Stratos Kit opinion.

[catswhiskers]

Well I suppose I should comment too. I built a Napiersport 'Corse' a few years back. The reason I chose that kit was, as has already been mentioned, because of the revised chassis geometry which gave much better handling characteristics. (or would if you were a capable enough driver to know the difference). Another reason was becuase of the ease of build without the need for special fabrication skills etc. It was, as the description says much more of a 'kit cat' in that most of the parts fitted together in a fairly straightforward way. A very rewarding build.
I'm now building a Hawk which is about 80% finished having just been painted. Without getting in too deeply, the Hawk is a much more challenging car to build. More is needed in the way of fabrication and manufacture of special parts to acheive the build. If you can use spanners, a welder and have access to a small friendly engineering shop, then you shouldn't have any problems. If you don't, then you will spend more time and money sorting things.
So why am I building a Hawk this time I hear you ask? Simple. It was the first 'unfinished kit' that came up for sale when I was looking to buy. If it had been a corse, I would probably have bought that instead. I have enjoyed (sorry, I am enjoying) the build but it is more testing than the Corse.
If I'd had the funds available when I was looking this time round, I would have definitely ordered a Lister Bell. I've known Craig for a number of years and his knowledge of Stratos kits is probably unsurpassed having been involved with CAE in the past. He has designed and developed what will become the new benchmark in Stratos kits in the future (in my opinion anyway). Tha fact that nobody has driven one yet would not have put me off.
Finally, I don't think you can compare any of the available kits on price. No matter how much the kit costs, by the time you have bought, made, scrounged all the parts and have a finished car, you won't know where all the money went. When I built my Corse, it cost me £22,000 and that was buying almost everything new. I'm fairly sure that wouldn't be possible today and it wouldn't surprise me or, I suspect, many others here if the costs pass £30,000. It all depends on what you want.
I'ts well established that the Hawk is the 'faithful replica' whereas the Corse and the Lister Bell are 'evolutions' of the theme.
At the end of the day, it's your money and your choice. Do it and enjoy the experience.

Mick
www.paramountrefinishing.co.uk

[turbonutter]

Well I suppose I should comment too. I built a Napiersport 'Corse' a few years back. The reason I chose that kit was, as has already been mentioned, because of the revised chassis geometry which gave much better handling characteristics. (or would if you were a capable enough driver to know the difference). Another reason was becuase of the ease of build without the need for special fabrication skills etc. It was, as the description says much more of a 'kit cat' in that most of the parts fitted together in a fairly straightforward way. A very rewarding build.
I'm now building a Hawk which is about 80% finished having just been painted. Without getting in too deeply, the Hawk is a much more challenging car to build. More is needed in the way of fabrication and manufacture of special parts to acheive the build. If you can use spanners, a welder and have access to a small friendly engineering shop, then you shouldn't have any problems. If you don't, then you will spend more time and money sorting things.
So why am I building a Hawk this time I hear you ask? Simple. It was the first 'unfinished kit' that came up for sale when I was looking to buy. If it had been a corse, I would probably have bought that instead. I have enjoyed (sorry, I am enjoying) the build but it is more testing than the Corse.
If I'd had the funds available when I was looking this time round, I would have definitely ordered a Lister Bell. I've known Craig for a number of years and his knowledge of Stratos kits is probably unsurpassed having been involved with CAE in the past. He has designed and developed what will become the new benchmark in Stratos kits in the future (in my opinion anyway). Tha fact that nobody has driven one yet would not have put me off.
Finally, I don't think you can compare any of the available kits on price. No matter how much the kit costs, by the time you have bought, made, scrounged all the parts and have a finished car, you won't know where all the money went. When I built my Corse, it cost me £22,000 and that was buying almost everything new. I'm fairly sure that wouldn't be possible today and it wouldn't surprise me or, I suspect, many others here if the costs pass £30,000. It all depends on what you want.
I'ts well established that the Hawk is the 'faithful replica' whereas the Corse and the Lister Bell are 'evolutions' of the theme.
At the end of the day, it's your money and your choice. Do it and enjoy the experience.

Mick
www.paramountrefinishing.co.uk

I think you have summed it up very well there Mick. I can concur on everything you say, bar the actual experience of building a Hawk.

Go and see the Makers, look at what they are offering, talk to some owners and make your choice.

If i was starting from scratch now I would build Lister Bell as for me that would be the best Option.

Cheers

[NoCorseChris]

I'll third that. Craig has a lot of experience in the kit field and a lack of a demonstrator wouldn't bother me either - I have no doubt that his car drives and handles superbly. When I visited Hawk many moons ago, Gerry didn't have a working one available to test and I had to rely on a nearby customer taking me for a spin.

TBH, choice of suspension components and setup can make such a massive difference, it's almost irrelevent really - you can make them behave any way you want pretty much.

If I was building now, it would be an LB for sure.

[tipo158]

So how close to completion is the Italian LB?? It looked pretty close that last time he posted. I know Craig has been very busy lately, so there should be a few more LBs out there soon.

[john]

The question of trying one before buying is always going to be a tricky one with any manufacturer.
You are going to have to prove you are very, very serious about parting with your cash and convincing the owner that you really can drive the thing before you get behind the wheel of something which not only represents a high monetary input, but also a high investment in time too.
In these litiginous times there is also the insurance aspect to consider. It's hard enough these days getting a courtesy car from the main dealers, let alone a high performance specialist car from a low volume manufacturer to try out.
Anyone who is serious about buying a Stratos Replica kit should know what they are looking at, and so I don't consider that it should put off a potential customer if he can't drive a current demonstrator.
You only have to look at Craig's components to know that the LB is a serious piece of kit, far, far in excess of anything which is or has been offered in the Stratos market up until now. And it looks authentic under the skin.
Enough people have already made that decision for themselves.

[Paul]

When it's built, a really cool option would be to rent the Ferrari powered Listerbell from: http://www.rentacarclassic.com/

and tie it in with a European vacation.

[ProtoTipo]

The first time I drove a Stratos (Hawk) replica was on the way home after I'd already bought it.
Knowing how it was going to drive, didn't seem to matter too much to me at the time. I wasn't disappointed though.

Regarding kits today, the LB kit that could sway me is the SWB Mondial subframe version.

[peteracs]

When it's built, a really cool option would be to rent the Ferrari powered Listerbell from: http://www.rentacarclassic.com/

and tie it in with a European vacation.

That sounds like a good idea, hope they are putting some good aircon in it.........

Peter

[Jeff]

I'm now building a Hawk which is about 80% finished having just been painted. Without getting in too deeply, the Hawk is a much more challenging car to build. More is needed in the way of fabrication and manufacture of special parts to acheive the build. If you can use spanners, a welder and have access to a small friendly engineering shop, then you shouldn't have any problems. If you don't, then you will spend more time and money sorting things.

Would just like to add that this is pretty much what I've found building my Hawk (about 50% done at the moment). While not actually impossible if you don't have all the necessary skills (I started with none of the skills ), it can be done but it'll take longer and probably involve some back tracking as you learn on the job.

Which is better really depeneds on why you want a Startos replica I suppose.