Anaximander

Hank, that is simply a beautiful build story and an exceptional conclusion to what must have been a lot of work. I had gone back through your threads and even noticed that you worked hard to match period style glass for the windscreen. Good job. I was wondering however if the non-stock engine was of any concern. Wondering why you didn't rebuild the stock engine that came with the car?

Wow Walgamuth, that was a pretty fast acquisition from general query to purchase. What did you end up getting in the D Mod class? Did it come with a set of slicks for xcrossing?

Walgamuth, I suspect that $15K will likely find you a nice automotive chunk of ground sirloin. I agree that looking around is half the fun. It doesn't hurt that your looking at a time where some owners cannot even imagine being able to use their sevens. The weather has been particularly wretched across the USA this year and apparently there are atmospheric anomalies that are causing all kinds of weird weather all over the place. Much good luck in your search. I was very fortunate to have found a beautifully sorted Brunton Stalker that I unfortunately only xcrossed x1. My wife sprung on me the fact that she was ready to retire and move to the beach in a flat and somewhat crowded Space Coast area. I am selling my 4-car garage home that I do not plan to replace with another 4-car garage home. I was frankly amazed at how linear and relatively easy it was to drive the M-Spec LS Storker on an autocross course. The car felt like it was running on rails with those slicks I had on it and the power was so linear that it was surprisingly not intimidating to run. I wish that I had had more time to play with that jewel but alas, I just sold my astronomy property, several large telescopes and the Storker and the house looks like it will sell in the next 60 days. Croc, xcarguy and a bunch of others are quite plugged into the seven grid and should continue to be a fountain of possibilities for you moving forward. Much good luck! AstroBob

Croc, Walgamuth is by his posts looking for a less than pristine seven for autocross. However, he only wants to spend $15K. It appears to me that unless fairy tales come true that $25K sevens will likely not cross his path for the $15K he has that is likely burning a hole in his pocket. We have all been there I suspect? Wanting chateaubriand for a hamburger price. I suspect that Walgamuth will either have to lower his expectations and targeted cars or dig around in the sofa and come up with some loose change to move up to the higher performing/sorted sevens.

xcarguy, He reported to me that he had just applied for membership and was awaiting Moderator approval. I am not sure what he will go by on the forum? At one time, he had a Birkin that he could not get sorted and really never drove it. It reportedly made its way out to Wyoming where it was eventually sorted. He found the Stalker to be well sorted when he looked at it and drove it. Since the Storker uses pretty much standard American parts and is located in St. Pete, I think he will have a much better experience this go round. Additionally, as you know, Scott Minehart really knows everything there is to know about Storkers and builds high quality well sorted vehicles. I talked with him today, the buyer, (Monday) and he and his wife had modified their plans due to weather. He mentioned that he planned to get the Stalker onto a skid pad to get used to understanding its limits. I think that is a great idea. I am glad that I had a go cart background as a kid along with 10 years of riding high-performance sports bikes on twisty country roads as well as tracking it one time. I also was a fright instructor a long time ago and taught basic aerobatics so am used to G forces. In fact, the Chief instructor and I used to go up in a Decathlon with an inverted oil system and see who could take more positive and negative G's before crying "uncle". I seemed to have a heartier stomach at the time. Of course, I was only 25 years old. Astro Bob

Sold my M-Spec Storker so I have a like new single axle (3500 pound) 6x12' trailer with custom ramps designed to put your seven on and be able to tow it with a vehicle that has a 3500 pound towing capacity. The trailer weighs approximately 1200 pounds with the custom ramps and has a total payload capacity of 2128 pounds. The custom ramps were professionally fabricated to allow a very shallow ramp and have built-in strong metal supports. The ramps have holders welded onto the trailer to be stowed on the outsides of the trailer securely without tie downs while transporting your car. The custom ramps do not protrude out farther than the wheels. The fold down regular ramp has been reinforced for your car and is drilled for bolts to temporarily bind to the custom ramps for a secure setup. All three tires are top of the line trailer radials. The trailer tracks beautifully.

The 2012 Brunton Storker was on the Virginia buyer's trailer yesterday afternoon headed up to the North country. It is gone, gone, gone! However, I did get a moment to demonstrate the linear acceleration of the LS-engine beast and it brought a smile to my face. Wishing everyone an Early Spring. Especially our brethren in the upper NE. Astro Bob

Virginia

Croc, xcarguy and others, I put out the notification today that Bob L. has sent a deposit for the M-Spec Storker and will be down with a trailer in a couple of weeks for a final inspection. I want to thank all of my 7 brethren for the support and sharing of information as well as the positive things you had to say about the Stalker. I will continue to monitor this site even after the sale of the car because it is such a great group of 7 enthusiasts. For those in the Northeast, stay warm and Spring is just around the corner in spite of Punxsutawney Phil's predictions. Astro Bob

Fellow 7 lovers, I was advised today that Bob L. is buying the Storker pending inspection that will occur in a couple of weeks. I want to give a big shout out to Croc, Xcarguy and others that were so kind in letting the world know what a great car and buy this represented. I only had the one opportunity to xcross it but I will forever remember how linear the power was and how much grip there was getting around the course with slicks on the Storker. The new owner will have the luxury of some brand new Toyo R888's that he will likely put on a track to improve his skills with the car and have a ball. I also want to give a big shoutout to Glen and Scott Minehart who made the car and got it so sorted out. It is a dream to drive especially with the electronic steering assist. I will let you all know when the sale is finalized. I will sure miss this really high performance car. Bob Schilling, AKA AstroBob

Not wanting to ride along on Croc's Saturday morning autoporn lists that he so kindly provides, I decided that it was time to list my beautiful M-Spec Stalker all by itself. An imminent move to the Space Coast beaches of Florida and selling my 4-car garage home in Tallahassee prompts my decision to sell my beautiful and very fast Stalker. I have a 2012 M-Spec Brunton Stalker that was factory built in St. Petersburg, FL. The fiberglass car is powered by a LS33 V8 engine with LS1 heads for better flow and 330 horsepower. Scott Minehart also installed heavier duty crankshaft bearings at the time of build to insure reliability. The car has a 6-speed manual transmission and all you need is to use second gear if you plan to autocross. The Stalker is a Lotus 7 themed car with incredible power and handling. It has front and rear independent suspension (you can see a U-Tube video of the terrific suspension on the Brunton site at: http://stalkercars.com/models/m-spec/ and was assembled by the designer/builder and nationally ranked driver of these cars. The blue M-Spec car in the Stalker literature is this car and Stalker is essentially only making variants of this newer design due to flexibility of options and improved performance. The ride is superb for a high-performance sports car and compares especially well to other 7 themed cars. The entire car has approximately 7400 miles with approximately 24,000 miles on the GM all aluminum engine. The entire car weighs 1645 pounds. The car has brand new Toyo R888 DOT spec tires for the street and 6 wheels/slicks for autocross use with the front wheels being Keizer aluminum race wheels (approximately 11 pounds per wheel). The car is both street legal and runs in the SCCA E Modified class. This car was the first of Stalker's new line and having been built by the designer, is quite well sorted through both street and track tuning. There are approximately 15 examples of the M-Spec Stalkers in various stages of partial to full completion from customers as well as the factory. The power is immense and the handling is out of this world. It is registered as a 1962 Lotus 7 kit car here in Florida. It was gone through at the factory with all new fluids, new winshield, new 5-point harnesses, new front pads on the Wilwood disc brakes, new driver's side seat cover in October 2014. It comes with a fiberglass hardtop that needs some cosmetic work. Factory support for the Stalkers is terrific and there are no long waits for any replacement parts as the car is fully made in the USA. New, these cars sell for approximately $49,000. This fine example can be had for a fraction of that price and is in beautiful condition. What is truly amazing about this car is that the one time that I autocrossed it, it was amazingly easy to get around the course because the chassis setup and way that it makes power are superbly blended. I am used to riding very high-performance sport bikes and flying high-performance GA airplanes and this car makes power and handles in an amazing fashion. The car has most of the upgraded options Stalker puts on their M-Spec cars and sells new for approximately $49K. I know it is Winter where many 7 lovers are living so I have discounted the car to $30K to move it in the dead of Winter. With the house up for sale, I may lose my extra garage space shortly. Thanks for looking. and if you would like to talk with me about the Stalker, call 850-491-2222 between 10-8 Eastern Standard Time. Bob Schilling AKA Astrobob

Shane, You are absolutely correct that I confused the two of you. It's kind of funny how I was sensitive to the difference in transmission sounds. The engine sounded different as well but I did not think much about it when I was looking at the video. These Storkers are sure great cars. If I was not selling my 4-car garage home, I would continue to have played with my M-Spec. I really like the independent front and rear suspension that Scott built into these. Bob

Shawn, Very nice run. Thanks for letting us come along for the ride. Nice recovery on what I think was the 4th lap? I don't know if you have changed anything in your transmission but the shifts seemed quieter than other videos I have seen of you running. It is fun to see a Storker eating up a Vette and some other pretty fast cars and making them smaller in your rear view mirror. Bob

Shane, It kind of reminds me of my astro buddy having to hang up his airline wings 6 months ago when he reached the magic 65. Man, did he ever experience some nostalgia. It was really tough to let Glen Minehart know today that I was planning to move and sell the car. Both Scott and Glen have been terrific supporters of their cars and I was discussing with Glen that not all 7's are particularly reliable. Of course it sort of helps when the car is built by the factory and the factory technician is sort of a perfectionist. BTW, anybody interested in the car can see more pictures I took this afternoon of the beast in my driveway on my Craigslist ad. Astro Bob

Croc, I resemble that remark about the lack of outer beauty for the owner. Wait until you get older, hehehe. Life can be cruel. At least the Storker is sexy, beautiful and above all, very fast and fun to drive. Bob

xcarguy, I bought the Stalker to cope with what I thought was going to be another 3 years in North Florida where we have tons of twisty country roads. We then switched gears (pun intended) and decided that my wife ought to retire and consider taking a part-time job with benefits to keep me off of Medicare. I have been a long-time medical consultant and work a limited amount of time. However, as we always do, I have complicated my life to a greater extent than I need to. In my entire life, I have never owned such a response 4-wheel vehicle. However, I have had a decade of riding high-performance motorcycles and was a professional pilot in another lifetime and so speed is not an unfamiliar friend. However, as it relates to the Storker, I am frankly too old and not skilled enough at this point to consider wheel to wheel racing like you have been demonstrating on U-Tube clips. I found that the amount of preparation was not worth 3-4 minutes of track time I was going to get in x-cross. I can see where it requires an enormous amount of concentration to do short-burst racing but the investment in time did not seem commensurate with the experience. I am too used to speed in a sense. However, if there were no cops looking for revenue and I was not concerned about ending up in jail, the Stalker is just an absolute blast to blat around in. It is an unbelievably intuitive car and responds with the least amount of effort imaginable for what it is capable of doing. Scott Minehart really sorted the suspension on these cars. A long time ago when I was in aviation, I did own a Lotus S2 Elan that I used to blat around in the SF Bay area of California. It was a fun car and reminds me of a less reliable Miata that borrowed liberally from its pioneering shape/performance. Bob

Croc, It is a miracle! I just found a 2012 factory-built M-Spec Stalker on Tallahassee's Craiglist. It comes with new Toyo R888's and has been completely freshened by Scott Minehart prior to taking delivery of it a few months ago. Unfortunately, the owner's wife has decided that we need to live at the beach which is not a serious compromise. My one and only autocross day along with exquisite blats in the North Florida/South Georgia countryside will never be forgotten. This car was the culmination of a dream following almost buying a 1962 Lotus that Chapman's group had built in England when I was in high school in the mid 1960's in Southern California. AstroBob

Croc, I suspect that in the next few minutes, there will be an ad for a 2012 Brunton Stalker on the Craigslist from Tallahassee, Florida that is fully registered/titled as a 1963 Lotus 7. My wife is retiring and we have decided to move to a South Florida beach community rather than visiting one periodically. I don't know how I will live without a 4-car garage but I guess downsizing as you get older is sometimes inevitable? The car is very well sorted and was built/designed by Scott Minehart and does not have any of the horror stories I have been hearing about by some home-built cars. There is definitely and advantage to having a good factory build and a very well sorted vehicle. The ride is surprisingly supple for a quick car and it makes horsepower in a way that is quite controllable. From what I have been reading on another forum here, reliability is not always built into some of these Lotus clones. Bob

Croc, You are usually right on the money about what is for sale but alas, there is a Brunton Stalker that has just come available for sale this very day. It is a 2012 M-Spec Stalker Serial #000 that was built by the designer/developer of the car. It is registered as a 1962 Lotus 7 here in Florida and is fully street legal in Florida. My wife and I have decided to move to a South Florida beach community and I will be giving up my 4-car garage home and moving to the beach. I will list the car for sale separately here in a few minutes. However, I cannot seem to post a new thread on the cars for sale Forum. Could an administrator please unlock or provide the necessary permission? Thanks AstroBob

Talk about tires that were made for a car. I just did a nice blat on a warm Florida day (78 degrees) with my new Toyo R888 (255 40 ZR17) tires and the ride and handling were out of this world on my M-Spec Stalker. Per Glen's recommendation, I ran them with just over 19 pounds of pressure in each tire and they rode like I was on a magic carpet. The original Hankooks had simply hardened with heat cycles/age and the new Toyo's were ever so much more compliant and a bit softer riding. It's funny but I pulled into a gas station and this group of what looked like college girls asked if the M-Spec was a car. I told them that it was. I was wondering what sorority they may have been from to come up with that question? Running the Stalker on the street in traffic at the end of a country blat was so much fun because people seem to go nuts looking at it and wondering "What in the hell...?" I noticed that a fellow in a big jacked up pickup truck was taking pictures of me with his cell phone. That is certainly a first in my car ownership. If you have not tried a set of R888's, you are missing something pretty special IMHO. I do not have much to compare them to but they certainly seemed to perform magnificently. Bob S.

xcarguy, I HOPE that I am of sound mind AND body to enjoy the Skyscraper coaster in 2017. We are moving to Orland this coming year for work and it will be in my back yard in a manner of speaking. Thanks for the heads up! Astro Bob

Good on Jefferson and xcarguy for posting their experiences. There are always two sides to every story but the hesitancy to post negative experiences suggests that the two posters went out of their way to give Texas Motor Works the benefit of any doubt. The nice thing about the Internet is that it more rapidly allows others to get a sense of how people are operating and to be able to do their due diligence with as much information as possible. It is troubling to me that the owner who seems nice and helpful would allow a customer to be harmed as was described above. This is too small a community for those shenanigans to go on for very long. People have the ability to vote with their wallets. I know for sure that xcarguy is having a ball with his Storker and I think Jefferson is about at the end of a tedious journey where he will begin to enjoy the fruits of his labors in 2015. Thanks to both of you for sharing some painful memories that may help the next person who thinks about a particular vendor.

Toedrag, Wait until you try and hoist those 315's up onto the axles. You will be laughing even harder when you get a sense of their heft. I have to admit that they are beautifully made and can't wait to do a dry day blat with them. It has been raining for days here in North Florida and we are suppose to have really bad thunderstorms all day. I was awoken this morning at 4 a.m. to a loud crack of thunder just over the house. I can only imagine what it might be like to experience this weather with thunder snow? It is going to be a tough slog for holiday travelers in the NE for the next couple of days.

Well, the good news is that Toyo R888's (255 40 ZR17) on an M-Spec Stalker with 330 horsepower really allow the car to hook up for street tires. It was really interesting to obtain a set of four tires where they send you two sets of right/left specific tires. I had to carefully explain the rotational orientation to my tire installers and impress upon them that a car capable of going in excess of 150 mph requires exquisite balancing. They assured me that they would not rush the job and by the looks of the tape wheel weights, they really worked the problems/solutions to fine tune the wheels sets. The bad news is that having changed out the hardened Hankook's with sticky replacement Toyo's, I was not expecting the car to hook up so quickly as I scrubbed the tires in on my community's private streets to get the releasing compound off the tires. Let me tell you that I now know what a BB in a boxcar feels like. It was rather dumb of me to not tightly secure my 5-point harness when doing this. As I was driving back to the house, I noticed that my butt was sore as hell from banging on the sides of my race buckets:ack: Ah, the learning curves related to owning a high-performance car. You all have a very Merry Christmas this coming week and an even better New Year! Bob

Well, the good news is that Toyo R888's (255 40 ZR17) on an M-Spec Stalker with 330 horsepower really allow the car to hook up for street tires. It was really interesting to obtain a set of four tires where they send you two sets of right/left specific tires. I had to carefully explain the rotational orientation to my tire installers and impress upon them that a car capable of going in excess of 150 mph requires exquisite balancing. They assured me that they would not rush the job and by the looks of the tape wheel weights, they really worked the problems/solutions to fine tune the wheels sets. The bad news is that having changed out the hardened Hankook's with sticky replacement Toyo's, I was not expecting the car to hook up so quickly as I scrubbed the tires in on my community's private streets to get the releasing compound off the tires. Let me tell you that I now know what a BB in a boxcar feels like. It was rather dumb of me to not tightly secure my 5-point harness when doing this. As I was driving back to the house, I noticed that my butt was sore as hell from banging on the sides of my race buckets:ack: Ah, the learning curves related to owning a high-performance car. You all have a very Merry Christmas this coming week and an even better New Year! Bob