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From my perspective, once I had sent them my money, the whole experience went from bad to worse. Communication was flaky, they had 4 weeks to get a blower ready to ship to me while I was in the US on holiday (idea was to save me carriage and hopefully some of the duty, as I intended using my personal allowance to bring it back in to the UK). They didn't manage it. It arrived at my holiday address about a week after I came back home. I then had to pay another $150 or $200 in carriage and I got caught for duty as well....and when it eventually arrived it was leaking oil out of the gearbox, the casing was dinged and there were defects (dings) on the rotors that had been hand-filed AFTER they had been plated.

The insides of the casing hadn't been plated - I was thinking it would be, the casing was fairly badly scored too. The reason for the leaking gearbox was obvious when I took it apart - it hadn't been properly cleaned during the "rebuild" - there were traces of two kinds of sealant on the joint faces. The fact I was able to clean it and reassemble it without problems or subsequent leaks suggests to me that they simply didn't care what they sent me.

I was offered a 'repair' but only if I shipped it back at my cost. I wasn't preprared to take the risk or waste any more money on it as I have zero faith in them.


...so no, not a happy punter!

...and here's me thinking I was the only one surrounded by dickhead trades people...not that I feel any better for it. However you have my empathy if that helps.

Me too - I take no pleasure in knowing other people are suffering too!

I've decided to sell the car now. It never gets used and I don't enjoy driving it any more so time to give it a new home.

I have no illusions about how hard finding the right buyer is going to be.....

Selling the Stratos??? It's unfortunate that you never got to enjoy it. Maybe put in a 24V 3.0 engine and just drive it like that?

It's sorted as it is now, it just doesn't make as much power as I'd hoped. Putting a 24V in it wouldn't do much really, few more horses perhaps, depending on engien spec, bit less torque, little bit less weight overall (not as much as you might think actually - those 4 cam heads are heavy!).

I just don't drive it any more is the problem. After all the time effort and money of the conversion, I took a breath and realised I don't like it any more. If I think long and hard about it, I actually find it hard to remember any particularly good times with it at all. One, maybe two trips - that's it.

I have practical issues around parking/access that further detract from the experience and I am in no position to do anything about those. I did consider extending the garage a bit to try and help, but the new neighbour is a total nightmare and I want to move house as soon as I can manage it, so anything spent on the current place is a waste as far as I see it.


Feel free to buy it off me and pop a 24V in it

I'll keep that in mind when my numbers come up. Until then, I'm afraid I won't have any more budget than for about a single tire on it.