Factory Five GTM Wins in Trans AM, US Touring Car Championship, and within striking distance of Western Endurance Racing Championship!

This past weekend at Circuit of the Americas race track in Austin, TX, the Team PDG Factory Five GTM finished a truly remarkable season with wins in three major racing categories.

Trans Am West Coast Champion!

Driver Carl Rydquist drove the Team PDG Factory Five GTM to a 1st place Trans Am title in the West Coast in Super GT Class with multiple race wins and a strong finish at this past weekend’s Nationals.

Trans Am National SGT Class, 4th Place!

At the Trans Am National Championships this past weekend, Carl drove the GTM to a 4th place finish in Super GT behind Adrian Wlostoski’s Trans Am Mustang, Lux Performance Group’s Dodge Viper, and Ken Thwaits’ Audi R8. The competition in Austin was savage, and Carl was able to keep the GTM within striking distance of the leaders through 28 laps.

West Coast Trans Am Manufacturers Champion!

A first-ever for Factory Five is a class win in the West Coast Trans Am Manufacturers Championship, and definitely a first-ever for ANY component car company!

These 2019 championships come on the back of having finished 3rd overall in the 2018 25 Hours of Thunderhill, and having won the 2018 NASA Western Endurance Championship ESR class with two overall race wins to boot.

In less than a month, on October 27th, Team PDG with Carl driving will be only one green flag away from securing the United States Touring Car GT Championship title as well! A truly remarkable season from a fantastic group of racers keeping the race in Factory Five Racing.

“Congratulations and thank you for having constructed an amazing and desirable car design, that a small team can use as a perfect platform to create a GT3 racecar with a few very affordable mods!” – Carl Rydquist

Latest Factory Five News

Mark S. Graduates His Mk4 & Scores Magazine Cover!

Congratulations to customer Mark S. on graduating his Mk4 Roadster build! Mark came for a tour of Factory Five in March 2020 to meet Dave Smith and the team. After returning home to the United Kingdom, Mark ordered his Mk4, and it arrived at his garage in February 2021.  Marks good friend, neighbor, and fellow car enthusiast, Stuart H, helpedwith the build which featured a Gen 3 5.0L Coyote, Tremec TKO transmission, 8.8″ solid axle with 3-link rear suspension, 18″ Halibrand wheels, and of course, it had to be in right hand drive. Mark also had the chassis galvanised to…

Read More

Factory Five is Closed Today, Monday January 26, 2026.

I made the call to scrub FFR operations for the day. The drive in wasn’t bad, and most roads are clear. Unfortunately our plow crew was late, and the day dawned with 3-4′ drifts in the back parking lot! We will be at work and at full strength tomorrow. Sorry for any difficulties this may cause. Dave SmithPresident

Read More

Three Generations Embark on a Type 65 Coupe Dream Build

Dave Ryan’s Type 65 Coupe build is moving right along—and it’s become something even bigger along the way. In collaboration with Factory Five Racing, V6 Media is producing a short film documenting the build process. Recently, Dave’s father, Vaun Ryan, sat down to share his lifelong passion for performance cars and motorcycles—sparked as a young boy on the family farm in Utah, building a homemade go-kart powered by a hay-elevator motor. That curiosity for how things work turned into a lifetime of mechanical enthusiasm, passed down through generations and now culminating in Dave’s Type 65 Coupe build, which is a…

Read More
Top