Winnebago in its (rather wide) tracks.  Instead of using a lame, none-of-a-kind production sports car, Winnebago featured Steve’s Factory Five in their national campaign to launch its new Aspect line. (unfortunately, Steve couldn’t convince them that he was a better hose-wielding neighbor than their demographically-designed image they chose).

 

His second brush with fame came when Kool-108 FM (a Minneapolis based radio station featuring the best tunes of the 60’s and 70’s) hosted a contest for the coolest sled in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area.  Over 400 of the best rides in the area came out to show-off their shine.  Those cars were pared down to the top 25, and the attendees of a nearby amusement park were able to vote on which would be number one.  

By an overwhelming majority, Steve’s Factory Five was chosen as the best.  Along with a cool trophy, Steve and his co-sponsor/wife, Pam, won an expenses paid trip to Florida (his roadster, however, was not invited).
 
In his real life, Steve is an Architect who performs forensic building evaluations to analyze why structures fail.  Making sure that his Factory Five wouldn’t fail, Steve utilized his engineering knowledge, coupled with his experience racing in the Skip Barber series, to build a sound vehicle.  In a short 11 months, Steve built the entire car, from start to finish – he even did his own body prep and paint in the process – and his award-winning car was built for less than $30,000!