Upgrading from sudo 1.7.4p6 to 1.8.6p7 on OS X 10.7.5 I downloaded sudo for os x 10.7 from the following link, I followed the readme instructions, but when I call sudo -V I still get the old version number.  I can see the folders related claim to have been changed at the time I ran the suggested command.

Any ideas?

http://archive.hmug.org/BSD/Administration/System/sudo/1.8.6p7/
The command sudo tar -C / -zxf sudo-1.8.6p7-1-osx7.tar.gz should be working, assuming you are in the same working dir as the downloaded file.

You could add --overwrite to the command, but this may have unintended effects...

I don't quite understand your desire to replace the stock sudo with this seeming random, and unsupported 'update'. If this goes wrong, you may be left without sudo; or you could break more than sudo.

You could uncompress without the -C /, and manually move the files into position.