Owner Insight:

While Clay was serving with the U.S. Navy in Manama, Bahrain, he saw an advertisement for Factory Five Racing (FFR) in the back of a recent issue of Car and Driver.  The idea of building one of these “kit cars” captured his imagination – recalling that he and his father had considered such a project when he was a teenager – and he sent for the promotional DVD.  After his return stateside he ventured up to Wareham, Massachusetts for a tour of the Factory Five facility, and after he saw how much attention to detail and robust construction technique went into the Factory Five products, he was hooked.  He diligently put pencil to paper and realized up front that he didn’t have the critical mix of time, tools, talent, patience, and real estate to cannibalize a late model Mustang that is required for such an “owner build”; so he set about looking for a “previously owned” roadster.  One day he discovered the Capital Area Cobra Club website, and Ben’s For Sale notice; you can guess the rest.  The roadster moved from Maryland to Virginia on Christmas Eve, 2008.

This particular Factory Five Racing Mark2 Ford Cobra Roadster Replica was originally built in 2002.  Ben Lambiotte (the third owner) undertook a complete body-off rebuild in 2007 using all new, state-of-the-art parts, with the heavy lifting accomplished by Larry Casey and Fred Kelley, noted Maryland FFR builders and racers.  The car was a familiar competitor on the Washington DC area autocross circuit, and posted several top 25 finishes at Cumberland and top five finishes at Capital Driving Club events in 2008.  Ben sold the car to Clay Riales in December 2008, and Clay subsequently enlisted the services of the DRS FantomWorks gang in Norfolk, Virginia to continue customization of the car.  Since 2009, FantomWorks has made the parking brake fully functional, reworked the sheet metal of the tranny tunnel to provide more leg room in the cockpit, installed a fresh wiring system, an aviation intercom to permit headset operation on the open road, a passenger-side racing seat and a matching roll bar, an under-hood hinge structure, three faux machine guns , and oversaw the re-skinning of the shell with a heavy duty vinyl wrap.

This FFR Cobra Roadster Replica is the ultimate driver’s car.  It is extremely well balanced, corner weighted, with a 54-46% weight distribution.  New Konis, and all rubber suspension bushings on control arms and IRS knuckles have been replaced with race quality Teflon rod end or spherical bearings, among many other details too numerous to mention. Clay has been enjoying it for over 5 years now, and plans to hand it down to his son Logan who is in the process of completing his Eagle Scout requirements.