Factory Five is the place to go to if you want to build your own car from the ground up, either a Shelby Cobra-style replica, a ’33 Ford hot rod, or even an early Ford Bronco. Your author himself built one of the ’33 Hot Rods back in 2009, and had a great time with it, driving it on the streets of Los Angles and even running it off the track at Spring Mountain Raceway outside of Las Vegas, NV (and rebuilt the front suspension in a day upon getting it back home!). Back then, it was up to me to source the powertrain, which I did with a 347ci small-block and 5-speed. It was always up to the builder to provide an engine and transmission, so I did. Unfortunately there weren’t many choices when it came to Ford crate engines for someone looking to hit the easy button on a dead-reliable and warranty-backed package, but now Blueprint Engines has the Factory Five market covered with a line of its own engines for the various FFR vehicles (see the full lineup here).
Price-wise the Top Dog in the Blueprint line of engines for the Cobra is a 541 HP small-block (519 lb-ft) 427 with 10.5:1 compression, Blueprint aluminum heads, and a hydraulic roller cam (.608 lift 248/2558 duration). For a starting price of $24,000 this package ships to your door with a TKX 5-speed manual transmission and pulley kit bolted up and ready to install. Upgrades such as EFI or a 4r70W automatic are available, as are "smaller" 427 engines that make 481 or 523hp for a small cost savings and mild manners. Packages can be put together with or without power steering, EFI, or a Tremec trans to suit your build. Blueprint has done all the homework on oil pans, air cleaners, and accessories to make sure fitment is perfect.
Built in conjunction with a few actual car builders, Blueprint has Ford crate engines and transmissions for Cobras, Mustangs, and early Ford Broncos, which has become a popular build among FFR builders in recent years. While it’s still a small-block and not an FE, Blueprint has a legit 427ci to cram in your Cobra, with a manual transmission or a 4R70W automatic, ready to drop into your FFR Cobra, so you can drive a real 427 Cobra now! The price of this combination is $25,549 and it makes 541 hp. Polished pullies and accessories make it look at home under the hood of a new Cobra, and for $28,649 you can upgrade it to fuel injection.
While there is not a Factory Five build for the Mustang market, Blueprint is working with Gas Monkey Garage to develop a line of engine and transmission combos meant for the ’68 Mustang, all of them 427 cubic- inch – also with a 5-speed or automatic, around the same price range. For early Bronco builders, Blueprint has its own line of 302-inchers (with a 4R70W automatic only) in either carbureted or EFI with black coated pullies for a more subtle appearance.
For $18,048, Blueprint offers this 415hp carbureted, 347cid, 10:1 small-block engine with a slightly milder cam but with the same Blueprint aluminum heads. Check out Blueprint’s website for various levels of dress for this one. For those of you that want to build a Bronco, Blueprint has a less aggressive looking package for that market, a fuel-injected 302ci small-block and 4R70W automatic with black accessories that makes 365 hp and 365 lbs-ft for $20,199.
And there you have it! You can now source complete cars from Factory Five Racing and also source a complete, running engine and transmission from Blueprint and have it all delivered to your house! While they can’t help you build it, it otherwise couldn’t get any easier to put together a car literally from the ground up.
