Last updated March 19, 2006

Marshall's Car:

“A primal brute that will confirm [Marshall's] mother-in-laws worst suspicions.”

-  Car & Driver

What's Next:  Build marathon until my senior project is due at the end of May.

Date	Description	Click image/text for more
May 14th 2006	She's finally back from the paint shop and I'm working hard to get her finished by the end of May and registered in early June.  Here are some pictures of the paint job and radiator aluminum installation.
March 19th 2006	The cobra is on the trailer and ready to go, thanks to the Staums and their Blazer.  Tomorrow she heads down to Dartmouth.
March 6th 2006	I put on the J-pipes (no sidepipes) and took the car out for a bit of an early spring dust-off.  Click on the picture to the right to see the video.
January 2nd 2006	After taking off the body and all exterior fixtures and reinstalling the body, the doors, trunk and hood are temporarily attached in preparation for sending the car to the painter.
July 25th - Aug. 10th 2005	Head, tail, and turn lamps are installed, all my wiring is tested, and a problem with the alternator is fixed.
July 19th - 24th 2005	Work on the engine is finished and things like the windscreen, quick jacks (bumpers) and gas cap get put on
June 24th -25th 2005	Engine compartment/dash harness wiring is finished up and the body goes on
Early June	"Hidden" battery location, trunk aluminum, and cockpit aluminum installed
April 3rd 2005	Installed heater tubes and vacuum control solenoids
March 22nd 2005	Engine starts and runs	video and pictures

Garagelapse

Every time I do something significant to the car or garage, a picture gets taken from the same spot in the garage, at the same angle.  This intensely meticulous practice has come to be known only as garagelapse.

INTRO I'm building a Factory Five Racing Mark II Roadster, also known as a Shelby Cobra replica.  AC Cars in England originally produced Cobras, but Carroll Shelby, some guy from Texas who also designed the GT350 and GT500 Shelby Mustangs, was the one who decided to put a 427 cubic inch Ford engine in one of the AC cars in the 60's.  Cobras pretty much owned everyone in the sixties, and were known as Ferrari killers because they could trash all the fancy imports.  Only a little over a thousand original Cobras were made, but they were hugely popular.  The car I'm building is a replica of the original, but is supposed to be structurally superior to the Cobras of the 60's, and has a fiberglass body rather than aluminum.  I don't know where this quote comes from, but it's an accurate description of what it feels like to be in a Cobra:

"There's nothing nice about a Cobra. It's stripped down to the essentials - a big engine, a small car, and four wide tires trying to keep the whole business on the pavement. It's loud, smells like gasoline, and shakes, shudders and bucks. It makes your arms tired and your feet hot. You nearly crash about once every ten minutes. It's so damn wonderful that you can't believe it."

Here are some facts (and some estimations) about the car:

You should also read this review of a Car and Driver article comparing the Factory Five Roadster to a Mazdaspeed Miata, Honda S2000, Caterham Super Seven, and Lotus Elise (and describing how it destroyed all the other cars performancewise, but wasn't tame (read: "cute") enough for the guys at C&D).

Approximate hours of work to date:  325

Build Timeline:

• February 2nd '04 - Mustang GT donor car purchased in Holbrook, MA

• April 2nd '04 - Mustang carcass taken away on flatbed; deconstruction complete

• April 10th '04 - Kit picked up at Factory Five in Wareham, MA

• June 10th '04 - Actual construction of the Cobra begins

• July 31st '04 - Suspension completed; frame rolled out of garage for the first time

• September '04 - Engine started in the Cobra for the first time since it was in the Mustang (but wouldn't idle well because there were wads paper towel jammed in the intake manifold, which I discovered six months later)

• April 2nd '05 - Drove the car on a street for the first time

• March 27th '05 - Drove the car for the first time (in and out of the garage)

Old Photos

(Click for loads of old, somewhat unorganized pictures from the build)

Miscellaneous Stuff & Videos