Thanks for all of your feedback! Yes it is a little difficult being several thousand miles away when looking for a vehicle. Normally you jump on a plane and go wherever but not these days. Maybe by next fall things will open up again.
I saw an original Stratos back in 1977 while visiting France and now that I am retired was hoping to find my dream car as it were. I owned a '79 X1/9 a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed driving it but it needed more power. I believe Hawk has delivered over 600 of their version so maybe one will come up sometime. Having not seen any of these various replicas, how does the quality compare between them? I have watched many of the Youtube videos on the LB's and the Hawk's but this is not nearly as informative as a hands-on visit to see the real thing. There is a local shop that builds race trucks for the Baja 1000 so I am not too concerned with converting it to LHD but I have size 11 shoes so the foot wheel space may be an issue. We are not allowed to import kitcars into Canada unless they are more than 15 years old which also limits the pool of eligible cars. And of course it must have been legally registered so having the correct engine number is essential.