Factory Five 818 kits are now available

Factory Five made its bones selling simple Shelby Cobra replicas designed to take advantage of plentiful Ford Fox-body Mustang components. But the Fox Mustang, often hailed as the '55 Chevy of its day, hasn't been in production since 1993. To stay in the game, Factory Five needed a more modern, relatively obtainable performance car to build a kit around.

They chose Subaru's second-generation WRX (the first generation sold in the U.S.). The turbocharged boxer four has a legion of fans and a healthy enthusiast aftermarket. And though the early stateside Rexes have held their value fairly well, they're certainly not out of reach of somebody bent on building his own sports car.

What's more, the fundamentally front-drive-oriented nature of the Scoob's powertrain makes it a relatively simple task to repurpose it for mid-engined placement.

And that's just what Factory Five's done with their 818, a car so-named for its target weight in kilograms. In good ol' pounds, that's a featherweight 1,803. A Porsche Cayman S weighs a shade over a half-ton more. When it arrives in the U.S., Alfa Romeo's carbon-fiber wonder, the 4C, will weigh around 2,500 pounds. And the 4C is about as leggera as a production car gets in this day and age.

The 818 is available in two configurations, S and R. The S kit sells for $9,990 and offers a windshield. The harder-core R model is a track-only sort of deal, sans windscreen, but with rollbar. $10,990 and it's yours, WRX not included.

By Davey G. Johnson