Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

Clive (who also took the pictures here of me in the various cars I was/am seriously considering) and I had a pretty decent road trip last, leaving Toronto at four (big thanks to Angela for helping me get last-minute business cards, and the same thanks but for PoHT shirts to Ryan) and arriving just before 1AM here in Carlisle. I think together we took about five hundred photos which will eventually make it to my kit car site (and some for Fishing Fury also — including an old Amphicar which is worth checking out, and hilariously, a UK kit called the Fisher Fury).

Anyway, above is me in a really incredible R.C.R. Ferrari P-4 — minus driveline this car sells for about $40k. On the right (the click-zoom pics above right), the black car is the new Factory Five GTM supercar, which sells minus parts from a Corvette donor call for a shocking sub-$20k — I'm much more into the car having seen it now in person! But the car (or one very much like it) that I'm most seriously considering is the Lotus 7-esque yellow Stalker V6 because of it's blistering performance.

As you know, my now-ex wife (and still great friend, general accomplice, and business partner, so don't read this as some bitchy “I'm getting a better car” post) Rachel drives and races a customized Lotus Elise — and ironically is also at a car show today (we met first because of our mutual interest in sportscars, not because of BME) — which is a great car, but can't even come close to comparing to the handling and speed of the various Sevens out there (yeah, sure, it's prettier, I know, but she's prettier than I am to, so what of it?). For comparison, they have similar top speeds (around 150mph), but the Stalker will turn at 1.47g (one of the hardest cornering cars in history) whereas the Elise which also has great handling, is only at about 1g. The Elise does 0-60 in about five seconds (Rachel's may be slightly faster though), but the Stalker can do it in 3.6 seconds in stock form, with customized versions hitting 60mph in under three seconds!

Best part? The Stalker costs $9k (to be clear: nine thousand dollars), and can be finished completely for about $20k (and this is fairly typical pricing for this class of vehicle)! I don't know if I'm still that much of a nutcase driver in my old age, but if I wanted to have the ultimate in performance, I think this is the way I'd go. While there are cars that have a higher top-speed, there is pretty much nothing (and perhaps literally nothing) on the road that can both out-accelerate and out-handle it. Seriously, show me another production car that'll turn reliably and consistently at 1.47g (when Road and Track tested this car I think it had about 15,000 miles on it already).

Or maybe this is more to your liking:

It was this super cool little motorized cooler that sells for $350 and up… One of the funnier things I saw all day. I've tossed some other pictures up on Price Of His Toys and will continue doing so over the next week (and Clive posted some to Turn Down The Suck as well). It was also very nice getting to meet people I've talked to online for the last decade, and lots of new people as well.

Anyway, I guess we're figuring out supper soon, and then tomorrow it's off to NYC which I'm also looking forward to. We won't make the convention unfortunately, but I hope to see a few friends, and maybe pick up another rider for the drive back as well. I'll be on and offline a bit tonight, but other than that, I probably won't be back online until tomorrow afternoon at the hotel.