kennyrayandersen

So I'm slow... OK, this is where I'm at. I bought a Buckland B3 which is being manufactured again in the UK by a place called Penguin Speed shop. Since the 1.3s are rare, and the 1.6 do have some support, I've opted for the Kent 1.6. The engine I bought was a later model 831C6015B34 - Service block - South African casting as mentioned by TheDingo8MyBaby. The T-9 is evidently too big to fit, so I'm going with a 4-speed 'Rocket' type transmission. Unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), nothing else but the Kent engine will fit! I was hoping to use that new turbo 1 liter Ford (Ecoboost) but it is 6 inched too tall!! Hopefully it will be boxed up and shipped within the next couple months and I hope to get cracking on it later in the year or the first part of next year. Thanks for the tips and info -- it was appreciated! Even though it's not a 7, I think it safe to say it's at least in the same spirit!! Cheers!

I shipped 2 cars open -- a 2004 smart fortwo, and a '63 FIAT 500 -- neither worth shipping closed IMO (I got a thing for microcars). I also bought a '86 944 Turbo, but I flew out to KY and picked it up and drove it home... not sure that would work in this case.

16 hours from TX...:willy_nilly: Wonder what it would run to ship enclosed? I've only ever shipped open, but this one is a bit too sweet for that. Man it's tempting...

some nice looking wheels, thanks. Looking for the ones posted, I also saw some ETs which were decent-looking. Anybody using Kodiaks? Not too much more and they seem pretty lightweight?

That 5X120.7 bolt pattern seems like the options on wheels aren't as 'good' as some of the other spacings (guess that's what happens when you have a truck donor! LOL). Anybody with a stalker know what the options are? Most of the wheels seem like they are running around 16-17 Lb for a 15X7 wheel, which seems kind of high. Anyway, Seems like the wheel options are pretty limited. I'm thinking could you get custom driller rotors with whatever bolt pattern, or are there some light-weight good looking wheels that I've missed? Also, if you have a higher HP LS motor, say 400 HP, are the 205-50-15 enough? Seems like you'd want a little more rubber on the road. I think the 4X4 rear end is wider so you could run a larger neg offset, but that doesn't help out the front. It's be nice to keep them both the same. I would prefer not to run 8 Lbs of adapters. Ideas?

I don't know... 1500 Lb and 400 HP (LS-3 Al block and heads) looks pretty tempting and it's not THAT heavy. LOL That's bone stock. With Birkins etc weighing in at 1350-1400 or so you aren't trading so much weight for the extra HP. I don't think one should rule out the V-8 just because it's got too many cylinders. One thing to take into account is fully loaded power-to-weight. Lest say you build a 1300 Lb 7 with a 200 HP Duratec (or whatever). Drop in 2, 200 lb guys (funner with a friend) you get 8.5 Lb/HP. With a 1500 Stalker (or whatever) with a 400 HP LS-3 you drop in an extra 400 Lb for passengers, you still get 4.8 Lb HP. In other words the extra passenger weight makes a bigger impact on a lower HP lower weight car. Now, admittedly, if you are spending big money to wring 300+ HP out of the Duratec, then, OK, but then you got a pretty high-strung setup. Don't get me wrong, I like both approaches, but it doesn't seem quite as awful as some make it sound.

Thanks for the feedback -- I had wondered if the height wouldn't be an issue, but it's hard to tell from pictures! The cost per performance certainly keeps the stalker in the 'hunt'.

nice find!

Agreed! -- life would be really cool if you had no financial limitations! What I learned from Econ 110: Man has insatiable wants and desires, but only a limited means to get them...

:smilielol5: Also there are some actual rumors that there is indeed a wide-body Birkin coming out. Of course everybody is drooling over the Busa-based V-8s, I'm quite certain I won't be able to scrape up the $30K... just for the engine!!!:drool:

or to one of the lower 48 states... :flag: (except New Jersey, or California)

as long as that's all you're high on:jester:

Yeah, no doubt, but as the car usually takes a V-6 anyway, and frankly 323 HP is really going to be enough for most folk, plus I saw some exhaust and intake mods that added around 25-30 more ponies, so I'm thinking it could well be the 'low-level' version:drool: Anyway, I'm not sure how much lighter it would be, but it would loose a bit of weight, gain some economy, and I'm pretty sure unless you spent a fair amount on an LS V-8 you won't get SO much more HP (it's there for sure, but it ain't free (speed costs, how fast do you want to go?)). I looked up the new Camaro and it weighs around 3500 pounds!!! I'm thinking the same engine in something that weighed 2000 Lb less should have adequate (LOL) acceleration. I just don't see myself needing more than 325-350 HP (I probably would never track it enough to get good enough to make that extra HP 'count'. Plus, there is something appealing about getting something that you could leave bone-stock (for reliability) and have it perform the way I think this one would. I think that's what's pretty appealing about the S2K (even though I know you couldn't kep your hand off that either!:rofl:). Anyway, it would seem a better [V-6] choice than a 1980s engine!

I kind of like the ones that are on there...

I'm not agin the LS[X], but wonder about the last gen V-6s that come in the Camaro from the LLT 302 HP to the 2012 323 HP LFX version which is another 20 Lb lighter -- seems like with the aluminum block they would be lighter than the V-8 and 323 HP is certainly nothing to shake a stick at. Same HP as the supercharged V-6, but NA and made to run on regular! Direct injection 11.3:1 on regular gas! It looks pretty good on paper! Is there a reason that engine wouldn't be a good candidate for the Stalker, like too tall, almost the same weight etc? Also, is the V-8 low enough profile that the hood bulge can be removed?

So, I'm thinking about another project similar to a 7 and I have some engine/transmission compatibility questions. Will the Fiesta 1.6 L bolt to a T-9 transmission? I think it is referred to as a Kent engine, but is it a cross-flow? The old cross flow/Kent? came in a 1.3 L and also a 1.6 L (and can be bored out to a 1.7 L I think). Are all of these engines compatible with the T-9? I think the Zee-tec replaced the cross-flow, right? or is it the same thing. As far as wight goes how light is the cross-flow compared to the Zee-tec or Duratec -- I think the Duratec is around 40 LB lighter than the Zee-tec? What about that newer motor I hear about from the UK called the Sigma? I think it is. It also sounds like a decent engine -- would it be compatible with any RWD transmissions? Sorry if I seem a bit confused -- it's because I am! I'm not necessarily looking for high output with this application, but light weight and something that revs easy, but it should be RWD [in the end].

It's not a problem if it's done right, but, like anything else, it can be done wrong... At best it was designed to be a track car (they decided this, apparently, after the first ones failed the UK structural inspections), and at worst there were some significant structural shortcomings that render it a bad choice for anything but the track, and frankly after doing some reading, I would think it wouldn't be so hot for that either. I'm an engineer, and work on aluminum and composite structures, so I know what it takes. Most folks that undertake this kind of thing don't. I suspect that the RH folk did the best to 'copy' something or other, but not understanding the underlying principals, they didn't connect all of the appropriate 'dots'. It's unfortunate for people who bought the kits. There are some people out there that have attempted to re-engineer the shortcomings -- I didn't evaluate all of those. ONe daeler in Australia sold 4 kits to people who signed wavers saying they wouldn't use them to build cars with! Seems like kind of a mess, and one I personally wouldn't want to get involved with unless 1) I were only going to race it 2) I was going to use a lighter bike engine, and 3) I read up on all of the fixes out there, and did an evaluation of what needed to be fixed. Sad times.

It makes a difference whether you are just shipping a box (which I believe you are) or shipping a car. For a box, you can use any shipper, for a ro/ro then someone who ships cars might be best.

AND no, roll bar, helmets, seat-belts... Poster children for crawling out of the gene-pool and drying off. After watching that, I seriously doubt the long-term viability of the species! Bring in the clowns :jester:

I used a place called firstbase, to do a ro/ro from Southampton to Houston. When I was checking, there really wasn't much differences in the quotes I got -- maybe $50 bucks or so -- it's VERY competitive -- especially with the economy still a bit in the crapper. Then I got someone stateside to handle the paperwork as I was out of the country.

Looks like it still didn't sell? I guess I would wonder about what suspension parts, geometry etc were used. The body etc looks pretty fine though. Would someone mind forwarding the pics to me?

Didn't they have a LOT of problems with the monocoque chassis? I thought I remember some 'bad' things and AFAIK they discontinued it.

Those look as good or better than most any of them posted! This is one area IMO, where 7s really trip. Most of the tail lights look really cheap and pretty much like warts LOL!

Really a nice rig – the nosecone alone is worth the asking price. Seriously the price doesn’t seem too bad – I hope the sale goes well.

If you were a little worried about it, you could bolt one more board to the top on either side parallel to the car, which would then put all of the bolts in double shear (since the tire is tending to spread the front and back boards away from each other, but either way it looks pretty robust (I do stress analysis for a living). The inboard/outboard boards (say that 3 times really fast) are in little bending as the reaction from the tire is right next to where the board is being supported; I’d get under it.