Business Week features Factory Five in Article About Kit Cars

 

 
Matt Vella over at Business Week Online writes a lot of articles for their Autos section as well as being a project manager. Recently, Matt wrote an article titled "DIY Dream Cars - How do you get a supercar for less? Build your own kit car" (or "Want a dream car? Built it yourself" at MSNBC.com) which deals with the rising popularity of kit cars and how they are becoming more and more available to everyone. Factory Five was featured in the article. In fact, Matt started the article by discussing how Factory Five Racing got its start and what the company has achieved.

A bad grade drove Mark Smith into business. Smith is co-owner, with his brother David, of Factory Five Racing in Wareham, Mass. The two started their company in 1995 after Mark's C grade on an MBA case-study paper outlining-of all things-the growing potential for do-it-yourself custom car kits.

 
Though Smith's professor didn't buy it, the brothers, both engineers by training, were convinced that significant advances in technology, growing parts availability, and renewed public interest in classic cars presented a golden opportunity.

 
Since then, they have doubled volumes nearly every year. The predict this year's sales of between 800 and 1,000 kits of the five models they offer will top $16 million, up 12% from last year's $14.1 million. Factory Five Racing, meanwhile, has become the largest U.S. seller of kit cars in a quickly growing field of custom made manufacturers.

The article goes onto to explaining the basics for how a kit car is built, the clubs that are formed, and the passion that is involved in building these kits. It's a fun article to read. Click here to view the article.