The next Factory Five kit car includes Subaru?

Yet the windscreen is one of the big variables with subaru. You get different ones even within the impreza line, where everything else is like legos.

It doesn't seem like using a non-Subaru windshield would be much of an issue. Windshields are readily available for most cars for a few hundred bucks and I'm not sure how many people actually would pull and reuse the windshield from the donor car.

Well, I must keep my WRX a bit longer

MrJoshua wrote: No insult intended, but it would be amusing if GRM got and thoroughly tested a car R@T and C@D couldn't get. :D

Just wait...this is gonna be good.

Tom Heath wrote: Just wait...this is gonna be good.

The next project car?

Tom Heath wrote: Just wait...this is gonna be good.

What? This is the internet: We wait for no thing and no one!

Evan wrote: It doesn't seem like using a non-Subaru windshield would be much of an issue. Windshields are readily available for most cars for a few hundred bucks and I'm not sure how many people actually would pull and reuse the windshield from the donor car.

Agreed. The windshield probably won't be a big deal. Other glass, however, may be. The one big question will be the doors. Will they have roll-up windows? Reusing the WRX windows or something else? Hard top glass? it'll be interesting to see how they overcome these issues as these are some of the same questions I haven't seen adequately resolved (to my liking) in the Smyth TDI car. Going to a simplistic and window-less door design like the Cobra has could limit the usefulness of the car beyond being an occasional w/e toy.

FFR sketches

imirk wrote:

Tom Heath wrote: Just wait...this is gonna be good.

What? This is the internet: We wait for no thing and no one!

Lawyers>internet.

Let me say this, though. Sharpen your pencils and/or photoshop skills.

or call John Sibal?

Winning design gets a free kit?

Tom Heath wrote: Let me say this, though. Sharpen your pencils and/or photoshop skills.

Will sharpening my clay carving tools be a waste of time? I do better in 3D than I do in 2D...

How much longer do my pencils have to wait?

is it the 15th yet?

So, my FFR newsletter included this gem:

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you stuffed a Subaru WRX motor into something that's mid-engined, rear-wheel-drive, and weighs less than 2,000 lbs.? Because that's the next Factory Five car - a two-seater built around inexpensive and indestructible Subaru running gear. The styling isn't finalized, but I'm imaging something that looks like Lancia Stratos. And if you don't break into a creepy serial-killer smile every time you imagine an affordable, WRX-based Stratos, then you are some kind of weirdo. The car's new wheelbase is locked in at 95" which is a little longer then an Exige." - Ezra Dyer, Automobile Magazine

Didn't see that in the past couple pages.

In reply to ReverendDexter:

Ezra Dyer may envision a Lancia clone, but you might envision something completely different. I really liked the VW EcoRacer concept car. Maybe if I used some elements of it with some cues from a Lotus 7, drew it up all pretty like and submitted it for a contest...

Seriously, I'm working on getting some updates for this. It's going to be awesome, but I want to give real information and not rumors.

Soon. Awesome. (You can quote me on that!)

I'm no artist or car designer, but this contest is a big deal. I forsee that they are going to get a lot of entries that look very similar resulting in some unhappy people who think the winning design is very similar to their design. If there is a prize of a free kit I'm in. I have an idea, not sure how well I could put it to paper or computer screen though.

Looking forward to the details on this one.

The last I heard, Tom Matano, the head of Mazda design when the Miata and FD RX7 were produced, was teaching design at a college here in the SF Bay area. I would love to see what some of his students could come up for this platform.

neon4891 wrote: FFR sketches

In my opinion all the great body designs have basically been done years ago.

Lookup the Sportech By Dave Piontek ( 1993 ! ) and see if It doesn't look a lot like the sketch.

Chet

Looks like my CAD packages are going to be getting a work out.

Type Q wrote: The last I heard, Tom Matano, the head of Mazda design when the Miata and FD RX7 were produced, was teaching design at a college here in the SF Bay area. I would love to see what some of his students could come up for this platform.

You should make sure he/they know about it. What a cool class project!

Chet wrote: Lookup the Sportech By Dave Piontek ( 1993 ! ) and see if It doesn't look a lot like the sketch.

Is this what you mean? If so, good gosh, I hope the new FFR car is prettier than this!

The sketch reminds me of the other subaru based kit car, but the sketch is about about as generic as you can get. Stratos, would be to die for, and I have the subaru drivetrain...or two or three.

I'd like to see something that looks like the Yamaha OX99-11.

well, at least I know the originality of my design won't be corrupted by this thread. I'd suggest that those cars had been designed by the blind, but I think that would be an insult...to the blind.