After the Stoneleigh show... a Stratos
Discussion
After the Stoneleigh show in 2015 my thinking was....
SO.... I am getting a Lister Bell Stratos!! The Stratos was always the 1st WTF car I remember seeing when watching rallying on telly and I am actually really excited.
I have spoken to a few folk who know what they are talking about in terms of cars and kits, I spent ages getting lots of reassurance about the quality of the kit, on Thursday I went on an 800 mile round trip journey to have a 3hr visit at the Lister Bell workshop with Craig going over all the options and specs for my ideal car and will be putting my deposit down on Monday to secure my chassis number. Craig was fantastic at not only answering all my questions but also answering all the things that I hadn't even thought to ask about. A great "buying" experience. To be fair, he probably sold me on the car at the point during the test drive when we were airborne going down the road.
Unfortunately it is a 12 month wait for things to start moving and I am the most impatient guy on the planet and I SO wish I had taken this step back in 2015 but hey... I got there
Fortunately, I know exactly what I want at the end of the process and am 100% confident that it will be exactly what I wanted. Obviously I am not nailing it together myself but have made arrangements for that bit to be done by an expert. I think my part in the build process will be asking, "is it ready yet, is it ready yet" every few weeks.
Anyhow... the goal is a Group 4 wide body rally replica with the full painted Alitalia livery and race decals of car number 4 from the 1977 Tour de Corse. Engine will be a totally rebuilt and refreshed 3 litre Alfa Romeo V6 on Jenvey individual throttle bodies with an Emerald programmable ECU which I am told will allow me to have a couple of sensible maps for MOT and road use and a full-on pop/bang/crackle flame spitting rally mode for fun. Should be around 300bhp. It will be built LHD and will have the full Group 4 rally dashboard as per the original. No half measures
Anyhow.. no pics of the car but some pics of my 1:18th scale model of what it should (hopefully) exactly look like. Appreciate it might not be to everyones taste but if nothing else, it will stand out from the crowd (which may be good... or bad)
Wife thinks I am daft. Dogs think I am dafter. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle
renmure in 2015 said:
If I had a little corner of a garage spare then I think I would have a Stratos replica in it, especially a full rally-rep decaled one with all the lights. Hmmmm... wonder if I can move things around a wee bit 
Then with a bit of consistency my thinking after the 2016 show wasrenmure in 2016 said:
My main thoughts were that I was really impressed with the Lancia Stratos cars in the full rally replica livery (I love the OTT Rally spec
Roll on to the 2017 show and I spent a fair bit of time looking at the Lister Bell and Hawk cars again this year and also had a few hours being nosey while looking at the owners cars in the Stratos parking area. Fellow Ultima owners Pete and Mark were good enough to help me ask sensible(ish) questions over the weekend... like can I get in and out of it.... SO.... I am getting a Lister Bell Stratos!! The Stratos was always the 1st WTF car I remember seeing when watching rallying on telly and I am actually really excited.
I have spoken to a few folk who know what they are talking about in terms of cars and kits, I spent ages getting lots of reassurance about the quality of the kit, on Thursday I went on an 800 mile round trip journey to have a 3hr visit at the Lister Bell workshop with Craig going over all the options and specs for my ideal car and will be putting my deposit down on Monday to secure my chassis number. Craig was fantastic at not only answering all my questions but also answering all the things that I hadn't even thought to ask about. A great "buying" experience. To be fair, he probably sold me on the car at the point during the test drive when we were airborne going down the road.
Unfortunately it is a 12 month wait for things to start moving and I am the most impatient guy on the planet and I SO wish I had taken this step back in 2015 but hey... I got there
Fortunately, I know exactly what I want at the end of the process and am 100% confident that it will be exactly what I wanted. Obviously I am not nailing it together myself but have made arrangements for that bit to be done by an expert. I think my part in the build process will be asking, "is it ready yet, is it ready yet" every few weeks.
Anyhow... the goal is a Group 4 wide body rally replica with the full painted Alitalia livery and race decals of car number 4 from the 1977 Tour de Corse. Engine will be a totally rebuilt and refreshed 3 litre Alfa Romeo V6 on Jenvey individual throttle bodies with an Emerald programmable ECU which I am told will allow me to have a couple of sensible maps for MOT and road use and a full-on pop/bang/crackle flame spitting rally mode for fun. Should be around 300bhp. It will be built LHD and will have the full Group 4 rally dashboard as per the original. No half measures
Anyhow.. no pics of the car but some pics of my 1:18th scale model of what it should (hopefully) exactly look like. Appreciate it might not be to everyones taste but if nothing else, it will stand out from the crowd (which may be good... or bad)
Wife thinks I am daft. Dogs think I am dafter. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle
Edited by renmure on Sunday 14th May 00:21
Deposit paid and I am waiting (im)patiently in line
(ok, I am sure, but Mrs R might be reading this so around *cough* £50k *cough* ... but that is including ticking pretty much all the upgrade boxes like painted stripes, all the engine rebuilding and balancing, after market ecu and custom mapping, throttle bodies, big brakes, nitrons, competition radiator and other bits and custom exhaust plus lots of other bits that I can't remember) It can obviously be done considerably cheaper and still be a fantastic car tho.
tuffer said:
Love it, out of interest what sort of ball park figure for completed car?
Ummm... not quite sure yet. Infact, having come off the phone to Lister Bell and the gentleman building it when it is all ready, the plan is to source a rarer 3.2 litre Alfa V6 engine... just 'cause. (ok, I am sure, but Mrs R might be reading this so around *cough* £50k *cough* ... but that is including ticking pretty much all the upgrade boxes like painted stripes, all the engine rebuilding and balancing, after market ecu and custom mapping, throttle bodies, big brakes, nitrons, competition radiator and other bits and custom exhaust plus lots of other bits that I can't remember) It can obviously be done considerably cheaper and still be a fantastic car tho.
Hogging the Ultima forum (but that's allowed cause I have one) ... body fit and finish seemed great to me but I really am not an expert and I guess the cars on display at the show were chosen because they were the best or showed something to the best advantage. Like with the Ultima, I am sure the skill of the builder plays a big part in grading the good, the very good and the seriously very good.
Although I am not building it, I have spent a few geeky hours, days and weeks searching for, and reading, build threads and the like on the net and usually that's when folk hit problems and blind alleys with putting things together or where folk comment about things that could have been better or different or whatever. I wasn't specifically looking for problems, but having looked, I can't really find any which is obviously good.
Although I am not building it, I have spent a few geeky hours, days and weeks searching for, and reading, build threads and the like on the net and usually that's when folk hit problems and blind alleys with putting things together or where folk comment about things that could have been better or different or whatever. I wasn't specifically looking for problems, but having looked, I can't really find any which is obviously good.
.... Bump (err, if you're allowed to use that term)
Just an update for anyone who is remotely interested
15 months after paying my deposit my Stratos chassis got delivered to the builder earlier this week along with the first stage of the kit that should take me up to a rolling chassis. Whoop whoop!!
The engine, a 3.2 V6 Alfa Romeo Busso engine is currently in Cardiff being fully rebuilt. Whoop Whoop!!
I've pretty much finalised the details of the car in relation to colours, paint, decals, dash, wheels, exhaust, rally-spec lights etc, interior colours and engine bits... although it will start off being toned-down a bit to go through IVA. Nothing much has changed in my head from how I imagined I would want a car to look in 2015 and how the final car should look at the end of the process.
The end result should be a 1:1 replica of the 1:18th scale model in the pics which is car No.4 which finished 2nd in the 1977 WRC Tour De Corse.
I can't pretend I've enjoyed the process so far (and the build hasn't even started!!) but that's my fault and because I'm too much of a control-freak and have too many ocd tendencies to be comfortable just waiting for things to happen but I'm getting used to it. Listerbell have been fabulous and you feel a tangible passion about what they are doing which is pretty infectious so I've no doubts I'm going to end up with something fantastic. Mrs R thinks I'm a bit more excited than a grown up should be ... but that's no bad thing.
Anyhow, pic of chassis, pic of assorted bits of stuff and.... gratuitous pic of Ultima since it's the Ultima forum
Just an update for anyone who is remotely interested
15 months after paying my deposit my Stratos chassis got delivered to the builder earlier this week along with the first stage of the kit that should take me up to a rolling chassis. Whoop whoop!!
The engine, a 3.2 V6 Alfa Romeo Busso engine is currently in Cardiff being fully rebuilt. Whoop Whoop!!
I've pretty much finalised the details of the car in relation to colours, paint, decals, dash, wheels, exhaust, rally-spec lights etc, interior colours and engine bits... although it will start off being toned-down a bit to go through IVA. Nothing much has changed in my head from how I imagined I would want a car to look in 2015 and how the final car should look at the end of the process.
The end result should be a 1:1 replica of the 1:18th scale model in the pics which is car No.4 which finished 2nd in the 1977 WRC Tour De Corse.
I can't pretend I've enjoyed the process so far (and the build hasn't even started!!) but that's my fault and because I'm too much of a control-freak and have too many ocd tendencies to be comfortable just waiting for things to happen but I'm getting used to it. Listerbell have been fabulous and you feel a tangible passion about what they are doing which is pretty infectious so I've no doubts I'm going to end up with something fantastic. Mrs R thinks I'm a bit more excited than a grown up should be ... but that's no bad thing.
Anyhow, pic of chassis, pic of assorted bits of stuff and.... gratuitous pic of Ultima since it's the Ultima forum
Edited by renmure on Friday 10th August 22:36
Incase anyone is still awake at the back... it's still not an Ultima but...
This is all still coming together. IVA is next month,
Fuller info here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Gratuitous Ultima pic for attention
This is all still coming together. IVA is next month,
Fuller info here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Gratuitous Ultima pic for attention
TR3B said:
Damn you, now I want a Stratos. That's amazing. Congrats!
Compared to the Ultima, how was construction?
I'm the least technical bloke you could meet so the only thing I've been involved in is ticking boxes and choosing options rather than actually building any of it. I've been following a lot of build threads tho and it seems like there are very few (if any) requirements for builders to problem-solve issues so I guess that means the kit is comprehensive and goes together well.Compared to the Ultima, how was construction?
Gratuitous engine pics of STRs and GTRs
La La La La La.... head is in the sand .... La La La La La
I've not really added it up. 20% over maybe or 25% maybe. I'll do that at the end I guess when I bring the car home (hopefully) sometime before Christmas. Things evolved in the available spec over the period of time so changing from eg Jenvey ITBs to the bespoke Listerbell ITBs was more costly but a no brainer, as was the custom exhaust then the extra cost of having the Zircotec treatment then the option for having the interior trimming done by a specialist trimming company and a few other smaller "upgrades." The intention had always been to have the Alitalia stripes painted over the original gelcoat and I always thought the Listerbell price guide for that at just over £1500 was either very cheap or very good value. In the end having the full car painted multiplied that cost a fair bit but is a different level in terms of quality. I've spent quite a bit on the engine then having it rebuilt to as-new then deciding to go for more aggressive cams so probably now needing another rolling road mapping session so that extra expense is all on my head.
Being honest, the buoyant market for these cars means that the over budget aspect isn't such an issue*
I've not really added it up. 20% over maybe or 25% maybe. I'll do that at the end I guess when I bring the car home (hopefully) sometime before Christmas. Things evolved in the available spec over the period of time so changing from eg Jenvey ITBs to the bespoke Listerbell ITBs was more costly but a no brainer, as was the custom exhaust then the extra cost of having the Zircotec treatment then the option for having the interior trimming done by a specialist trimming company and a few other smaller "upgrades." The intention had always been to have the Alitalia stripes painted over the original gelcoat and I always thought the Listerbell price guide for that at just over £1500 was either very cheap or very good value. In the end having the full car painted multiplied that cost a fair bit but is a different level in terms of quality. I've spent quite a bit on the engine then having it rebuilt to as-new then deciding to go for more aggressive cams so probably now needing another rolling road mapping session so that extra expense is all on my head.
Being honest, the buoyant market for these cars means that the over budget aspect isn't such an issue*
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