ListerBell Stratos
Discussion
- I guess that you are not superstitious
456mgt said:
MrBig said:
Can I ask what those rear tyres are?
They look the same as mine: Toyo Proxes R1R 275/40ZR17 98WHow are you enjoying your car? Any plans for “upgrades” or is it still in the sweet spot?
Don1 said:
Excellent car, excellent choices on arches etc. I must echo the appreciation for the basic colours without the rest of the stickers - but enjoy in good health.
I got a look at the decals today. I've always had the full rally-rep look in mind for the car so I think it looks quite naked and a wee bit plain at the front without the decals and I think that would be exaggerated even more once the quad-pod and additional lights are fitted. There's probably a sensible half-way house with the decals but I'm not really intending to start being sensible just yet
Doofus said:
I see you have a driver & co-driver decal there.
I always liked what Julian Balme did with his Carrera Panamericana Lincoln Cosmopolitan. The driver decal on that said "Julio Balmez". If I could Italianise my name (and if I had a Stratos in build), I'd be considering that.
My wife suggested "Jim & Ann" on the windscreen sun strip.I always liked what Julian Balme did with his Carrera Panamericana Lincoln Cosmopolitan. The driver decal on that said "Julio Balmez". If I could Italianise my name (and if I had a Stratos in build), I'd be considering that.
I assume she doesn't fancy being in the car much since her name isn't Ann.
Bright Halo said:
I can’t believe it was the 5th May 2019 when I stood next to your car at the Stoneleigh kit car show. Where did all that time go?
Welcome to my world.I can’t believe it was after the Stoneleigh kit car show in May 2017 that I paid my deposit. Where did all that time go?
456mgt said:
renmure said:
My wife suggested "Jim & Ann" on the windscreen sun strip.
I assume she doesn't fancy being in the car much since her name isn't Ann.
I assume she doesn't fancy being in the car much since her name isn't Ann.
Brilliant! To be fair, she'll need a sense of humour getting in and out of it. 
I had to get in and out of it a couple of times at the IVA station to push the brakes. Don't think I managed it without at least one hand and a knee on the deck. That lowered floor pan has a lot to answer for. Then, there I was, sitting in there feeling like a stuffed olive, acutely aware that I was sitting on the "wrong" side of the car, that the bottom of the windscreen seemed awfully far away from me, that the airbox would mean there was no rear visibility through the interior mirror and that I'd no idea where the front of the car was. At that point I'd probably have settled for an, "Ann & Ann" windscreen sticker
CanAm said:
The Americans make LHD GT40 replicas, so why can't we have a RHD Stratos?
Oh you can get RHD ones. Infact, I would probably guess (but happy to be corrected) that there are more RHD replicas out there than LHDs. The ListerBell STR's are designed from the outset to be built either way and I know there have been cars back at their workshops being converted one way or the other.All the 500(ish) originals were LHD tho, so in terms of "is it" / "isn't it" a replica it's a good give away.
Edited by renmure on Friday 20th November 19:52
So, the IVA test last month on Friday 13th.
The car sailed through the test. There was a slight hiccup when it came to the brake test at the very end so there will be the formality of quickly redoing that part of the test next week but then I guess at that point the end is in sight and all the paperwork to get it registered can be done and the post-IVA mods can be done.
I'm glad I went to the IVA test. As a non-techie sort of bloke it was interesting to see.
The car sailed through the test. There was a slight hiccup when it came to the brake test at the very end so there will be the formality of quickly redoing that part of the test next week but then I guess at that point the end is in sight and all the paperwork to get it registered can be done and the post-IVA mods can be done.
I'm glad I went to the IVA test. As a non-techie sort of bloke it was interesting to see.
Don't think there's any great secrecy about it to be honest. It was all quite relaxed and the examiner was as friendly and helpful as I guess he was permitted to be. The site is also a DVLA Driving Test Centre so, outwith these odd covid times, I guess would be fairly busy with folk anyhow.
mattdavies said:
Glad it went well. The car is looking great
Out of interest what was the hiccup with the brake test ?
Thanks.Out of interest what was the hiccup with the brake test ?
My understanding is that, on the IVA rollers, the efficiency of the rear brakes was measured as being out of balance with the fronts so that, for a given braking force then theoretically the rears would lock before the fronts. It's most likely that the previous ecu mapping sessions on the rolling road would have made a great job of bedding in the rear brakes where as the fronts would only have been used lightly on the speedo calibration runs and, relative to the rears, not bedded in so less efficient in comparison. Because the IVA equipment looks at the comparisons between the front and back, rather than what they are doing in practice, and gives a digital readout of that then it can be a case of "computer says no" ... which is obviously fine in itself and not a big issue to resolve.
Edited by renmure on Friday 27th November 13:32
Hoonigan said:
That’s annoyingly small thing to fail on but ultimately a very important thing too so obviously needs to be right.
Car is looking stunning, you must be so excited
How long do you need to wait for a retest? Do you have to pay or do LB pay for the retest?
Yeah, it was a bit frustrating but not really, if you get my meaning. Only 3 weeks from test to retest and it's only the bit that fails, in this case the brakes, that gets retested so it should be a formality (famous last words eh) Car is looking stunning, you must be so excited
How long do you need to wait for a retest? Do you have to pay or do LB pay for the retest?
I don't think there is a retest fee... in which case I guess I'll pay it
456mgt said:
Spectacular! Delighted for you that it turned out so beautifully. The timing's not that bad either since you'll probably have to work through a snag list. Get that out of the way while the winter does it's thing, ready for spring.
Thanks. It's certainly getting exciting again. At the moment the car is back at the paintshop to get properly flattened and polished and preped before the decals go on. I know it's a personal thing, but that will be a biggie for me and when it will look like "my" car.
After the IVA box gets ticked then I guess the huge IVA exhaust can be swapped over for my flame spitting GP4 one, the full GP4 dash can be fitted and the quad-pod with the lower light pods can go on.
For a bit of bling I'm having a fire extinguisher fitted in the passenger (I want to say navigator lol) footwell area and a Brantz gps rally timer / meter fitted on the same side of the dash.
There are some more aggressive high-lift cams to be fitted then I think it's sensible to go back to the original tuner and rolling-road to get it mapped for them.
456mgt said:
renmure said:
There are some more aggressive high-lift cams to be fitted then I think it's sensible to go back to the original tuner and rolling-road to get it mapped for them.
Any way you can test a car with high lift cams before you fit and retune? Reason I ask is that an aggressive cam is great when the engine is never at less that 4000rpm but can be an absolute arse when you're stopped at lights or trundling though a sleepy village. I had an aggressive cam on the Caterham and it was lumpy as hell at idle and I had to keep dipping the clutch and blipping the throttle to smooth it out when at low speeds- from the outside, it looks like you're being a dick. Similar finding with my GTE, which has a lot of GTO racing bits in the engine and originally had high lift GTO cams; it was virtually undriveable at slow speeds.Hand on heart, a standard 3.0 busso is already pretty hardcore in this car!
My intention was always to have the same sort of race-car-like lumpy idle that I've loved in a previous Caterham Superlight and S1 Exige with the VHPD K-series without compromising the driveability to a ridiculous extent or looking too much like a dick (I can probably cope looking slightly like a dick tho. I live out in the countryside and everyone knows everyone so I'd probably need a good disguise to get away with it totally)
There's a couple of other STR's out there with a similar set-up running with reprofiled cams so at least I know I'm not trailblazing too much and if I regret it then I can revert back to standard in the future whereas if I didn't do it now then I doubt I'd ever feel the need to do in the future.
Hoonigan said:
DJHay said:
Is the quad pod light unit a permanent fitting to the front of the car once it's fitted or can you easily remove it if you decide to drive during the day?
Why would you ever want to remove it... I know that many of the other owners who have less in-your-face rally cars have put some thought into mounting the quad pod in a way that makes it easy to remove and hide the mounting points and have hidden the electrical connections to the light units through a removable nose badge.
At the moment I don't envisage running without it.
V5 will show Listerbell STR for my car. The company are now known as LB Specialist Cars rather than Listerbell but my chassis was produced before that change and cars that were in the making retain the heritage name
Each STR registered in the UK will need its own IVA (Individual Vehicle Approval) test. I doubt there are 2 identical cars out there, never mind 10
I don't know how many they can / do each year. The waiting time for an STR is 3 years and the order book is closed at the moment so I guess the answer is, not enough.
Each STR registered in the UK will need its own IVA (Individual Vehicle Approval) test. I doubt there are 2 identical cars out there, never mind 10
I don't know how many they can / do each year. The waiting time for an STR is 3 years and the order book is closed at the moment so I guess the answer is, not enough.
Edited by renmure on Saturday 28th November 17:16
DJHay said:
200Plus Club said:
patience needs to be a virtue unfortunately.
I've obviously got less patience than everyone else so has the IVA test been concluded and what stage are things at now?
In other words... no news.
Unfortunately the IVA brake test was cancelled on the morning of the test and bumped forward to the start of January. Not the end of the world, although it might have felt like it when I heard, but at least I get to practice being even more patient over Christmas. Ho ho ho.
Probably the last update of the year..
That's the car finished at the paint shop after final polishing and detailing and heading back to the ListerBell workshop. I still think it looks really naked without the lights and race decals. Covid permitting, the final tick-box IVA brake test will be on 4th Jan and the decals may or may not be fitted before then. Anyhow, looking back it feels like a year of progress.
That's the car finished at the paint shop after final polishing and detailing and heading back to the ListerBell workshop. I still think it looks really naked without the lights and race decals. Covid permitting, the final tick-box IVA brake test will be on 4th Jan and the decals may or may not be fitted before then. Anyhow, looking back it feels like a year of progress.
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