| Factory Five Racing Customer Profile | |||
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Phillip Deal Fort Mill, SC |
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| Mark & Dave recently received this letter from Phillip Deal: | |||
| "From Kay and I, our
sincerest...THANKS FOR THE CARS! Two years ago at VIR I met Dave and in passing yelled back..."Thanks For The Cars". You've heard from many customers since 1995, but I consider it an obligation and a privilege to tell you two what your Roadster means to us. The date and publisher have been forgotten, but not the picture of the female airline pilot standing beside the open trailer with her kit and stacks of white FFR boxes. From her story I applied the same logic that got me a tour in the Marine Corps in 1962..."I can do that!" Research, reading, Internet search, purchase of the Assembly Manual and a final talk with a South Carolina customer finished my preps. All I needed was the motivation. I shared my thoughts with a lifelong friend who was receptive and interested in your concept. We visited Whitby Motorcars and drove one of Jeff Collins' roadsters for ...maybe 5 minutes each. After a couple of grunts, yeps and facial expressions that pass for communication between lifelong friends...we agreed for Jeff to order us two kits. One to be built at my friend's home and ours to be built here in Fort Mill, SC. #3175 (a cross between a Mk I and II) arrived in December, 2001 with few factory options. After several months completing numerous family chores, church obligations and completing restoration of our 1965 2+2 Hi-Po Mustang, I finally began the assembly. She was titled in mid-2003 getting 1500 miles on her in primer before giving the body up to the painter for 6 months (yep, painters are the same everywhere). When she returned this April it took me two days to reassemble her and continue our odyssey. Her name is MARIAH (...they call the wind Mariah). She's Wimbledon White/Guardsman Blue...the perfect color for this 60 year old fan of Fords. A carbed 302 with original 2:73 gears from an '88 GT donor. Four-lug Turbine rims, PepBoys spinners with front and rear over rider bars and stainless exhaust guards complete the look. We included the pedal mod for control. The brakes and steering we left manual. After 5000 miles of enjoyment I am still amazed at the opportunity that you two gave me to actually build this car...and there in is the basis for wanting to tell our story. Doing maintenance on our 1965 and 1966 Mustangs gave me some maintenance and repair skills, but little confidence to tackle this larger project. With floor jack, jack stands and a collection of Mustang maintenance tools and your Assembly Manual, I began the project...alone. The engine rebuild, steering shaft/drive shaft sizing and final painting were outsourced, but all other assembly tasks, body prep and finishing touches were handled by my wife and I. This is not a reflection of my abilities. It is the testament of the validity of your donor car concept, quality of the kit that you produce and the core of enthusiasts and vendors that you have spawned. Yes there were back-ordered parts to unnecessarily fret over, yes there were Assembly Manual confusions, yes the body work was tedious, but there was NEVER a fear that you had oversold my ability to complete your kit. My delays in getting started gave me adequate time to dissemble the donor and prep those parts, study more completed cars and do hours of Internet forum searches that prepared me for the decisions to make and steps to be taken. The values that we have discovered in building our Factory Five
Raodster are: |
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| We have met and purchased from
many supportive vendors. We have benefited greatly from FFCOBRA.COM
and other Internet sites. But most importantly we have met and
communicated with hundreds of other FFR owners/enthusiasts/builders/FFR
representatives over the past two years. These were people with love
for the cars but also a love & respect for life...giving of themselves at
every opportunity to help or support a needy cause where the cars could
draw a crowd. Much of this is the outgrowth of your initial vision
and the growth of your product. MARIAH is a daily driver. The looks, questions, comments and thumbs-up she gets where ever she goes is testament to your design and the opportunity you gave us to put her in public view. The planning, design, fabrication and enjoyment of the options we have installed are a major value offered by the FFR concept. In putting our individual stamp on the car for looks and convenience, we have: |
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| In just a few short months of
daily driving, we have also experienced tent camping out of the trunk at
the 2004 Atlanta Walter Mitty. We've driven 3 hours on the
Interstate in a steady downpour, survived the adventure and discovered
that the car and we dried out with ease. We've made the drive to
DVSF-IV in Ohio, complete with a COMFORTABLE ten-hour drive back home.
We've driven in winter weather with no top and discovered the joys of
layered clothing and the benefit of our heater. We've been in car
shows and felt the excitement of the crowd viewing the car. We've
driven to the 6500 foot summit of Mount Mitchell in North Carolina to
admire the view and the car. We've experienced the comfort of
Interstate travel, the satisfaction of mountain road drives on the Blue
Ridge Parkway and the everyday PURE PLEASURE of driving. We just wanted you two guys to know how appreciative we are of your vision, your products and the opportunity for adventure you have given to us. SEE YOU DOWN THE ROAD!"
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| Phillip & Kay Deal Fort Mill, SC |
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