Stalker AXR Build

[Anaximander]

Still working on it.

Edited September 26, 2022 by Anaximander

[Anaximander]

Had an almost out of box failure of my oil pressure sensor that will be getting replaced along with my axle c-clips. Hopefully, the Storker will be ready for the cones this coming month! This car has been desperately trying to teach me PATIENCE! I don't know if it is accomplishing all, but some of that task.

Edited August 28, 2022 by Anaximander

[Anaximander]

The car is now ready to race. 

 

Edited September 26, 2022 by Anaximander

[panamericano]

Be sure to let us know how the cones go.  That baby is going to be a monster.  I pity anyone in your class.

[Anaximander]

 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2022 by Anaximander

[Anaximander]

On 9/1/2022 at 5:49 PM, panamericano said:

Be sure to let us know how the cones go.  That baby is going to be a monster.  I pity anyone in your class.

Panamericano and USA 7's brethren, I am VERY happy to report that after Glen Minehart and I fixed the leaking rear end passenger half shaft leak, I successfully ran 6 runs at an autocross at Florida International Rally and Motorsports Park (F.I.R.M.) yesterday and the Stalker AXR performed spectacularly. No leaks and after the first run, my times kept decreasing my 2-3 seconds each run, such that I ended up placing 47th (raw time) out of 120 participants. Until the AXR that Glen and Scott Minehart helped me build, the 2014 Caterham 300r with 400r specs was the most wired into my brain car that I had ever owned/driven. Well, with Avon A11 compound slicks (10" and 13" wide respectively) on the Stalker AXR that weighs a 1625 pounds wet, the car behaved like a Hoover vacuum cleaner on the track and steering through slaloms and especially even the tight ones was a breeze. With the electric power assist steering, superb Coleman racing ratio steering rack and the Stalker AXR suspension, the car was the most wired into my brain that I have ever driven. I hope the weather back at the F.I.R.M. is as good as it was yesterday for an upcoming event next weekend. Hopefully, I will better understand the throttle, brakes, steering and suspension as I go out an try to perform even better at this next event. It was a long journey to yesterday, but I feel sort of exonerated that I took on what for me was a pretty complex task of completing a Stalker kit and came out at the end having a ball with the final product.

Edited March 26, 2023 by Anaximander

[Anaximander]

Edited March 26, 2023 by Anaximander

[panamericano]

Congrats.  And a great bumper sticker!

[Anaximander]

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.

Edited July 23, 2023 by Anaximander

[Anaximander]

 

 

I am cranking up the wattage on my ebike to a 1 gigawatt motor and decided I needed better tires for traction. Just need to figure out how to mount them on the spoked wheels? The rumor that Goodyear was buying Cooper Tires and reportedly shuttering Avon is told in the sticker that came on my Avons. There are also rumors that someone else may buy the Avon brand from Goodyear and continue to produce race tires. Supposedly, Goodyear has notified Avon Tyres in the UK that they will be discontinuing production at the end of this year. I hope this is not the case because I really like they way they work on my Stalker AXR.

 

Edited August 27, 2023 by Anaximander

[Croc]

 

Yes production is ceasing for Avon UK tires.  However, much of the Avon range is also produced in Serbia plus another Eastern European country (I think it was Romania or Bulgaria?).  There are vague rumors that the UK production equipment will be relocated to the USA to kick off production here.  I am not expecting the tires we use will be discontinued or cease to become available.  There may be a short term supply issue while they sort themselves out.