ListerBell Stratos

[renmure]

birky said:

I was cycling between Muirhead and Newtyle last friday when you went past, looked and sounded great

Thanks, I sort of live in the middle of there. I’d have been heading to the cars ‘n’ coffee meet at Glamis last Friday. It finished at about 9pm. That’s the first time I’ve driven it in the dark

[renmure]

T5GRF said:

Absolutely stunning - very jealous!

Thanks.

I've been washing it and polishing it more than driving it recently but aim to do better next year.

T5GRF said:

Last time I spoke to LB was circa 2016, lead times then were I think around 9 months. Do we know what kind of wait there is now for either a chassis and kit or for a “turnkey car”?

I know for certain that the lead times for both LB and Hawk are currently very long. Hawk might still be taking orders for kits but were quoting 2 years plus for delivery. The order book for LB is currently closed and they are operating using a pre-order list system where you put your name down and wait for your name to come up and to then pay a deposit.

I think the only way to jump the queue is to buy a 2nd hand car. Obviously that's easier to say than to do as the cars come up for sale very infrequently. Additionally the economics of supply and demand mean that there are no bargains to be had in relation to the prices of 2nd hand cars. You are effectively paying in the same ballpark that you would be for your own turnkey car but saving the 4 or so years time before you get it. Flip side of the economics is that is that your money is in a fairly safe place I guess.

There's a fantastic spec as-new 2023 Alfa engined LHD GP4 LB for sale here
https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1635465



And a very low mileage 2022 Lotus Exige Supercharged V6 LB for sale here:
https://www.carandclassic.com/l/C1628917

Edited by renmure on Wednesday 1st November 14:25

[renmure]

GTRene said:

both are lovely, bot have some plus points, which I would choose? hm, I love the V6 supercharged idea, also like that sort bodywork, the RHD not so, price looks ok, say that yellow one if it was LHD and offered in the Netherlands on Dutch plates (RDW and so on) it would be very interesting.

I think you can almost disregard the purchase price. It is what it is and can be taken as simply the entry cost to ownership at the moment. Once you've got the car then, within reason, anything is possible. Even converting from RHD to LHD and vice versa. A change of colour is a simple paint job. Similarly a change of wheels or conversion to a more rally orientated look is a simple change of body clams or dash style. Obviously there's a bit of work to it but I doubt there's anything that hasn't been done. Clearly, choosing the engine you want to end up with is a good place to start tho.

[renmure]

pingu393 said:

T5GRF said:

Looks like the current lead time is 5 years - fully completed cars only they’re not supplying kits to home builders. The estimated 5 year wait is until the point they begin building - add another year for the car to be completed.

Based on those lead times for me that would be one very special 60th birthday present to myself….

God, to own a business like that. Six years of guaranteed turnover, with a guaranteed profit.

I'd double the cost so maybe increase the profit which might half the waiting time... just to make everyone happy

[renmure]

DJHay said:

renmure said:

There's a fantastic spec as-new 2023 Alfa engined LHD GP4 LB for sale here
https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1635465

That one looks nice. I prefer the look of the more rally orientated cars and color schemes but I do like that a lot.

Is there much difference between the finished look of the cars between the home built cars and the manufacturer built cars or is the kit so good that they all end up very similar?

Photo for fun..



I've really only paid close attention to the finish of LB factory built cars. They were what I saw anytime I went down to see my car being built over the years. I'd put the fit, finish and build quality of my car up against any Elise or Exige.

The only other times I've been around lots of owner-built cars has been at the larger shows and yeah, not surprisingly there's obviously a range in the quality of the finished cars but I think you'd need to know what you were looking at to recognise a lot of the differences.

[renmure]

P5BNij said:

I sat in the yellow Stratos at the NEC show last year, it’s a lovely car and looked beautifully made.

Agreed. I’ve seen it a few times at LB as it was being built and copied the idea of contrast stitching for the seats and other interior trim parts from seeing how good it looked in that car.

[renmure]

Watchthis said:

I'm surprised no one's mentioned the retropower stratos thats up for sale

I’ve not been looking at the classifieds so haven’t noticed.
Where is that advertised?

[renmure]

T5GRF said:

I’ve added my name to their “interested in ordering” list, it should give me plenty of time to save up…

Fantastic!!

I doubt you will be disappointed.

You might already know but there’s some great content on the Stratos Enthusiasts Club forum along with a lot of build-threads and pretty much every combination of spec and colors you could think of.