Anaximander

Croc, Your weekly listings really do serve as a significant market maker for sevenesque cars. I am on my third Stalker and I think two of them were identified with this weekly update you provide us. The third Stalker was the charm and it is likely that it will be my last 7 style car. It only has 3500 miles and is a beauty to look at and run heck out of it. I both enjoy riding around the countryside and autocrossing this fun machine. Like others, even though I may no longer be in the market, I look forward with great anticipation each week to seeing what is available. Thanks for your hard work. Bob

Mike, Thanks for the very detailed response to my plethora of questions. It appears that in many respects, the Caterham's are more plug and play than the Stalkers that are built by a variety of people with varying skillsets. Scott Minehart of Stalker Cars has often opined to me that when someone calls him out of the blue and asks if such and such Stalker is a good car that he responds "I don't know? I would have to see the car in person for a closeup inspection". As you so aptly pointed out, there appears to be more variability among some of the kits that have been put together by various builders. I think your practice of staying ahead of the curve on maintenance issues for your exotic cars is a wise one and likely keeps you from having many unexpected problems cropping up. I am surprised that someone has not yet hit the "buy" button but suspect that someone will be feasting their eyes on your car in their garage before the Thanksgiving holidays. Bob

Mike, I showed your Caterham to my wife and she thought is was absolutely beautiful! She has an eye for good looking pieces of rolling art. I watched your on-track video and that car runs like a scalded cat. I am now on my third Brunton Stalker and my current one was one of the very last ones built by and exceptional craftsman with the old frame pre-Minehart chassis design and ultimately very sorted by taking it to Scott Minehart and having him do a bunch of things to get it really dialed in. As you know, it primarily uses USA sourced components so the availability of replacement parts is not a big deal. I have long admired the Caterham's as they are the official Lotus 7 sponsored manufacturer when Lotus sold the manufacturing rights. Over the past few years, I have watched the distribution system for cars coming into the USA varying in all kinds of ways and have reportedly lead to long lead times for parts from the UK. I guess my questions are: How reliable are these cars overall and how difficult is it to currently obtain replacement parts for these cars in the event of breakage or a mishap? Are the parts costs significantly greater given that these are low volume cars and the source is in the UK? BTW, I am not trolling in any way shape or form. I am really curious about how ownership of the Caterhams is in the USA?

Sold a few month back to a fellow in Virginia. Thanks

I am not jealous; I am not jealous; I am..........JEALOUS!!! You are no longer missed. Well, maybe just a little.

Shane, Suave better not get ALL of our characters riled up while he sips his Shar-donay. My wife has her own menagerie that does not take kindly to recalcitrant storks! BTW, absolutely loving your build! I think Suave's butt is a great shining tool when you get light dust on that four-tired beauty.

Things are turning into pandemonium at this Storker house. Pee Wee just jumped into the fray and is bashing Mr. Bill while Les just looks on in utter Stork amazement. Looks like your color choices may sicken your opponents on the track thus giving you the edge you probably always wanted. I am not in the same camp as my group of garage crazies other than maybe the blistering blue seat covers. Where is Gumby, my color consultant who has a different take on green?

Shane, Les and his friend Mr. Bill are outraged at the abuse poor Suave is getting in being subjected to vomit (aka seasick) green and blistering blue. I just heard Mr. Bill exclaim "Oh Nooooooooooooo!"

Suave, Your older brother Les is concerned that you were never seen as a fashionista in our flock. He told me this afternoon that you used to wear your diapers backwards and he never understood how you got to be called Suave whereas he ended up Les Suave. I offered to take him on a ride to the coast this afternoon but he was busy preening his feathers. He seems to be more self-conscious than Suave and would never allow me to use his butt to wipe my hood. He did however ask me how the new Toyo r888r tires felt on my Storker and I told him that the jury is out at this point. Addendum, I got home and inspected the new r888r's and found that the outer 1" strip of rubber on the two front tires and about 3/4" on the rear tires was not really making contact with the road with 19 pounds of air. I decided that I am going to lower the tire pressures to 17psi and see if I get a more uniform contact patch. 19psi may just have been a tad over-inflating?

Croc, I have been looking at those wing vents and thinking how cool they look in black. To my eyes, it is a striking contrast with the bright "lime" green or whatever color it is called.

Shane, Suave will be ticked off if you buy another car before getting the Super Chicken ready for the track.

I am going for blats now before surgery and am going to do one more autox before surgery. It looks like I will be out of the game for 5-6 weeks. I will give everybody a heads up after I get the surgery in September. My surgeon's schedule is pretty full but should be done with rehab by the end of October. I finally have my Storker really dialed in just when I am going to be taken off the track for a couple of months but I am going to run like hell on this next event to have smiles on those days when I am feeling a bit sorry for myself.

Shoe String Racing and M Worth, Thanks for your inputs. I have decided that if my non-invasive Orthopod agrees with my decision, I am going to move forward to a consultation with a surgeon and get this funky "football shaped" femur head replaced with something that is round and glides in a new cup. I hate the thought of major surgery but I dislike decreased ability much more.

:iagree: Les :hurray: Astro Bob

Shane, Did you think Lester was a fig newton of your ignition? He is real and definitely Suave's corrupting influence. I have been threatening rehab if he doesn't stay out of my liquor cabinet. He says that he is bored and not getting enough action here in North Florida. I told him that when it cools down I was going to be autoxing the Storker and he would see more action but he says that it just sounds like words during this muggy Summer weather. He will get to see a little more action when I take my surface grinder and shape the new calipers protruding edges to not interfere with my lightweight race wheels that have limited clearance compared to my street wheels. BTW, both Les and I think that your car is looking extremely good! Les has been chiding me about how plain-Jane my car is looking every time he sees a pic of your new chassis and how beautifully it is coming together. I keep trying to tell him that I have no building skills but can sure admire quality from afar. Les says that you might have to drop the tag line about having one very broken Storker. Seems like "fake news" at this point. Hehehe.

Shane, Less aka Les aka Lester Suave, Suave's older brother, said to "quit using my brother's butt as a polishing rag flyboi!" If he wasn't helping me to change out my brakes/calipers on my Storker, he said he would be flying your way immediately to rescue his brother from your evil tape-hanging ways.

Teamking and Kitcat, Very sobering takes on the situation. I hadn't given as much thought as I do now to the issue of clutch engagement if I proceed with the operation. Thanks to both of you for some excellent insights. That is why I love this site. Everybody is so helpful!

Shane, Now I have gone and done it. Suave's uncouth older brother, Suave Less, came flying in yesterday to squawk at me in stork language mixed with English about having called his younger brother a duck. I apologized and told him that my buddy Shane had properly corrected me to understand that Storker owners are friends with storks, not ducks. He seemed to be less ticked off after the apology and agreed to take a picture with my new "7" emblem I am going to put on the nose of my Storker. Further pictures to follow now that Suave Less and I are getting along.

Mike, I went to the Stalker photo gallery and looked at what you have done to #159 over the years. Simply amazing workmanship and innovations. This new diffuser is just a continuation of your interesting journey with your Storker. Good job!

Lucky Dawg, Your new Jag will only do 195mph! Is that fast enough for you? . Life is definitely good!

Silk, You are the second person, one privately, to advise that the hip replacement will not be an impediment to continued enjoyment of my Stalker. I am now fully committed to moving forward on that because I enjoy so many other activities such as hiking, stand-up-paddling, etc. Thanks again for your input.

Poor Suave, I should have known you were a Stork. Now I have ruffled your feathers. My apologies, sentient one! Soon, your flyboy buddy is going to be zooming around the track again in a beautiful "cousin" Storker. Maybe he will take you along for rides as long as you don't sit in any more paint:driving:. Suave, I just hope you don't have an evil twin that is going to give me payback for thinking you were a duck when in fact you're a Stork!

Suave was always billed as the low price/high value duck that got the job done? You might not want to let him near the newly powder-coated storker until his butt feathers dry.

Looking for any folks that have experienced a full hip replacement and how it may have affected their ability to get in and out of their seven? I have a classic Brunton Stalker that I dearly love for both street blats and autox and want to carefully consider my options before proceeding with a hip replacement. Any experiential information would be great. I stand on the seat, then slide down into the tunnel and have a roll cage that I can use my arms to position myself.

Shane, The Stalker adventures for autocross and general street blats continues. Only this time, my car and new-to-me Stalker tilt trailer I got from Brit after he sold his Stalker XL are in the same bay of one of my garages. Note the really cool tripod floor mount trailer ball piece that I had a local machine shop make up that I bolted to my garage floor with (3) 3.5" Red Head concrete bolts. I just drive the Stalker off the trailer for a local blat and come home and drive it back up on the tilted trailer until the tilt is no longer there, shut the Stalker off and secure the intermediate ball hitch latch you can see just behind the spare tire. The person tasked with making the device got overly exhuberant and used their 60,000 PSI water jet to cut the base. Thankfully, the shop foreman realized the overkill and did not charge me x3 for the water jet usage. The piece is so stout that I could probably take a 25 mph run up the trailer, slam on the brakes and the floor mount would likely not even quiver. This retirement is killing me. I was coerced (:smash:) into making a 3400 mile roundtrip drive a couple of months ago to Gila, NM to round up a fully computerized (tracking/GOTO) 28" f/3.58 Kennedy/Webster Newtonian telescope that was in need of rehabbing from someone like myself who knows how to do that. It gives me something to do on those clear Florida nights when the stars/planets/galaxies etc. and or partial Moon are up and the Stalker is resting. This might begin to explain the handle Astro Bob instead of Stalker Bob. Shane, I just realized that you might be wondering about what happened to the blue Stalker #94 that I had gotten from Jim. It had the 3.8L N.A. engine which was really fine. However, a fellow out in Oklahoma had completed #156 with a 3.8L SC and only driven it 2k miles before I went out and picked that up a couple of months ago. I sold the blue, red and white Stalker to a fellow in Virginia who is tickled with his new ride.