This Factory Five Type 65 Coupe was built specifically to race in both NASA and VARA racing events. It’s powered by a 347 cubic inch stroker V8 mated to a 5-speed Tremec transmission with a Hurst shifter, and it rides on adjustable coilovers.
The Factory Five Type 65 Coupe is based on the Shelby Daytona from 1964, a tin-top sports racing car designed by Peter Brock and built by Carroll Shelby and his team to compete in the FIA International Championship for GT Manufacturers against the Ferrari 250 GTO. It would become the first American car to win the title, and just six were made in total.
Fast Facts – The Factory Five Type 65 Coupe
- The Factory Five Type 65 Coupe is based on the Shelby Daytona from 1964, a prototype race car developed by Peter Brock, Carroll Shelby, and his team to race against the Ferrari 250 GTO and other competitors in the FIA International Championship for GT Manufacturers. Just six were built, and in 1965 they would succeed in becoming the first American design to win the Championship.
- The original Shelby Daytonas now sell for millions, somewhere in the region of $8 million USD each in fact, and so the dream of owning one is limited to very few. The Factory Five Type 65 Coupe is one of the leading replicas, though it’s important to note that it has a completely modern chassis underneath and a slew of upgrades, resulting in it bring faster than the original.
- Interestingly, Peter Brock himself owns a replica Type 65 Coupe, one of the continuation examples built by Superperformance, and he’s quick to extoll the values of the car and how much better it is when compared to the hastily-built original prototype race cars.
- The Factory Five Type 65 Coupe you see here was built in 2011 to compete in NASA and VARA racing events. It’s powered by a 347 cubic inch stroker V8 mated to a 5-speed Tremec transmission, and it’s now being offered for sale out of Hollister, California with a clean California title.
The Incredible Shelby Daytona Coupe
There are few David vs Goliath stories in the world of motor racing more captivating than the story of the Shelby Daytona from 1964 and its battle against the dominant Ferraris both in the USA and in Europe. The Shelby Daytona was designed by Peter Brock, who was barely in his 20s at the time, and despite much skepticism about its looks it would become a dominant racer that left the red cars from Maranello in its wake.
Above Video: This 13:37 minute clip from Hagerty shows Peter Brock sitting in his own continuation Shelby Daytona and telling the story of the original car’s design and development. It’s well worth watching, and Brock does a better job of telling the incredible story than anyone else ever could.
In total, just six examples of the Shelby Daytona would be made, all racing prototypes. The program would prove almost immediately successful with a GT class wins at the 1964 12 Hours of Sebring, 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans, 1964 RAC Tourist Trophy, 1965 24 Hours of Daytona, 1965 12 Hours of Sebring, 1965 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, 1965 Nürburgring 1000 km, 1965 12 Hours of Reims, 1965 Enna-Pergusa, and it would win the 1965 International Championship for GT Manufacturers – a first for an American car.
The sheer scale of the success of the Shelby Daytona has been overshadowed a little by the Ford GT40 which essentially replaced it later in the 1960s and went on to enjoy even more success. But the Shelby Daytona was the car that showed the Americans could do it in the first place.
Due to the fact that only half a dozen original cars were made there has been decades of pent up demand from enthusiasts who wanted their own, but couldn’t quite swing the $8+ million USD price tag. In order to fill this demand, a series of replicas and some continuation cars have been built over the years, one of the best-known of which is the Factory Five Type 65 Coupe.
The Factory Five Type 65 Coupe
Factory Five Racing, Inc. (F.F.R.) was founded in 1995, they design, develop, and manufacture a series of kit and turnkey sports cars in the United States including the Roadster, Challenge Series Racer, Type 65 Coupe, GTM Supercar, ’33 Hot Rod, Project 818, and the recent XTF Pre-Runner Truck.
The lines of the Factory Five Racing Type 65 Coupe remains true to the lines of the Peter Brock-designed original, though it’s quite a bit faster.
The Factory Five Type 65 Coupe is a modern reinterpretation of the Shelby Daytona that has a contemporary tubular steel chassis, modern suspension and brakes, a choice of current generation V8 engines and transmissions, and a lightweight fiberglass body. The car is also a little larger than the original, just to ensure that people over 6′ will be able to fit into it comfortably.
Factory Five have built the Type 65 Coupe over three generations, each an advancement over its predecessor, but they all stay true to the original Peter Brock-designed lines of the originals.
Those who opt to build the kit version of the car have a broad range of options, from which engine and transmission to use, to whether they want a live axle rear or independent suspension front and back, what kind of suspension and brakes they would prefer, right down to whether they want a stripped out racer interior or something a little more GT-style with air conditioning for cross-country trips.
The current third generation base kit costs $17,990 USD, putting it well within the reach of many, and it requires the running gear from a 1987-1993 Ford Mustang donor car – which is readily available in the USA and Canada.
The 2011 Factory Five Type 65 Coupe Shown Here
The car you see here is one of the quicker Factory Five Type 65 Coupes we’ve seen come up for sale recently, it was built in 2011 to compete in both NASA and VARA racing series, that’s the National Auto Sport Association and the Vintage Auto Racing Association (no relation to the much more famous National Aeronautics and Space Administration).
This car has been built to racing specification, and it has so far competed in both the NASA and VARA racing series in the United States.
The car features the rigid Factory Five tubular steel chassis with its own integrated roll cage, it rides on 17″ Halibrand-style alloy wheels with Hoosier racing slicks, and it has four wheel disc brakes. Power is provided by a 347 cubic inch stroker V8 mated to a 5-speed Tremec transmission with a Hurst shifter, it has a fire suppression system, Kirkey racing seats, five-point harnesses, and a fuel cell.
If you’d like to read more about this car or register to bid you can visit the listing here on Bring a Trailer. It’s being offered for sale out of Hollister, California with an assembly manual, spare parts, and a clean California title in the seller’s name.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
