Factory Five Prodigal Son Returns

Sonny Silvia visits FFR

 

Factory Five Customer #2, Sonny Silvia, tries out a new roadster.
 

We had a surprise visitor today from a famous person.  Sonny Silvia purchased FFR1002X, the second prototype vehicle we built back in 1996!  Sonny is living in California now and was on vacation in the area, and stopped by to say hello.
 

Factory Five Trivia: 

Back in the spring of 1995 Mark and I were running a little low on cash.  We had completed the bulk of our engineering work and built two prototype FFR roadsters.  Prototype #1 had been sold to Bob Loscuito and

we had just completed prototype #2, a bright red roadster with a stock 5.0 motor and T-5 transmission and Halibrand 15” wheels.  This second prototype would be the car later tested by Kit Car Magazine in the first article about us and our new company Factory Five Racing, Inc.

We had completed performance testing of the car (SCCA Autocrossing and some rough road work).  We were down to $250 in the bank and were so busy we just put the red prototype out on the street and wrote $16,000 on the windshield in shoe polish.  Sonny drove by minutes later and left with the car.  About two years later we bought both FFR1001X and FFR1002X back from Sonny and Bob.  Both cars were later disassembled, studied and destroyed.
 
By: Dave Smith