Anaximander

Deman USA, That car of yours is practically "used up" However, for us curious folks, how much are you asking for this "gently used" supercar? You have articulated how much they cost, the question is, what kind of money will it take to obtain this brand new car? Thanks, Anaximander

Is the car still for sale after Tall Steve tried his fitment?

If someone is looking for a Stalker XL project car that has an LS3/480 engine, Tremec 6-speed and a CTS-V rear end, there is one available at Copart North Pittsburgh. https://www.copart.com/lot/59782345/salvage-1962-lotus-7-pa-pittsburgh-north?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gmb&utm_content=link-website

Croc, As per your frequent requests when it comes to Storkers, I weighed in a bit on the listing you just posted. For California residents, these kind of deals are pretty golden because the car comes with the coveted S-100 designation for registration of the car in Caly.

I second MV8's recommendation to consider keeping the rear exhaust pipes. The side pipes make a huge racket and are hot as hell next to the driver and it makes for kind of an unpleasant experience if driving on the street. Because you have the Classic XL version, the rear fenders direct a heck of a lot of noise into the cockpit and some people mount deflectors just forward of the cockpit off of the roll bar area and this makes a huge difference in comfort while driving on the street.

RacerRicke, Congrats on the new Stalker XL Classic. Actually Croc, the car that RacerRicke just bought resided in the town we just moved to 4 months ago and now he will be taking it downstate but only 2.5 hours South of Stalker Cars in Spring Hill, Florida on the same side of the State. The engine is indeed and LS3/430 which is really about ideal for the car. The original purchaser in California had talked Scott Minehart into making it for him with side doors and air conditioning. The air conditioner apparently never worked correctly but the A/C head unit appears to still be installed under the dash. I actually was in Scott Minehart's shop having him work on one of my Stalkers when the car was being built. It has a Cadillac CTS-V rear end that is designed for about 500 lb.-ft. of torque. One thing that you ought to talk with Scott about is if he "hardened" the attachments of the driveshaft to the rear diff. I think this car has the latest mods on that but I am not sure. Scott will definitely know. It has I believe a Tremec T-5 6-speed transmission in it. IIRC, the CTS-V's may have had a rear diff ratio of 3.73? Scott uses a Chevrolet ECU. The car is equipped with a ton of heim joints and the gas tanks usually held about 15-16 gallons of fuel. It will run nicely on 93 octane pump gas. Being NA, there are no turbo lag issues and with the torque of the LS3, you will be getting used to the incredible power to weight ratio with the car probably weighing in at about 1850 pounds. The aerodynamics of the front fenders leave a bit to be desired if you are doing HPDE's at high speeds. You can contact Glen Minehart at 386-931-6435 and he will know Scott's current business phone number and location of his shop. Stalker cars has moved several times over the past 10 years and is likely somewhere near Spring Hill, Florida. Scott knows every nut, bolt and part number on that car by heart and can dial in any level of performance in terms of corner weighting and ECU issues that you may have. He also has vendors who make the side pipes, uprights, etc. and Scott knows how to get the ECU dialed in for different configurations with his preferred tuners. Scott and his whole family, including his mother and father are hardcore autocross folks and his older brother is #2 nationally in SCCA E-Mod in autocross in a Stalker AXR. Scott historically has charged reasonable prices for his work and there is nobody in the country that knows these cars better than him, period. Because they are so uniquely constructed, I personally wouldn't let anybody touch your new baby other than Scott Minehart. That is why they are called M-Spec cars as homage to Scott's design/development. Much good fortune with your beautiful toy! Bob Schilling

I had a recent conversation with "Beardy" who I had sold the car to. It is not longer for sale. It met with a tragic accident but nobody was hurt.

That might be a bit much but say 10-15 in a day would be incredible.

Beardy, Having owned that amazing car, someone is going to get a very fast and beautiful ride. The weight is probably more like 1700-1800 pounds but with that LS3/480, if it had wings, you could take flight. The incredibly smooth power band with gobs of torque makes it one of the most fun cars I have ever owned and I have owned 6 Stalkers over the years. If I didn't own an almost new Corvette C8 hard top convertible, I would be knocking on your proverbial door to get it back. No leaks, no issues, just a very fast and beautiful example of a Stalker Classic XL that is really dialed in. Bob

You might want to put where the car is located, and how many fun miles are on it, and if you had been racing it.

Stalker XL, Consider scratching the use of a torque wrench because there are no standards for how much torque should be applied to the various bolt/nuts. Just check for snugness before each race weekend and you should be fine. Many of the suspension connections require two wrenches to tighten opposing nuts on threaded components and are not even accessible to a torque wrench. Glen had suggested to me what I am suggesting to you and I would only occasionally find one or two nuts that had slightly loosened up. Using a torque wrench without knowing what would be optimal torque settings feels like the potential for disaster in the making? Additionally, what you are referring to in your picture are called cone washers and Minehart has design reasons for using them in some places and not in others. I can't remember what the logic is for their use but Glen would be able to explain the various uses of flat vs. cone washers and where they should be used. Glen helped me build my AXR a few years ago and it was pretty stout.

Stalker XL, With the various Stalkers that I owned (6), with all of the heim joints that Scott uses for adjustability on the M-Spec cars, I would frequently gently test the torque of all of the connecting arms front and back to see if anything was coming loose. The cars have a way of vibrationally, over time, loosening certain nuts, especially on the front end of the car and so I would take a couple of wrenches and without overtorqueing anything make sure that all nuts were secure. When tracking the car, I think it would be prudent to do this before every race weekend and it only takes a few minutes for added piece of mind.

Scott's XL's have experienced several spindle failures over the years. The uprights are custom made to interface with the Stalker suspensions. I would definitely contact Scott Minehart of Stalkers Cars and get his expert opinion on whether or not your fix provides a sufficient safety margin. IIRC, Scott's original supplier of uprights discontinued business and Scott had to source another vendor to make his uprights. He had CNC specs but I am not sure if they went away with the dissolution of the upright vendor's business? Additionally, Scott's brother Jason Minehart has continued to experiment with Stalker suspensions and there may be additional variants that have come out of the real-world race testing that Jason puts his Stalkers through. I think the spindles may have been sourced from Ford parts but that is a long-ago memory and may not be accurate in the least. In Scott's literature, he talks about "custom aluminum spindles" so I am not sure what he was trying to convey with that descriptor? Scott would be your best source for determining the safety parameters of the XL's modifications that you made. He has a lot of real world race experience with his components from some of his racing and he stays well in touch with some of his customers that use his cars primarily for autocrossing although the XL's were primarily designed for track work given their longer/wider dimensions than some of his other models.

yellowss7, I fully agree with your observations about the autocross "juice" not necessarily being worth the "squeeze". For several years and in different cars including se7esque cars, I went to autox events. However, just like yourself, the expenditure of time, effort and the investment in autox specific cars just was not worth the effort for me when I looked back at the totality of the limited amount of driving I was able to do. It did significantly improve some of my driving skills and the camaraderie was very pleasant. However, autox involved too much investment in everything to be worth 4-6 runs of 35-60 seconds. OTOH, some autox'ers have suggested that track driving is like having sex and autox is like having an orgasm during sex. In other words, autox is short lived but very intense which does make some reasonable sense. Another argument reportedly made by a seasoned track enthusiast was that autox which he was relatively inexperienced in was in many ways much more demanding of precision driving than his track time. I have seen Sevens doing very well in autox and agree that if it captures your fancy, the car can definitely be a muli-purpose vehicle that can be used on the street, race track or autocross course with equal aplomb.

Cueball1, That is likely quite true but I had no intentions of using it on the street on this go-around. I built the car specifically to see how well I could build a Stalker and also to see how fast I could get on autocross tracks. It was going to be a x2/month hobby activity. Unfortunately, I aged out and my body just can't handle the g forces comfortably and the long days standing around at an autocross event. OTOH, it would not be a big deal for someone to go through the process of making it streetable. I am not sure why I would have to spoon feed a subsequent buyer? If they wanted to use it on the street, they could simply put on the few things that are necessary to comply with a 1962 Lotus Replica and get is titled and licensed. Not a big deal in some States. There are times, especially when we were in the grips of Covid where I wanted a bucket list project but did not have an eye toward resale. I frankly was amazed at how complex a build can be. I was fortunate to have sorted the car out in less than a year but I understand that some builds take folks several years to get things working properly. Fortunately, I had the expert help of several people that made the project doable. It will forever be an accomplishment that I will remember mostly with great fondness and a bit of pain to make it more memorable