London Cobra Show Pics from Dave S.

[Dave Smith]

This year, the 2015 London Cobra Show hosted by the Ohio Cobra Club raised $110,000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation! We attended the super fun 3-day event in London, Ohio along with 180 registered roadsters and a slew of sponsors and vendors.

I was thrilled to attend the Friday autocross and was able to take some fast laps with my daughters Madison and Jennifer. Despite the threatening skies and rainy forecast, the Saturday car show was a big success. Hardcore does not begin to describe the Ohio Cobra Club and the attendees who braved the rain and made the event a huge success.


Left: Factory Five President Dave Smith with his daughter Jenny. Right: Bruce Kern with his daughter Emily.

Emily and Jennifer both have Cystic Fibrosis and are doing well as a direct result of the hard work and fundraising of everyone who attends the annual London Cobra Show.



Above: Jenny loved the autocross and with her help, I ran the second fastest time of the day being beaten by Factory Five customer Jeff Kleiner by only 0.2 seconds!

Below: Madison also loved the autocross and took turns with Jenny in the passenger seat.




Chris Ronni from Factory Five set-up for the Saturday car show on Main Street in London, OH.


The event was a little rainy in the morning, and then skies cleared a bit in the afternoon.


The 20th Anniversary Factory Five Mk4 was displayed during the day on Saturday, and then also at the fundraiser dinner Saturday night.


Factory Five customer and long-standing London Cobra Show attendee John Spina and Jenny Smith. John is wearing a shirt from the 2001 LCS (at that time called “Spring Fling”) and check out the picture of Jenny 14 years earlier!

[Dave Smith]

Factory Five customer Karen Salvaggio took this cool picture of Factory Five’s Type 65 Coupe.


FFCars.com member RaserX posted this cool photo of the cars after they rumbled in Saturday morning. There were over 150 car in the morning parade which ended at the car show in downtown London.


The Friday autocross was a BLAST. Left to right: Madison Smith, Dave Smith, and Jenny Smith.

For me there were a lot of great moments at this year’s London Cobra Show. I had a ton of fun autocrossing with my daughters, and both of them complained that they didn’t get to drive this year, so I told them they could drive next year. Of course, the awards dinner was another highlight, and seeing so many people come together to raise money for a great charity was humbling. $110,000 was raised and that is remarkable!

The Factory Five customers that attended the event were simply amazing. Ron Everitt, John Takvorian, Garry Bopp, Henry Renaud, Jeff Kleiner, Karen Salvaggio, and many others helped out a ton at the Factory Five booth. Every time I turned around, Factory Five guys were laughing and having fun. The five fastest cars at the autocross were Factory Fives. FFR customer Sten started out in the 50s at the autocross and was in the low 40s after 5 or 6 runs! There are too many people to thank and I'm sorry for not mentioning more names, but I am very grateful for everyone's help and stoke.

The live auction, silent auction, and charity rides were all well executed, safe, and fun. Huge thanks to the Ohio Cobra Club, to all of the sponsors and vendors, and mostly to the attendees who braved the cold rain to make this a heartwarming experience. This is the first time I stayed for the entire event and the awards dinner, and next year I plan on bringing more cars, more crew, and having even more fun.

Chris, our truck driver, is on his way back from Ohio with the camera, and I will post more pictures when he gets in (these were off of my cell phone).

[Jeff Kleiner]

It's always a great event (this year was #14 for me) that gets even better when members of the Smith family attend! It's one of the highlights of my year and in the end rain or shine doesn't really matter because it's about so much more than cars. I've said many times that there is some kind of magic within these little cars that brings people together and fosters wide ranging genuine friendships. This weekend proved it once more!

Can't wait for 2016 and our auto-x rematch (maybe we can get you and your girls in on our Friday afternoon go-cart challenge next time too!).

Cheers,
Jeff

[carlewms]

Dave,

Congratulations on this great event for Factory Five Racing and Cystic Fibrosis.

You've got a great organization and wonderful kits that have made a whole lot of dreams come true that other wise would be lost or never fulfilled.

Thanks,

Carl