All:
Just wanted to let you know about this years Factory Five Cruise-In event on Saturday, April 28th.
Unlike the previous 4 years, this year, they are allowing ALL mfg. of Cobra replica's.
For those that are not familiar with the FFR saga, this all began some 5 years ago at the annual Knotts Berry Farm AHCA (Association of Hand Crafted Automobiles); this is a huge west coast kit car show. Over the course of probably a decade, FFR cars began winning more regularly and after awhile, dominated every category they were allowed into. At some point, and I don't know the exact words used, the AHCA were pressured somehow by other kit manufacturers to have FFR not be so well represented... again, I don't know the exact wording but David Smith, President of FFR, took that pretty much as an insult to the industry at large. If his company is so successful that the show is saying "give the other manufacturers a chance", then it's obvious the acronym AHCA is no longer valid if they are singling out a specific manufacturer. Heck, FFR doesn't even BUILD a car for any customers. It's a given the customer will build the car themselves. Everyone that has one, put a lot of attention to detail and imagination into their cars. Why do should they be punished? Is it really FFR's fault ? There are dozens of other manufacturers out there, and even mostly built rollers. But I digress... on with the rest of the story....
The post Knott's gathering was quickly posted to be at Huntington Beach where David is a surfing nut (go figure, he's in MA but I guess it's not so sunny there.) It was unofficially called the "Not Knotts" and I believe some 50 cars showed up. So they figured they'd try it next year... some 75-80 attended. By the 3rd year, they officially called it the FFR Cruise-In and we had some 125 cars that FFR has created (Roadster, GTM and Daytona). Last year, it dropped to about 75-80 despite adding the 33' Roadster model.
While we knew the economy was to blame, both Kit Car publications disappeared and without this media to help advertise not only FFR but everyone else,it became a wake up call to David. So the post-mortem from last year was to allow ALL other kit manufacturers join in and just be one big group of enthusiast to show the world this is a BIG deal. While FFR is putting this together and will be FFR centric, there is a trophy for best in show for
non-FFR. Oh, and there is a raffle for all so everyone has a chance despite your cars origin of manufacture (I won a pair of Koni's).
Here's the link for sign up ($40 gets you in + T-shirt).
Factory Five Racing*::*Fun Stuff*::*Sign-Up for 2012 Huntington Beach Cruise-In
And on that note, if anyone here want's to caravan down to HB on Friday morning, I'd be more than happy to help organize things. Typically, we would probably all meet and one general area such as Rock House, then mosey on over to I-5 and maybe meet others from the lower parts of San Jose/Santa Clara or wherever, just south of Los Banos for fuel, then re-refuel about every 150 miles or so.
I've mapped out all the gas stops along the way to HB and can provide everyone with the info ( miles between gas stops ). I just think it would be great to have a line of us going down to H-B.
April 27/28th - Factory Five Cruise In
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