Anaximander

Is that an autox car or one made for the demolition derby? We Storker owners are a bit more se7enesque, don't you think? Hehehe, I do like my LS3/480 in my Storker XL. "Here Caty, Caty" Who says that brut force doesn't overcome brains and finesse? "Simplify and add horsepower" (Astro Bob, 2019) http://www.usa7s.net/vb/images/smilies/usa7s/set5_b/biggrinjester.gif http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=15771&stc=1

Mike, Probably a bittersweet moment. It now allows MightyMike to contemplate his next build which for craftsman with his skills has got to be an exciting time. RNR got one of the very last Brunton Stalker Classic chassis and one that had been sorted and re-sorted for what looks like about a 7 year span and hundreds if not more than a thousand hours of thought and crafting. RNR got a real jewel of a car. Having owned a couple of the Classic Storkers, I had never seen a build that was cleaner and/or more thought out. BTW, the paint was BEAUTIFUL!

Congrats Mike. The buyer sure got one really finely sorted and beautiful Storker! What's next? C8 Vette?

Keen eye Mike and a reasonable hypothesis. I think the Tillett racing bucket vs. the conventional Caterham seat for the passenger with different harnesses may be the giveaway? I wonder what 700 track miles is the equivalent to street miles in terms of wear and tear?

Nick O'Teen, It is illegal for me to leave my home and traverse on public streets here in Florida with a balaclava. However, it would be legal to have my head covered with baklava but I am afraid that I would be assaulted or eaten by zombie foodies. Somebody please buy my new Sparco helmet! They are uber comfortable and you won't have to put baklava on your head/face to enjoy the fit! The reason for the sale is that I decided to enjoy my Storker by taking it out on the road, going to the mountains with it and going to occasional car shows or cruise ins and I don't need a racing helmet with all of the safety features for those activities. Sparco's website lists the technology features as: Light-weight carbon-Kevlar/fiberglass construction New Medium/Large size which uses the lighter and more compact shell Hans clips pre-installed Anodized aluminum chin strap hardware Removable, washable lining Wind tunnel optimized venting with anti-fog air channels Pre-molded interior to accommodate drink tubes and an intercom system Snell SA2015 and FIA 8859-2015 approved

ROFLMAO!!! I guess I will have to eat my balaclava in shame!

Mike, It just seems like it because we are all puffed up about our sevens!

For sale brand-new, unused, size S (56) Sparco Casco Air RF-5W 8859 Carbon-Fiber/Fiberglass Helmet w/ Hans Clips pre-installed. This helmet meets the FIA8859-2015 and New Snell SA2015 ratings. The helmet was only tried on with a baklava for fit and then placed back in its box and kept in a climate controlled environment. It was purchase late last year and never worn. This is a super comfortable helmet with terrific visibility. I usually require a medium size helmet but this one fits perfectly. The salesman at Wine Country Motor Sports pointed out that if the helmet is slightly loose, it will provide much less protection for its intended purpose. Original cost is $750. Will sell for $500 plus insured shipping in the CONUS.http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=15667&stc=1http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=15668&stc=1http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=15669&stc=1http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=15670&stc=1

Shane, It's funny that you were the person that seconded my thoughts about Mike's car because I had thought last night that your rebuild also represents one of the finest Stalkers that I have seen. Of course, you had to take a short flight to determine that you needed to rebuild that beauty.

MightyMike, I re-reviewed all of your build photos and this car has undergone an amazing transformation since you started the project back in 2012. Have your thoughts to sell this jewel arisen from the completion of just about anything you could do to the Storker? It is really the finest example of a pre-M-Spec that I have ever seen and I owned a pretty well sorted, beautiful and marvelously functioning one from Kirk Coryn in #156 with the additional help over the years from Scott Minehart at his shop that is nearby. As you probably know, Kirk is a nationally recognized cabinet/furniture maker who built #156 as a project to ward off boredom in his spare times many years ago. If I hadn't recently obtained the finest Stalker XL I have ever seen or driven with an LS3/480, I would be looking at MapQuest to see what route to take to get to your door . Bob

Vlad, In reading your posts, I came up with the phonetic spellings for describing your car: k trum = more British k tur um = slightly less British k tur ham = decidedly more American muny pit = decidedly more realistic for our se7ens

Congrats comely on your continuing progress on your Storker. Unfortunately, I did not have the time or talents to do what you have been doing so have had to buy my Stalkers used. Two classic Stalkers, an M-Spec and now an XL later, I find that they are really terrifically fun cars to drive. By the end of your build, you will intimately know every nook and cranny of that car and the pride of having done it yourself I suspect will be enormous. Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing the update.

Your saying is one that I will remember. It reminds me of what Carroll Bryant said: "Growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional":willy_nilly: When my wife is asked if we have any children, she responds, "Yes, one, and Bob is it".

Mike, I really like the looks and feel of the Momos. However, since I will be autoxing it at times and have to pull the seat way up due to being fairly short (5'7") and the cockpit being much longer and slightly wider than the older Stalkers, the current steering wheel seems pretty ideal sitting close to my chest.

Ain't that the truth!!!

Okay double Mikes, Here are a few more pics. You can see the Crystal River Nuclear Plant in the background on some of the pics that Gulf Power is in the process of decommissioning.

MightyMike, I have always been a bit jealous of your car since the first time that I laid eyes on it on the USA7s website. The Stalker XL with the LS3/480 is turning me into a hooligan and I have never gotten even one ticket as an adult. Yesterday, I was challenged at a light by a Dodge Hellcat that sports 707 horsepower and blew his doors off with a giant hole shot at a light out in the country going from a dead start in second to a shift to third gear. At the next country light, he rolled down his window and asked what I had in the Storker. He mentioned that my car was soooo much lighter :hurray: I sure do not want my first ever ticket to be for drag racing so any inclination I may have had to challenge muscle cars has essentially evaporated due to a mild modicum of common sense. Today, I was autoxing with a Dodge with 505 horsepower and he was having a difficult time hooking it up. I mentioned the informal short challenge of the day before and he commented "There is no way he could beat you. His car weighs 4600 pounds". He said that his 505hp Dodge weighed about 4300 pounds. Putting powerful engines in light cars is pretty intoxicating. Glad I used to drive high-performance general aviation airplanes so that I am not intimidated by my beautiful V8 engine.

Thanks all for you kind responses. I am really, really delighted to have obtained this beauty. I had my last Stalker for 2.5 years which is something of a record for play cars. It's a funny and sad story that on impulse, I bought the Caterham Superlight R300 last year with hopes of taking it to nearby Sebring International Raceway and running it around that track. That is until I went out there and took a look in person at the track. Yipes! I then went over to a friend's race simulator with virtual goggles and ran the course several times in one of his high-performance simulated cars. It was at that moment that two thoughts converged that ended up causing me to let the Caterham go. The first was that I already owned the Super Stalker. The second thought was that they would be mailing my remains back to my wife in a flat envelope after I hit the Armco at a high rate of speed. It was then with this dual-pronged epiphany that I came to realize that I am too old and untalented anymore to safely track a high-performance car on such a hairy track. I had always wanted a Caterham and found that the car had some of the most incredible laser steering that I had ever experienced. It was as if the car could read your mind and go where you wanted it to go. The only concerns were that the "add lightness" thought kept creeping in and I realized that you don't get that Superlight performance from a "road hog". Man, a Caterham is built with Colin Chapman's ghost looking over their shoulders. For some odd reason, I am surprised that I prefer the 'merican iron for parts availability and stoutness of construction. Colin Chapman is not exactly in the passenger seat of my 1800 pound Stalker with 480 ponies:rofl: I am really glad that I did experience first hand why all you crazies are driving Cats. They are intoxicating performers! And Mike, if the last Storker was any indication of my slight reduction in acquisitiveness, I may not be buying another sevenesque car in the next month or two?

Shawn, I think the lightning bolts are coming out my orifice that is on the backside. My wife often comments, "Yeah right, stick a fork in you, your done". She seems to understand like you do how addictive these cars are! Sheesh, this is my fourth Storker.

Recently, I had thoughts of getting out of sevenesque cars because in addition to driving them on the street, I occasionally autox them for increased driving proficiency. I have no illusions that I will be a podium finisher but that is not my primary motive. I moved to another part of Florida where a really good autox venue was recently lost and there is a newer one that is only 20 miles from my home but may not be that good? I will find out this coming Saturday. The autox this coming weekend closely coincides with my 70th lap around the Sun next week and so very lucky for me, an acquaintance and very nice man that has built three Stalkers had expressed an interest in acquiring my Classic Super Stalker. Lucky for me, he had built a Stalker XL with incredible precision that sports an LS3/480 engine coupled to a T56 Magnum transmission that is rated for 700 foot pounds of torque. The person who built the car is a former professional aircraft kit builder/consultant/salesperson and so he has highly honed building skills. Yesterday, I transferred the title, put my tag on the back of the car and with a fresh insurance card went for a 60 mile blat. As some of you know, the Stalker XL manufactured in Clearwater, Florida by Scott Minehart is a 105" wheelbase car that Scott designed to also be 10" wider in stance than his M-Spec Stalkers. I had owned prototype 000 M-Spec with an LS1 engine and so was used to some of the characteristics of the marque. However, I was only partially prepared for the wonderful firebreathing LS3 that puts out 480 horsepower at the crank and has about 465 foot pounds of torque. Just a tad more punch than a beautiful Caterham S3 Superlight R300 I briefly owned last year that was putting out about 208 horsepower. I was pleasantly surprised at how agile this larger car is and it felt very comfortable driving it. The LS3 is very tractable for the street and makes very fun and fairly linear power. Although I will miss the whine of my former GM supercharged Stalker, I think the LS3's brute force and superior torque will provide hours and hours of fun. Given that I am now lacking ambitions to ever track a car, even for time trials, this Stalker will likely be my last sevenesque car and will carry me competently into eventual old age :driving:, but not too soon!

Andy, I know what you mean! I just traded my pristine Super Stalker Classic that I had for 2.5 years for an exquisite Stalker XL with a GM LS3/480 engine and I still think that the Classic Stalkers are just plain fun and as some of my friends say, "cute". The cute part belies the underlying superb performance of these sevenesque cars.

How do you know when a psychologist has lost his mind? It is when he thinks for even a moment that he wants to sell his sevenesque car! I took a ride to the Gulf of Mexico which is only an 18 mile ride but had so much fun in the Stalker that I realized that my 2.5 years of ownership of this beautifully sorted car is only the beginning. Next weekend, weather permitting, there is going to be an autox only 20 miles from my new home and I am going to drive the car over there on Toyo r888r tires rather than switching to my Avon slicks and see how the car performs on street tires. I was talking with Glen Minehart of Stalker Cars and he advised me that his son Jason who is currently about the second fastest autoxer in E-Mod drove his Stalker AXR on Bridgestone street tires one weekend and was only about 1 second slower than when he was using his racing slicks. It reportedly did take him a number of runs to figure out how to compensate for the street tires but when he got the hang of it, he was pretty fast. I OTOH, am not fast on either slicks or racing tires so it probably does not matter that much? I will have completed my 70th lap around the Sun later this month and I realized that time is short and fun is what it is all about! This Stalker is definitely not for sale .

No longer for sale.

I can't believe it but Les Suave has again convinced me that I cannot sell my lovely Storker. Shane and his stork Suave will likely also have a sigh of relief. I am going to try the latest autox venue and see if I can live with the surface conditions. The Porches have decided to use the venue and they are a picky bunch so I may be making a mountain out of a molehill. When I went and took a peek at the abandoned runway they plan to partially use for the course, I was not too impressed but this might change after I do a few runs? Storkers, even including my evil twin Les, are a lot of fun!

Shane, Being a pilot and a flying Storker owner, your the only person that I know that favors aerial theatrics:auto: