2017 London Cobra Show Rocks!

[Dave Smith]

I traveled out to the 2017 London Cobra Show for yet another great day on the main streets of London, OH with hundreds of Factory Five and other make Cobras. The day starts earlier with a parade/cruise into town… nowhere else will you see so many Cobra replicas in one place thundering down the street with a police escort. The build-up to the Saturday car show is a week-long of cruises and track days that more than a handful of people participate in.

The big day is Saturday, and Saturday night is the awards dinner. This year, the club donated $100,000 to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation! I was assisted in the Factory Five display by the great guys from the Factory Five Build School (Quentin, Jim, and Scott), Chris Ronni, and a whole host of Factory Five customers including Henry Renaud, Jeff Miller, Jeff Kleiner, Karen Salvaggio, Sten Johnson, and so many others. Pete from BluePrint Engines was at the show to answer customer questions about their engine packages for Factory Five builds, and Chris from FormaCars brought his award-winning Mk4 Roadster and 818 Sports Car to the show.


The London Cobra Show is a great place to reconnect with friends from the forum and the Factory Five community. I was stoked to see Jeff “Da Bat” Miller and his trusty sidekick Robin, a.k.a. Jeff Kleiner.


The weather was absolutely perfect. Clear skies and cool temperatures in the low 70s all day long. The event got lucky as the remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy pounded the area the day before with more than 3″ of rain.



Some great VIP guests were on hand this year. Above: Racecar driver John Morton. Below: Sherry MacDonald and her son Rich (right) with myself and Karen Salvaggio (left). Sherry is the wife of late and very great racecar driver Davey MacDonald who was killed at the Indy 500 in 1964.




Factory Five is about father-son projects and showing off the 600+ HP car you just built!