# Stalker MX-5

After watching Robert race autocross in his Porsche 924S in the summer of
2015, Karen started talking about maybe trying it herself.  In our usual 
style, this turned into a family-sized project.  

If you want to race, the first thing to do is buy a race car, right?  After
considering lots of options, the idea of getting Karen something in the
[Lotus Seven](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Seven) genre seemed like 
it would be a lot of fun.

After a lot of reading and research, we decided to try building one of the
kit cars from [Brunton Auto](http://stalkercars.com).  Specifically, we got
excited about the Stalker MX-5, which is a kit based upon the idea of using
a Mazda MX-5 Miata as a "donor car" to provide the drivetrain and many other
mechanical parts.  That plus a kit plus a bunch of time, and we could have
a modern build of something very much like a Lotus Seven... and we'd have 
huge fun building it, too!


# The Donor Car #

A funny thing happened along the way to having a donor car.  Bdale found a
pristine 1999 Miata for sale locally through Craigslist for what seemed like
a very fair price, and bought it to take apart.  When he got it home, Karen
asked if she could go take it for a spin... and when she came back from 
driving it, told Bdale in no uncertain terms that he could *not* take it apart
to use for the kit car build, because it fit her perfectly and she wanted to
keep it!  If we hadn't already put 50% down on the Stalker kit, it's entirely
possible we'd have just put the Miata in the garage as Karen's fun and 
autocross car and been done before we started... but... well...

Since this was just before our wedding anniversary, Bdale took a
deep breath, said "Happy Anniversary, love!", and went back to looking for a
donor car...  Fortunately, about 48 hours later a wrecked 1995 showed up in 
a Denver suburb
on Craigslist, with significant body damage but no damage to any of the parts
we cared about, and Bdale was able to acquire it for $500 cash plus about $100
in trailer rental and gas to drive up and retrieve it.  Perfect!  After taking
one look at it, Karen agreed that taking this one apart would be just fine.

## Fixing the Idle Problem ##

As received, the donor car ran and drove well enough to get itself on and off 
a car hauler trailer, but would not idle.  It seemed prudent to figure out
the problem and fix it *before* taking the car apart.

It didn't take long to discover that the small air hose that connects a nipple
low on the throttle body assembly with one in the main air plenum near the
right front corner of the vehicle was torn, allowing air to flow in downstream
of the MAF.  This made the car run lean, and prevented it from idling.  A
quick wrap with tape on one end and holding it in place on the other end
allowed the engine to start and idle completely happily.  Since a previous
owner installed an after-market air intake tube set and filter that didn't
fare well in the crash, and now that we know the engine runs just fine, we
can defer a decision about whether to just replace the torn hose or spend 
more on a tidier air intake setup when it's time to put the engine in the
kit car.