Michael Lanfreschi, 38 years old, director of finance and project controls for the government of Gwinnett County, Ga., on his Factory Five 818 self-assembled race car.

I’ve always wanted to do racing my entire life. But it’s really expensive to get into the sport.

Back in 2009, I started autocrossing my Corvette. Autocross is kind of the easiest...

Michael Lanfreschi, 38 years old, director of finance and project controls for the government of Gwinnett County, Ga., on his Factory Five 818 self-assembled race car.

I’ve always wanted to do racing my entire life. But it’s really expensive to get into the sport.

Back in 2009, I started autocrossing my Corvette. Autocross is kind of the easiest way to start to get into racing—it’s a cone-course track that’s set up differently at each event, and I did that through 2012. All the Corvettes would be in a class together, and you’re competing for a trophy within your class.

After a while, I wanted to move up into competitive racing and get my racing license. I started looking around at different cars. A lot of people go to something they really like, like a Corvette, but there are things called consumables—brakes, tires, gas, a clutch—all the different parts you use on a regular basis. For a Corvette, those are very expensive. I was looking for something that would fit my budget.

Michael Lanfreschi says he assumed that building his Factory Five 818 would be like assembling a complicated Lego set. ‘It was not,’ he says.

My buddies and I are all car guys, so we started doing research around 2017. That’s when we stumbled upon Factory Five, a car company out of Massachusetts. They had a new car, the 818, which had just been released: a lightweight, midengine kit car that was based on a Subaru WRX engine and chassis. The price was really good, so I bought a WRX and one of the kits four years ago. You had to basically buy two cars (to upgrade the basic Subaru to the 818).

I paid about $11,000 for the kit. And the WRX, it doesn’t need to be in really good condition, so I got an older one with a lot of miles for like $3,500. When I started the project, I was about $15,000 into it. Right now, I’m about $22,000 in. For a completed race car that can be competitive, that’s really cheap.

Michael Lanfreschi worked on cars as a teenager, which helped because he had to not only assemble the 818, but also fabricate metal parts to solve unexpected challenges.

An overhead view of the red Factory Five 818 shows its built-in roll cage.

It took me a long time to complete. I thought, you know, with the instruction booklet, the online support and my mechanical skills it would just be a really complicated Lego set. It was not. It was significantly more difficult than I thought it would be. You’re bringing parts from an external car and putting it with parts from the kit. Everything didn’t always match up perfectly.

There was this one control arm, which is part of the suspension, that you needed to attach a certain mounting mechanism for the shocks on the car. We had to fabricate a metal bracket to be able to fit it. Not only are you engineering a custom piece of metal from scratch that doesn’t exist anywhere on the planet, then you’re welding it into place to make sure the suspension is correct.

Michael Lanfreschi chose the gray version of the 818’s optional cast-aluminum factory wheels. The rear wheels measure 18 inches; the front are 17 inches.

The 818 has an aluminum interior. Dual Bluetooth speakers are connected to Michael Lanfreschi’s phone in lieu of a stereo system, whose weight would affect the car’s racing capability.

Michael Lanfreschi expects to have his race car registered to drive on the street by early 2022. ‘It’d be nice to drive to the car show instead of having to trailer it,’ he says.

There’s a big online community, the Factory Five Forum, with a lot of really good technical experts, and everyone helps each other. My brother is a master mechanic for Audi, VW and Porsche,

so he was my consultant throughout this process. Without him, I probably would have not gotten the car done.

This car can be registered for the street, and I want it to be a race car as well. It’d be nice to drive up to the Caffeine & Octane car show instead of having to trailer it.

A rear license plate is missing as Michael Lanfreschi works to register his 818 in Georgia. ‘It’s just been a race car so far,’ he says.