Any questions? Feel free to ask. We'll be monitoring this thread, as well as the BaT listing.
Our project Factory Five 818 has been completely finished. Now that our project car series has run its course in the magazine, we’re offering the car to the world. The Bring a Trailer auction is live now with a starting bid of just $1. As always, we’d love to see it go to one of our readers.
Any questions? Feel free to ask. We'll be monitoring this thread, as well as the BaT listing.
I'm tempted to throw a bid out, just so I can screenshot that I'm high bidder at a BaT auction.
Just keep the Punk Kid out of it, right...
I opened the bidding at $2015 so I can go to the Challenge if I win.
In reply to Tyler H:
I just came here to say "It looks like a forum member just opened the bidding." But it looks like we already know who. Thanks for the bid.
I wonder how long $2015 will be the current bid. Tyler H, I like your style.
Tyler H wrote: I opened the bidding at $2015 so I can go to the Challenge if I win.
Darn, you beat me to it.
Well, you could always bid higher. 
Is it legal for California?
T.J. wrote: I wonder how long $2015 will be the current bid. Tyler H, I like your style.
Not very long. Already up to $5000.
In reply to Ian F:
I did that. My bad 
Did not know it did not proxy like Ebay
I'm glad that is all i bid.
curious how high this will go. Others have not been selling very quickly at around $20k-$25k. And some of those are much nicer cars. Nice paint, better components.
I don't know every law in every state, but usually, as long as the drivetrain is legal and compliant in a state, the rest of the car is. some states sniff and use the numbers. Some states need everything to be original to be legal. It is legal in Florida and has a clean Florida title.
In the case of California, you'd absolutely need an SB100 exemption number. Without it, it'll be considered a new 2015 car subject to all emissions testing for that drivetrain.
In reply to kb58:
Thanks, Ill stop biding
I think that it's got some historic value as the first one off of the line. That should add value relative to more pimped out builds.
kb58 wrote: In the case of California, you'd absolutely need an SB100 exemption number. Without it, it'll be considered a new 2015 car subject to all emissions testing for that drivetrain.
Conceivably a referee would pass it because of the high workmanship level and the presence of all the emissions stuff including the cat(it's still there, right?). However, if the distance between the manifolds and cat changed significantly, that might lead to a failure. High workmanship level and an intent to keep everything kosher work in your favor.
"If" everything is there, unaltered, yes, it'll be fine. But what a lot of people forget about is that the gas tank is part of the overall emissions system. I don't know whether that's part of the car in question, but it would have to be there as well. (This is for California, I don't know about other states.)
To GVX19, you don't have to stop bidding, but you'd have to (probably) wait until the end of the year in order to get a SB100 exemption form - they give them out at the DMV each year, but there's only 500. How do you think I got Kimini and Midlana on the street 
Friends of mine registered theirs here in CT as a kit car without too much trouble.
Monday bump: bidding is at $8,000.
I would have given you $2015 for it
In reply to Flight Service:
That was the very first bid. GRM dorks FTW.
Two days left and we're sitting at $8,100. Anybody else think it should be a little higher right now?
Ed, I just came from the BAT auction page to say just that. A couple days left. I'm guessing the price will start heading up soon. At the current price it would be the deal of the century.
Looks like $9500 to me at this point. You guys will get some money out of it for sure. My friends have theirs putting 315hp to the wheels at low boost with a built motor. It's a bit of a handful even on Hoosiers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CaIpYdIYGs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amevu4cF9bk
In reply to Harvey:
That was similar to my experience, too. Ours doesn't crank out quite that much power, but I found it to be a handful (though fast) in autocross. However, on a road course it is actually very predictable and not too difficult to drive quickly.
Man, I remember going to Factory Five with the GRM family and some local forum members to check out the prototype. Now it's all grown up and ready to leave the nest! Good luck with the sale, guys!
In reply to Ed Higginbotham:
They are still working out the cooling issues before they tune it for more power, but yeah, apparently throttle lift oversteer is a thing with mid-engine cars.
They also will probably try to fit 315 Hoosiers on it.
Seven hours left.
I'm going to guess that it goes for around $25k at the end.
About 1 hour left. Sitting at $16,000. Someone's got an amazing deal if it goes for this.
10 minutes to go. Here's where it gets fun.
$21.5k...
I watched the timer jump from 1:30ish back to 3:00 several times. ??
WTH is wrong with their timer? Is it just me, or is it resetting itself repeatedly?
In reply to bravenrace:
The auction ends 3 minutes after the last bid. They can keep bumping it up forever.
In reply to Toyman01:
Oh, didn't know that. I'm not going to watch it forever...
It looks like a bid in the last minute or so resets the timer, allowing for more bidding.
$24K and another 3 minutes.
It just reset and someone put in 24k and 24.5k 10-15 seconds after it was over.
$24,750.00
It's like Groundhog Day over and over.
I'm betting every computer at GRM World HQ is on that page and clicking reload often.
Maybe....
Toyman01 wrote: I'm betting every computer at GRM World HQ is on that page and clicking reload often.
Yeah, we were torn between cheering it on and a few of us hoping it would stop so we could win the office pool :))
FYI, Ed won the pool--he picked $25,500. Sadly for him, none of us put any actual money on our bets. But he's got bragging rights.
Margie
I was pretty close with my around $25k guess.
In reply to Marjorie Suddard:
Congrats to all involved.
Harvey wrote: I'm going to guess that it goes for around $25k at the end.
Marjorie Suddard wrote: FYI, Ed won the pool--he picked $25,500. Sadly for him, none of us put any actual money on our bets. But he's got bragging rights.
If this was the Price Is Right, Ed wins!
In reply to Keith Tanner:
Feeling like a winner. Thank you, thank you very much.
I enjoyed the all the content from the 818 build. The articles were good. The videos were a nice compliment. Thank you to the GRM crew for your work on this.
Lotus money.
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