Anaximander

The AXR Stalker has the rear axle moved up 5" putting the weight of the driver more over the rear wheels. It is also designed to accept 13" wide rear racing slicks on the back and 10" slicks on the front. I will be running Avons front and back likely with Keizer 3-piece lightweight aluminum wheels.

Happy to report that most of the fittings of the body panels have been completed on the initial construction.

Wow, Thanks Croc. I couldn't remember the name of that Queen song and some of the first stanza lyrics until you posted the BaT ad. "Fat-bottomed girls you make the rocking world go round". I am a bit surprised at some of the hate postings on the comments section on the BaT Diva auction suggesting that the sevenesque tent is too small for the Diva or even such dastardly cars as my Storkers. Thank goodness that my fellow se7enesque brothers and sisters don't exclude us other folks that don't own the exact car that Colin Chapman designed. I think about the 1962 Lotus 7 I almost bought in high school and cringe when I think about using it as a daily driver on the streets/freeways of Los Angeles where I grew up. My red TR4 was fun enough at the time and I still darn near drove it off a cliff with my girlfriend in the passenger seat racing an MGB (I was in the lead hehehe) and coming up on a stretch of road under construction and graveled on Tuna Canyon Road between the San Fernando Valley and the Pacific Ocean near Malibu. The car came to a rest with the right front tire freewheeling in thin air with the undercarriage preventing us from going over about a 200 foot cliff. That would have really dampened the end of my senior year in HS that was coming to a close about 3 weeks after this experience.

Mike, The rear axle is moved up 5 inches from the regular M-Spec and the scuttle area is compressed to allow for the size compression and there is more weight bias to the rear of the car. The rear tires and body are setup for 13" wide slicks. On this particular AXR, I have the dual valved coil-over shocks from Summit Racing (QA1) that allow for a lot of adjustabiity. Glen recently checked the corner weighting of his AXR, made some adjustment and took FTD at a 110 person autox event two weeks ago. Krista, his wife, came in second FTD (Glen beat her by a mere 0.018 of a second). Jason Minehart with his new carbon fiber APR GT-1000 wing and modified front end is getting amazing downforce capabilities that are allowing him to have increased traction. He is trying to beat Jeff Kiesel who has dominated the class for 8/9 years as the National Champion in SCCA E-Mod solo racing. Kiesel reportedly has a highly modified Sprite that has experienced continual refinements and Kiesel is reportedly an exceptionally fast driver. As in any class, these top contenders seem to pay attention to everything possible and are also concomitantly gifted with exceptional reflexes and data processing capabilities. There is a tremendous amount of data that APR provides about the downforce characteristics of thie Dual Element rear wing. They must have done a ton of wind tunnel testing or just extrapolated a lot of data from a known set of variables? The E-Mod class has changed their rules such that front and rear wings are now allowed and there are specific minimum weight criteria with driver in the car that must be met. Glen and I continue to move along and put two really long days into the build on this first week. He has other commitments that precluded further work until next week where we should be able to hit it pretty hard. We are in the assembly phase before complete tear-down and sending the chassis and body panels off to paint. The primered chassis will get two coats of hard coat paint and clear and we will start reconstructing as the fiberglass body panels get a final sanding and bright red color that my wife wants. Normally, all of the chassis parts are powder coated but I don't want to shag the chassis all over the State. I have a local painter that is willing to do all of his work at about half of what it normally costs and he is really good. After all, this is going to be a race car that I am going to beat on. No lights or street amenities whatsoever. Strictly designed for autocross events. I have the Classic R to run around the countryside with and am getting a tilt trailer next week and look forward to autocrossing that car to see how it performs? It is a fun beasty with the LS3/480 engine. BTW, Scott Minehart mentioned that the cost of the steel tubing for the chassis has gone up 300% in the past two years and I am sure that all of the other components have gone up a substantial amount. There is no telling how much it would cost to build a new Stalker from new parts? I think that the model for kit builders is disintegrating in this current environment for them to be viable unless folks that want a custom build work with the builder much like a home builder who is dealing with constantly inflating prices. I think that is why we are seeing existing kits continue to rise rather precipitously. Transportation costs are also skyrocketing as we know.

@vipergeek, I cannot take credit for the instrument layout or the boot cover. That was done at the factory. The white gel coat AXR will be a red car when completed and was designed by Stalker Cars to be a wicked autocross attack car. AXR's currently occupy most of the top spots except #1 in E Modified SCCA autox national events. This particular AXR has a LS1 aluminum engine with a GForce 5-speed trans and an 8-bolt Ford diff with 3.73 gears. The #1 SCCA driver in the country uses a highly modified Austin Healy Sprite, is a superb driver, and has won I think about 8 national championships. The AXR of Jason Minehart is gunning for the #1 spot and is chasing the leader very adroitly. Cueball1, I had an XL and for autocross, it was just too long and wide and is really a potent road course weapon. I have always loved the looks of the original Lotus 7's and almost bought one in Southern California 55 years ago when I was in high school. My father pointed out that driving around SoCal streets with a "go-cart" on wheels as primary transportation did not seem like a smart move so I bypassed the opportunity.

Wowser, building a car is not for sissies. I hope that my hands get work-hardened as time goes on. Today, we fitted/trimmed the scuttle and got the hood about 70% fitted. The race tires in the foreground are the size and brand that will be going on the back of the AXR.

@vipergeek, Very glad to hear that you are situated so close to an adult candy shoppe. I have included a couple of pics of my M-Spec Classic R with 15" Ultra Shield 20 degree tilt aluminum buckets. You can note in the second pick that because I used fixed seat positions not on rails that I built in a back brace attached to the rear cockpit wall in the case of a rear-ender. BTW, I like the marque well enough that I am in the process of participating in the build of a Stalker AXR kit with Kirkey aluminum race buckets that I will use for autocross eclusively since the rear wheels are moved 5" up underneath the driver and it will have 13" wide rear slicks on the back and 10" slicks on the front.

Not a great deal of progress today. Unbolted the scuttle to see how the electric power assist steering was installed and looking at how the pedals were fitted to the car. I think I also may have lined up a single person shop that will be willing to apply paint to the primer'd chassis and also sand and paint the fiberglass components after I get them fitted in the next week or so. Also completely reviewed the build instructions on the installation of the front and rear suspension components. Tomorrow, I will be reading up on how to fit and secure the fiberglass body work.

@vipergeek I watched the termination of the BAT auction and was amazed at the terrific auction that won you this M-Spec Stalker. I didn't realize that you had been in contact with the original builder and had done your due diligence on the provenance of this car. I suspect that the seller (dealer) capitulated on the reserve and realized that our merry band of sevenesque lovers are a breed unto ourselves and good on him for getting it into the hands of someone who will greatly appreciate it. Good show and we cannot wait to hear about the escapades of this unique build with the 2.3L Turbo EcoBoost powerplant. Will be very interested to see how it works out in terms of corner weighting? BTW, I was the poster on the auction advocating for taller race seats to keep that 11lb football, we call a head, in proper alignment with the rest of your body.

Well, the journey to a complete car is progressing.

Croc and Jeff, I do not live that far from you Jeff but I do not know of a good auto electrician in the area. If your Caterham has an OBDII port, I would first head over to a local AutoZone and have them put their OBD reader on your OBD2 port to see if it is throwing any fault codes that are remaining in the system? That may let you know if you have a bad sensor like an O2 going bad. I would also just pull the cover off the fuse box(s) and check that all of your fuses are in securely and there are no blown fuses. That at least would eliminate two issues without first finding a good automotive electrical tech. I have put in a call to a neighbor that has his more exotic cars worked on by a local mechanic. I will get the fellow's name and forward it to you Jeff when I get it. My neighbor is not the quickest to respond but I will let you know when I know.

That would be one quick car. I remember you advertising this now. That engine sits fairly high through the hood. Have you had an opportunity to make a Youtube video of it driving around? I think people would get a better understanding of how the build came about and why you decided to use the Ecoboost.

Croc you old salt, kdm123 can PM me with his phone number and I will give him a call. Astro Bob However, I really need to change my handle because after 20 years of hardcore astronomical pursuits, I decided that staying up late into the night or all night to dawn was behind me. I was fortunate to have seen over 3000 deep space objects with my eyeballs. I would like to change my handle to Anaximander, a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher.

Merry Christmas Bruce and Happy New Year!

Bruce, I went over to BAT and looked at the Deronda which I was totally unfamiliar with. It is just my opinion, but I think your Superlight R400 is sooooo much more attractive. The Deronda is sort of appealing from the front but looks fugly to me from the rear. Things have a way of working out an you still retain a very fast car that has parts support. It would seem to be a nightmare to have to source some of the body parts if they got pranged on the Deronda. Your R400 will get you in all the trouble you can handle BTW, what is the source/name of that third stop light that is on your roll cage?

John, When I first saw the build, I thought, wow, like some mechanical engineers I have known, they go way beyond thinking things through to the point of incredible minutia. I think there is some of that in this Stalker build but I don't think I have ever seen a more thought out Stalker than the one we are talking about. My fourth Stalker which was an XL was assembled by a former professional experimental aircraft builder and that Stalker was opined by Scott Minehart, the manufacturer of Stalker cars, to be one of the best builds he had ever seen. He advised that he could not have taken all of the extra time necessary to add the little touches done to the car or he would have lost his butt on a similar build due excess labor involved to get it to that level. Most likely, many of his customers would not have wanted to pay all of the additional labor costs involved to take a car out to the "enth" degree. As Lightguy had mentioned, buying a complete kit would be a whole lot easier than all of the thinking that went into this M-Spec build. Due to my own lack of engineering skills and complex parts modification and fitment, I am glad that I did not have to go through the enormous tasks undertaken to make this one-off car that our thread is discussing. As I continue to read the story of the build, I continue to be amazed at the plethora of decisions that had to be made to fit and adapt that BMW engine/transmission into the kit he had purchased from Stalker Cars. Bob

I think the GM engineer is a very smart guy that built a one-of-a-kind Stalker. However, I LOVE the LS3 series of engines for their power and relative lightness. They fit beautifully in this M-Spec Classic R.

Jason Minehart placed Second at Nationals in the E Modified class with a Stalker AXR. Scott Minehart, his younger brother and the designer, builder and owner of Stalker cars placed Fourth in E-Mod in his other brother's K-20 Supercharged Stalker that Scott helped him build.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Rahul, I guess I am developing Covid brain. It just seems like yesterday that I read the fun thread you started of bringing home the Stalker. I guess this last 18 months has been sort of a wash in terms of adventures. Sounds like you had some fun with the Stalker which is all that one could ask for. Seems to be getting great play on BAT and I am glad for you. Good luck with your next project.