Anaximander

Well, If you felt compelled to spend $58.5k, you too could have had a shot at bidding on it. The fellow, JK, who built it has done some work for Moal Coachworks in California. I looked up Moal and they reportedly pay their coach builders $229-299/hour. Can you imagine how many hours went into the making of this one-off car??? Yipes! I guess with the lack of garage space and bank account numbers, I am likely NEVER going to be a client of Moal's (sob).

John, For some, 10mm or almost half and inch is no big deal. However, for some of us, it does not give us that snug "locked in" feeling that we need to feel comfortable slinging the car around and dealing with centripetal forces. You might want to try some of that dense closed cell foam with the stickum' backing in key critical areas and see if it makes you feel more locked in on the driver's seat. I did just that on my Summit racing seats and the lateral motion I was experiencing in the seat while autocrossing has been significantly reduced. It is always a trial and error effort but I think well worth it given that I was able to use the patterns of the existing seat covers that were designed for the seats and tightened myself around my upper back which was critical for feeling more "locked" in place.

John, If you need to tighten up certain parts of those seats which is what I had to do with my Kirkey style seats from Summit Racing, this product will do the trick and comes in a bunch of different thicknesses with adhesive already on the back of the super dense foam. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081PM21ZD?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

John, I feel your pain as I had that weird FiTech fuel injection issue where my primary O2 sensor is the passenger sensor and you have to hook up the driver's side wire harness connector to the passenger O2 for proper ECU operation and vice-versa. What your patience and thread shows all of us is that building exotic cars can at times be EXASPERATING. However, I am here to tell you that after this past weekend of my car's engine finally running perfectly, all of your hassles will be well worth it for all of the pleasure you will be getting in the near future. Trust me, it is WORTH IT! Especially as beautiful a car as you have in that exotic Caterham. OTOH, I will never, ever, put a kit together with or without help, hehehe. I lack some fundamental patience when I compare my limits to some others' limits of patience. Besides, building a kit was a bucket list event and I am closing in on kicking that bucket much sooner than some of our younger members

The Stalker AXR now runs faster than a cat on a hot tin roof! Ever since the build, there was one niggling problem that I couldn't seem to resolve which was that the engine ran rich on the driver's side and lean on the passenger side (it reminds me of JohnCh's AFR challenges with his 520 build in this section). The ECU attempted to balance the Air Fuel Ratios but had a difficult time keeping both sides of the engine properly fed with fuel. I went back to the initial installation instructions of the FiTech 70001 installation instructions and there was a partial sentence about midway through the 16 or so pages of instructions that stated and I am paraphrasing, "if the O2 sensors are wired incorrectly, then you will experience a rich/lean situation". They did not denote what specifically they were referencing because I had hooked up the driver's side O2 wiring to the driver's side and the passenger's wire to the passenger O2 sensor. Well, I continued to try and figure out what was going on and hooked up the factory supplied ECU computer that gives real-time data on a plethora of things on the computer's dashboard and the AFR readings were widely divergent. I called FiTech and asked them if swapping the wires might clear up the problem? They said it wouldn't hurt anything and that the Model 70001 was designed for a single O2 sensor and that was to be on the passenger side. So, long story shortened, I swapped the sensor wires and the rich/lean condition went away and the FiTech computer shows me that the self-learning ECU has both AFR's almost identical and no rich/lean running condition. Yesterday, I took the car to an autocross after having what I think was finally making things work and had done about 10 miles in my private community driving around looking at the handheld as I was putting around quietly not trying to get my neighbors riled up with the sound of the twin side pipes. At the autocross yesterday, if it were not for one errant cone that jumped out in front of me and grazed my rear fender, I would have taken first place in the E-Modified category. I had hoped to do better but the way this Stalker is running, I now expect to get MUCH better even as I age out and start taking some firsts and maybe, just one day before my last breath, get close to a FTD if there are a bunch of slower people that day. As someone pointed out, sevenesque cars are a journey rather than a destination and they need to be fettled with from time-to-time.

Cueball1, The prices for cars on BAT and some other sites have frankly gotten kind of silly. I would keep my powder dry and if things turn really sour from a national/world standpoint, cars that are overpriced right now will come back to Earth and you will find just what you are looking for in a sale where someone is no longer interested or capable of having an expensive toy.

DOH, I see the price listed on the top of the ad. Probably help to imbed it also at the bottom so dumb bunnies like myself are less easily confused

The steering rack is definitely S-10! That is why Stalker on their M-Spec cars went to Coleman racing steering racks that have ratio adjustable guts. Additionally, on most new M-Spec cars, Scott uses a proportional steering power assist that make steering wonderful even at walking pace speeds. As Croc pointed out, some track enthusiasts in Stalkers like the XL prefer not to have the steering power assist because they feel it can add twitchiness and/or take away a bit of the actual tire to steering wheel interface. I have had two Stalker XL's, one with power assist and one without and I prefer the power assist but I am also not tracking them in the sense that autocross has different steering demand characteristics. The suspension on the M-Spec cars are lightyears better than the original Brunton Stalkers IMHO.

One thing I forgot to mention on the older classics is that there is a front suspension upgrade that is critical to the safety of the original Brunton Stalkers. If this bracket is missing, you would certainly want to take it to Scott and have it installed. Secondarily, it would be worth the money to have Scott fully inspect the car and check all of the connections so that you know that the car is properly assembled. Some folks did not accurately follow the build instructions and so they are less safe/reliable than if everything was adhered to. Brunton Stalkers also came with a build DVD that you might want to look at if the owner has it in their possession.

I went to the S-10 forum and found the answer you are looking for. Remember, Google is your friend "The fill hole is on the passenger side of the differential halfway between top and bottom. It is recessed so it isn't plainly obvious unless you're looking at it. Use a 3/8" square socket to get it out. Do not try to use a wobble socket and avoid just using a ratchet if you don't want to chance rounding it off." Unless you want to remove all of the bolts to drain the diff, just get a suction device and pull out all that you can through the fill hole and you should be good to go. Rince and repeat with a fill to the overflow hole and you're done!

xcarguy knows a lot about flying airplanes and Stalkers. What he says is true about Dennis Brunton using inexpensive USA sourced parts from relatively inexpensive cars to create kits that were both cost effective and performed surprisingly well. Stalkercars.com is an entity that is still in business although they did have a reported rough patch where they had to declare bankruptcy at one time which has already been mentioned. Scott Minehart is the owner and designs all of what are called M-Spec cars which is shorthand for Minehart spec'd cars. Scott and his entire family (parents, child, brothers) are all involved in high-performance automotive activities. Scott a couple of years ago participated in one regional weekend qualifying event for Nationals and then went to Nationals and was fourth fastest in E-Modified in SCCA Solo racing that year with only two days of competitive driving that year. His brother Jason, is generally considered the second fastest driver in that class nationally and drives a Stalker AXR. I recently completed a partially completed kit that Scott and his father Glen provided significant technical assistance to help me complete the car. It is now running quite well and I placed in the top quartile of a local 100 person autox event with my Stalker AXR which I had never hoped to do before driving this very easy to drive car that I have. Scott knows more about Dennis Brunton's original designs than anyone in the country because he worked as the chassis fabricator and eventually bought the business. He has a shop in Central Florida where you can get him to rehab older classic Stalkers or to fabricate from basic kit to completed cars, one of 4 designs he is currently manufacturing when an order is placed. He reportedly is working on an updated website to facilitate an easier buying process for prospective customers. Something like what other specialty car companies do. I have included a picture of Scott (above with me in the car) coming to my home with his digital corner weight scales to setup my Stalker AXR. I also included a picture of me with my most successful performance to date in the completed car.

John, I had a wire burn out on a heavy duty turbo fan I run on Stalkers and it was 16 awg. I was advised to used 12 awg but opted for a ridiculous 10 awg on a separate switch so I would never have to worry about transient spikes. I did a Google search on 12 awg and 10 amps and this is the response I got: "While a 16 gauge wire can technically handle about 10 amps at 12 volts, it is still advised to not go over 8 amps. This is due to the reason that over a longer distance, your 16 gauge wire may have a non-uniform construction.Feb 23, 2023" I personally do not like having things that are critical to performance and running constantly to be "underwired". Given what I found here and the concerns I have for certain critical components such as a fuel pump and in my case, a relatively small radiator cooling an LS3/480 that I owned, my personal choice would be to run 12 gauge wire and not have to ever worry about the potential lack of uniformity in the existing thinner strands of wire. I suspect that the run of your 16 gauge from the fuel tank to the main bus is likely the longest run of wire you have other than the tail lights which don't have that kind of amp draw.

John, Your build thread and in particular, this most recent challenge has had me thinking about all of the complex variables that go into building a car. I thought that the challenges I had with the FiTech FI system were challenging until I read your recent trouble shooting woes. I had read about 50/50 acceptance of the FiTech self-learning ECU and some of its gremlins that some people have hated and some have loved. It really emphasizes the point that building race-bred cars is not necessarily for the faint of heart. It certainly taught me a level of patience throughout my build that I barely had enough to spare. There were times when I felt like throwing up my hands or just plain throwing up thinking that I was hitting barriers that were thwarting the successful outcome of a build. However, as I seem to maybe have come to the end of most of the challenges, the feeling of accomplishment is worth the tough journey IMHO. Glad that Holley had some seemingly good insights for your potential problems. We are all expecting to be seeing a blur pass by in the form of a Caterham 520R in the near future!

Comley, I have had the pleasure of owning both the NA and Supercharged versions of the GM V6 in a classic Brunton Stalker. You DEFINITELY want the supercharged version. It is sooooooo much more fun!!! Brunton designed it quite well to handle the supercharged version and it is just a hoot to hear the supercharger whine when you stick your foot in it. IMHO, the NA and Supercharged versions drove like two completely different cars with the nod fully going toward the supercharged engine. I am currently on my 6th Stalker with an L33 engine upgraded with a ghost cam and all new upper end internals and although it is quite fast in my Stalker AXR, I do miss the whine of the supercharged engine. OTOH, with the FiTech FI system and all of the mods made to the L33, when I stick my foot in it, even with 13" slicks on the rear, it is at times a challenge to keep it fully hooked up. Plan for sure on riding around with TW200 tires. I especially like the Avon AO52's which in reality actually act like TW80 tires and won't last a long time but will give you tremendous traction. I had R888R tires on my supercharged Stalker and they were pretty darn good.

John and gang, There is an interesting 2015 article on the features of a Holley HydraMat system and many of the nuances of what is being attempted with the reported 9 different HydraMat configurations to prevent vapor lock issues. An interesting read: https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/1508-holleys-new-hydramat-fuel-pick-up-system/

John, If all else fails, I installed a Holley in-tank fuel pump with no return line and feeding through a hydramat. Summit is very proud of their return line in-tank fuel pump but they get rave reviews on reliability. Holley In-Tank Retrofit Fuel Pump Modules 12-130 Fuel Pump, Electric, In-Tank, Retrofit Module, 60 psi, 255 lph, Gasoline, Return Style, Each Part Number: HLY-12-130 They want $800 for this gem but if it solves your problem, just 4 hours of phone consultation with the Brits would pay for the pump

John, You were mentioning that you had to swivel your head to see the fuel pressure gauge. How about just pointing a GOPRO at it while you do the various manipulations you want to do, orally let the GOPRO know what things you are changing and then correlate your fault conditions with the GOPRO recording of the fuel pressure gauge?

JohnCh, I feel your current pain! Not to derail your thread but I recently completed a Stalker AXR with a L33 engine upspec'd with a ghost cam and upgraded top-end components (rockers, pushrods, trunions, etc.). It came with a FiTech 70001 fuel injection system and self-learning ECU. I have successfully autocrossed the car x3 but found that it was running rich on the driver's side bank and lean on the passenger side. After numerous FREE (sorry about what the Brits are charging you per hour for consultation and the exorbitant fee to unlock the ECU) calls and re-reading the installation manual, I came to the conclusion that my O2 sensor wires may not have been sending the ECU the proper information since the 70001 is designed for a single passenger O2 sensor but is pre-wired for a second O2 sensor. I called FiTech a couple of days ago and reported the rich/lean condition with no faults being shown except occasional rough idle because the self-learning ECU was keeping it fairly OK. I asked the tech if it would be OK to switch the driver O2 to the passenger O2 sensor and vice versa. He said it couldn't hurt anything. Well, I did it and voila, everything is now working harmoniously. There was one sentence in the install manual that stated that if the O2 wires are crossed with no explanation of what that meant, you can get a rich/lean condition. So, doing a simple switch allowed the complete system to really start learning what AFR's are optimal at idle and in all other conditions and it has achieved stoichiometric mixture at idle which is defined as an 14.6 AFR ratio. If you have an install manual with your ECU and wiring harness, maybe be on the lookout for something as simple as the one sentence I found imbedded in 19 pages of instructions. Much good luck with the fettling.

That car looks like a project in the making. The seller does not know where and when the doner engine was produced. There should be some serial numbers on the block that tells what year of manufacture? The ad suggest that they are not GAZ shocks but it sure looks like the original GAZ shocks that Dennis Brunton was selling with his kits. Buyers need to know that the steering rack comes out of a Chevy Chevette but I just looked it up and they are selling rebuilt steering racks for those long-gone cars. It also uses an S-10 rear end/axles with drum brakes usually.

Car currently undergoing street legal upgrades. Thankfully, Scott Minehart is continuing to build these cars. It also helps that his shop is only about 1.5 hours away from the house here in Florida. I did not realize that there is slightly over $10k just in my engine. I started adding up all of my receipts and gasped that an upgraded L33 with a ghost cam, all new upper end and state-of-the-art LS3 oil pan and FiTech fuel injection could cost so much money. I'm wondering what all of these Zetecs and Duratecs are going to run when someone gets around to having to rebuild one? The added pictures of my Amplify Orange C8 Z51 HTC with the AXR is one of the reasons why I decided to hang up my race shoes. The car is running perfectly and has been fully dialed in at this point.

Thanks for the compliment Croc. Coming from you who races all over the world, I am honored. My Stalker AXR (I think it is the 7th one produced?) makes the driver look like they know what they are doing because it is so competent and easy to drive. Especially with the power assist steering and unbelievably stable chassis and suspension. I am including a picture of a former AXR race car that was converted by Scott Minehart to a street legal car in the past couple of months. My car can also be converted to a street legal car by the next owner or by Scott if the buyer chose to have him do the work. Above is a picture of what they look like converted to street use. My AXR has the same wheelbase as all of the other M-Spec chassis (95"). However, the seat is placed 5" forward to accommodate the larger rear wheels. One of the Minehart's who is almost 6'4" fits adequately in his Stalker AXR. The really nice thing about the AXR I am selling is that everything on the car was sourced new (except the 3-piece aluminum race wheels) or in the case of the engine and rear-end, upgraded to better specs than new. The car has approximately 60 miles on it since completion. Autocross is easy on cars/engines because you don't generally get over 70mph.

My newly built Stalker AXR is now up for sale! I have now thoroughly tested the car in 3 autocross events and the car is performing magnificently! I actually placed in the top 25% of a 100 person field on June 3, 2023. I am including a couple of pictures of me autocrossing the car last weekend. I had removed the second seat and will be placing it back in the car with the new harnesses. My wife did not want me taking passengers. I will be out of town for the next few days.

This would be a great car for a Californian since it already has gone through the SB100 dance!

Hey, it isn't a mountain bike. It is a high-speed retro cruiser. As you so aptly noted, other than Central Florida where we do have hills, the State is basically FLAT. However, we have an incredible system of former railroad lines that have been turned into paved trails. Near my home, I have the longest rails to trails biking trail that spans 47 miles in length. I plan to get a second Bosch PowerTube (500Wh) for added pedaling assistance and in the Fall, when things cool down again (we have been experiencing record setting heat), I plan to ride the entire trail round trip. When I was about 22 years younger, I could pedal a conventional 10-speed bike a 100 miles in a day. Sadly, without some powered assistance, that ship has sailed. Just think, if the Atlantic ocean and the Gulf of Mexico continue to rise, our follow-on brethren in Florida will have to take canoes from island to island in what was once a total land-based peninsula. The lower third of Florida is expected to be underwater by about 2100. Thank goodness, I will not be around to see that.

You have quite an eye for cars Mike. I looked up the KTM line of cars and the base X-Bow looks somewhat similar to that Mad Max wonder. Since I cannot afford one of those KTM GT-R's at about $300k, I pulled the trigger this week on a limited edition ebike that I have been Jonesing for since I first laid eyes on the ad back in 2019. It is an Electra (Partially owned by Trek) Cafe Moto Go! Class 3 ebike (28mph pedal assist) which is now legal for our rails to trails here in Florida. Ain't it a beauty with a Bosch drive train and genuine Brooks B17 leather saddle and tool bag. The gears are a Enviolo continuously variable rear hub drive instead of a derailleur that transmits power via a Gates belt instead of a chain. Super smooth cruiser to try and stay in shape. Unfortunately, at a hefty 61 pounds, it does not follow Chapman's edict of making things lighter with the hydroformed "tank" and uses the fat tires as its suspension.