[Clovef]

Well... I have reached the point that I am selling my 135i to fund a dream that I have had for a long time of building my own car. I already have the new project sitting in the garage and am pleased to introduce you all to my monster in the making.

She will be a recreation of a 1965 Shelby Daytona Coupe, which to this day is still the only American car to win the FIA GT World Championship. The car itself is a true beauty that has stood up to time but the story of the car is where is really shines to me. For those who don't know, Ford had a deal in place to purchase Ferrari in the early 60s which Ferrari backed out of at the last moment feeling they were too good for Ford and America. As a result, Ford wanted to beat Ferrari at what Enzo took the most pride in, racing in Europe. The iconic Shelby Cobra convertibles were not fast enough on the long straits in Europe, so the Coupe was designed by a young designer named Peter Brock who was the youngest designer ever at GM when he designed the C2 Corvette. Shelby and Brock with a small team built and were racing the Coupe within 90 days and took it right over to Europe to race while they developed the car. Even with only one car that was in development in 1964, Shelby and his team were looking like they would catch and pass Ferrari for the season championship at the end of the season race in Italy. Enzo Ferrari saw this coming and used his power in Italy to cancel the race which prevented the Americans from winning the championship in 1964. After the race was cancelled to preserve Ferraris championship, Carrol Shelby famously declared "Next Year, Ferrari's Ass Is Mine!" The Americans built five more coupes before the 1965 season got under way and painted "NYF AIM" on each car making it the team slogan. When the 1965 season started, legends like Dan Gurney and Bob Bonder took those 6 cars and smashed Enzo Ferrari's ego easily winning the GT World Championship.

Unfotunely, those 6 coupes were retired as Ford brought on Shelby to fix their GT-40 project which was failing despite the massive amount of money Ford was dumping into it. After Shelby's involvement, the GT-40 went on to take 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at the 24 hours of Le Mans and have become icons of their own. However, it was the 1965 Shelby Daytona Coupe designed in under 90 days by a small group of about a dozen that won the GT World Championship and changed the world of auto racing and aerodynamics.

I have ordered and now received a kit from a company name Factory Five that is the leader in component cars. I did a lot of research as I did not want the standard "kit car" but wanted something that actually preforms at a high level. Factory Five has their own racing series and does a substantial amount of design and engendering work to develop chassis that is built for function and not form. They utilize Solid Works to design and test and have over 20 years of chassis development experience now, which is important to me. They also have a giant community of builders that help each other out and detail their builds which is going to be invaluable to me as a first time car builder.

This kit utilizes a lot of Mustang parts from various generations which makes everything easily available and affordable. I am going with all new parts and will use a new gen 3 Coyote 5.0 from the new 2018 and 2019 Mustangs. With just intake, exhaust, tune, and e85 Mustangs are making about 510hp to the wheels with these new DI and port injected Coyotes. That should make this car a rocket as it will only weigh around 2400lbs when I am done with it. I am going to use a T-56 Magnum 6-speed going to a 3.73 Torsion LSD with independent rear suspension. I will be able to fit a lot of rubber as well with plans to do 295/30/18 up front and 335/30/18 monsters on the back and Koni double adjustable coil overs keeping all four corners planted.

I know it is basically a race car, however, I am going to do AC and some heat and sound insolation so that I can also drive it on nice days and take it on some road trips. I know it is going up Pikes Peak, Mt. Elbert(highest road in US), Independence Pass into Aspen CO when the leaves are changing, down the PCH with a stop off at Laguna Seca, ect.

I am going to be documenting my build as I go for a online publication and we will do a handful of YouTube videos at major milestones and adventures. We will be building up content for a bit so that we can have consistent releases, but I will keep you all posted as that starts to roll out. I can't really say much more about it right now but I hope you will all enjoy the journey.