Anaximander

I woke up in the middle of the night this morning and found myself reflecting on a 220 mile ride I took in the Classic Stalker yesterday which consisted of mostly country North Florida/South Georgia roads and about 35 miles on I-75. I had at least a half a dozen people want to take a picture of the Stalker. On the Interstate, I had two sets of people that were taking pics while travelling along at 75 mph. Kind of funny but this little car really makes myself and other people smile. After 3 weeks of work and support from the Mineharts and the previous owner/builder Jim Wallace, I currently have the car pretty well sorted for the present time. It does not currently leak a drop of any kind of fluid and ran flawlessly with the N.A. 3.8L engine. Kudos to Jim for building a nice car. I had placed a 3/4" gel pad on the seat with a lumbar roll behind my back and was amazingly comfortable for the entire ride. The weather was beautiful and a light sweatshirt made the trip absolutely delightful. What is really fun is that I am getting more dialed in to the steering inputs and how to precisely guide the car. It is amazing how little input these 7 type cars require to plant them where you want them. What fun!

Thanks Shane. As you very well know, these cars are ADDICTIVE!

A few weeks ago, I travelled from North Florida just 50 miles shy of Dallas, TX to pick up Jim Wallace's 2007 Classic Brunton Stalker. The car came equipped with a naturally aspirated 3.8L GM engine from a 1998 Olds 88 with 44k miles. The Stalker now has 14k miles so the engine is pretty fresh with only 58k total miles. During this past week, I had taken the Stalker down to their headquarters in Clearwater, FL and had Scott Minehart, the owner do a bunch of upgrade mods and he was also kind enough to replace a worn front differential seal that was weeping. I got the car back home a couple of days ago after having spent a marathon day/night taking the Stalker down, having Scott work on it for about 9 hours and then trailered it back home. This morning, I changed the oil and put in Mobil 1 synthetic with a Mobile 1 oil filter and then took it out for about an 80 mile test hop along quiet country roads in North Florida/South Georgia. The car acts as if it is on rails and the steering is very responsive. In a desolate area, I was using the broken yellow lane stripes as if they were cones on a slalom to get a better feel for how the steering works at certain speeds. I had previously owned the original prototype M-Spec Stalker with an LS1 engine that had much more power and better suspension but did not fully appreciate at the time what I really had. Fast forward 2 years later and I am in an older style but more "Sevenish" Classic Stalker that rides more like its minimalist brethren (Lotus, Birkin, Caterham, etc.) and am having a ball. Certainly not as plush or powerful as the LS1-LS3 M-Spec Stalkers. I plan to rejoin the local SCCA Solo Chapter and autocross the Stalker to improve my driving skills. Being that it is a street legal car, it will provide me with ample opportunities to get a good feel for the car's performance before I track it and during the non-track operational times which are much greater than the few minutes spent on an x-cross track each Sunday. As many of you know and I realized, it is hard to be without a 7 type car! Bob

Jay, First of all, I want to say big time congrats on joining the whacky band of 7 lovers! Secondly, I would like to second your appreciation for the forum members and especially Croc and his weekly postings of sevens for sale. A couple of years ago, I dipped my toe into the seven waters and bought the prototype M-Spec Stalker that Scott Minehart had developed. At the time, I was still working and planned to autocross the car and drive it around our deserted North Florida/South Georgia roads. However, I sold it fairly quickly as the preparation for x-cross was more than I was willing to deal with at the time. Fast forward about a year and half after I sold the M-Spec and was casually returning to the site when my interest of 5 months ago for a particular Brunton Stalker was re-ignited. After extensive conversations with the wonderful fellow that built the car back in 2007/2008 about 5 months ago and then as recently as yesterday, I pulled the trigger on the classic Brunton Stalker in Texas. This website is absolutely "infectious" when it comes to 7's of all kinds and I found that I was missing the true enjoyment of the marque and/or its close facsimile in the Classic Stalker. About 50 years ago when I was in high school in Southern California, I almost pulled the trigger on a 1962 Lotus Super Seven but my father's admonishment that I would be run over on LA freeways dissuaded me from getting the car and I ended up with a Triumph TR4. My M-Spec Stalker was a more modern variant of the 7 marque but not as traditional as the one I am getting this weekend. Again, congrats Jay on your new ride and thanks again to the forum members and especially Croc in keeping our interest so high for the marque. Bob

Mario, When I heard the concept from Glen and then Scott, I mentioned to them at the SCCA Tour that I thought they had a winner concept. Owing to the fact that Miata donor cars are much less expensive than the supercharged six or eight cylinder Stalkers, this should be quite appealing to many builders. Scott has a knack for designing suspensions that work well and if you couple a lightweight frame with common Miata parts, it should be both fast and handle well for a relatively low investment cost. Bob

PM Sent.

Toedrag, These latest pictures constitute outrageous Seven porn. Watch out for men in dark suits coming to your front door. The quality of your build and the special features you are incorporating are simply over the top. It made my M-Spec prototype look like a tractor compared to your build. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration but gee whiz, what a work of art and function rolled into one very potent package. Keep up the great work! Bob

One of the things that I have given a lot of thought to is that the Superlight comes with carbon fiber bucket seats with very little padding. This is not a car that was particularly built for comfort but for speed and laser like handling. Given what Kitcat said about the suspension and I have heard from others, it is not designed to provide a gentle ride like a Miata.

Duncan, Now THAT'S what I'm talking about. Keep those beautifully detailed pictures coming and the car will be sold in short order. I am trying to ease more into retirement and am having a harder time justifying these exquisite toys. Not ever having been tracked/raced or even in the rain certainly shows in some of the undercarriage shots. I can feel the adrenaline building in our seven lovers' veins. AstroBob

Duncan, Great start!!! Now you need to take a bunch of pictures of the other aspects of your car that are not shown in the few pics you have. Does the car have a rear end??? I have yet to see what it looks like? How about a pic or two showing the suspension and underside of the car. As Croc had so aptly mentioned in a post a short time ago, the more pictures you have of the car and the more elaborate story is what sells these unique cars. There is definitely someone on this site that is going to want your car. Would suggest changing some of the fleabay wording to make it sound less like an auction and more a collegial offering from a seven lover. AstroBob

Croc, Thanks for the sage advice. I passed it along to the 2007 Caterham owner. I suspect we will see it for sale shortly on USA7's. Bob

Croc, I don't envy you have to deal with contractors. I have experienced my share of pain with a little joy thrown in over the years while getting houses/garages built. It is kind of interesting about a fellow who owns a 2007 Caterham in PA and continues to list it on flea bay and keeps bumping up against a wall just shy for $35K. He originally set a BIN price of $47K and has only come down to a BIN of $43K. It appears that the market has told him after I think it was three 10 day auctions that the car is not going to go for his asking price. It seems like things in the unique auto trade are like many other discretionary items right now and moving somewhat slowly. It feels like the US economy has not rebounded in a robust way and that of course tends to bring values down for a whole host of goods. As we have all seen, everything goes in cycles. However, I do find that the State licensing requirements that are being tightened portend a scary trend that may hurt enthusiasts? Bob

Have they stopped selling used 7's????? I go on vacation for a few days and come back to no posting by Croc on the available 7's for sale:willy_nilly: It gives me the feeling I might have if the Sun did not rise in the East tomorrow morning. I hope Croc isn't out racing and forgot about us voyeurs.

Shane, We can certainly acknowledge the damaged and broken parts. I think the sanity issue was in question long before now:willy_nilly:

Shane, This song reminded me more of you. One of my favorites. Bwaaaaahaaaaahaaaaa AstroBob

Shane, Have you gotten past the insurance company so the story can be told? Curiosity is getting the better of me. BTW, how are you feeling and is work sort of getting into a rhythm? I suspect that they have you in a back brace to keep everything stable and healing. If it is too soon to tell the story, just suggest I take a leap at the Moon for the time being. Bob

+1

Shane, Glad to hear that you are making a pretty rapid recovery all things considered. Flying a desk is better than flying a bed. What kind of aircraft have you been flying for your job? Bob

Shane, It has been a while since we have heard from you. How is the rehab going? Are you feeling any better at this point? Hope you ARE feeling better. Bob

Toedrag, I want to thank you again for responding with some interesting recommendations. I rode my Harley up to the SCCA autocross regionals in Cecil, GA this morning and treated every car as if the driver was trying to kill me. I constantly scanned my mirrors and kept my head on a swivel and realized that the riding experience was quite a bit different than the lulled sense of people doing the right thing that I sometimes get into. I can't wait to do the same with my normal commuting vehicle. The only thing I noticed is that it is a lot of WORK to maintain that level of vigilance. I would sometimes find myself drifting into complacency and then begin the whole scan, swivel, anticipation thing again. I can see where this will likely make a huge difference in being much more alert to my surroundings and the fools that are trying to kill me:jester: On an even more positive note, Scott Minehart placed First in the SCCA Autocross Regionals at South Georgia Motorsports Park this weekend in his new AXR Stalker in E Modified. Glen did well and Krista won her class. However, it was sort of a gimmie for Krista as she was the only female in E Mod. Scott continued to tweak the suspension and the whole family reported that they really liked the way the car was performing. Apparently, it had been tending to push the front end and with the suspension tuning, it was performing like Goldilock's would have liked. "Just right".

Toedrag, Very insightful and useful observations! However, I can't get over your forum name as I think about flat tracking Harley riders and their metal "hot shoes".

Recently, one of our 7 brothers experienced an accident that caused injury to himself and his car. For a short time, I owned a really wickedly fast Brunton M-Spec LS-engine Stalker. I had wanted a sevenesque car since my junior year in high school when I almost purchased a stock 1962 Lotus 7. One of the things I noticed when driving the Storker was that a Ford Focus had door handles that were significantly taller than where my head was in my Storker. When I was blatting around on country roads and would face oncoming traffic such as a Ford F250, I did notice that the dimensions of my car vs. the truck were enormously different. I would perform an informal risk assessment, make sure that the truck was not crossing the center line and made sure that I had an exit strategy if that occurred. Fast forward a month and I bought my buddy's large Harley Davidson cruiser (Road Glide Ultra) that weighs 2/3 of what a typical seven weighs and one of the only safety feature upgrades is ABS brakes. So, I traded a car that sits inches off the ground, has a gas tank in the rear for a bumper and now sit atop a 900 pound behemoth of a motorcycle that has weak brakes at best. I have a lengthy history of owning high-performance sport bikes with performance characteristics somewhat similar to the Storker (Yamaha R1's, etc.) Both vehicles provide a significant amount of fun factor in different ways. At the ripe old age of 65.8 years, I have been giving some minor thought to a life filled with risk taking but one that has also been a hell of a lot of fun! It has been said that humans are fairly poor judges of risk/hazards in life and especially young males. I sense that the group on this Forum tends to be more affluent and likely a bit older than many of the young squids who go out on a sport bike and hurt themselves. Some of the evidence comes from the cost of insurance for our expensive cars and the fact that insurance companies are very astute at measuring risk and assigning monetary structures toward the risk with an eye towards profitability. I am wondering in the light of our recent community buddy who is recovering from injuries sustained while having a lot of fun in a very neat car if thoughts of risk are creeping into our psyches? I for one do not want to go through life too aware of all of the risks such that it significantly diminishes the fun I have with motorized vehicles. OTOH, it does cause some pause for reflection and might make me just a little bit safer if I can learn something from the pain that our buddy has experienced.

I may be stating the obvious but why hasn't Josh posted his car over on the Cars for Sale forum? I suspect that others as well as myself would love to see some pictures of his jewel of a car.

Snookwheel, funny that you should mention that home is a better place than any hospital. I had to go in for an outpatient throat procedure but ended up having to overnight on a OB/GYN unit much like depicted in the movie the Natural. I caught a really wicked nosocomial gut infection that laid me almost lower than the throat surgery. I hope that they had not had Shane on an OB/GYN ward but I suspect that he would not fess up to it if they had?

Good Morning Shane, Hope you had a restful night. Don't let Croc talk you into the beer and bourbon just quite yet. Chips and salsa however might be curative? He may tell you that the synergistic effects of the booze and pain meds will make you forget the circumstances but then nurse Hilda will be in your face with her mustache upper lip and give you the business thus bringing you back into reality. Great news for at least the present that your injuries are not going to require surgery. Thankfully, your young so your ability to heal is much better than some of us old guys. Keep up the good work. AstroBob