I drove the Exocet tonight

[nickhasanexocet]

That doesn't sound like much of an achievement except that it's been stuck in my garage for about 10 months under piles of parts and behind a non-running Miata. Miata update later but for now, suffice to say that's not in my driveway so it wasn't blocking the Exocet. I got the car cleaned up, lubed up, and out for a test drive.

I'd forgot how unbelievably maniacal that car is despite not really being fast. It strains to hit 85 mph but it feels like a million miles per hour.

I really need to work on the suspension though. The front end doesn't really feel planted and it bounces too much. It's too soft, and it's giving up loads of mechanical grip because of it. Cheap Tien springs and AKG dampers need to go. There are also a number of quality issues that I want to deal with: seat mounting, gauge cluster, and depending on my desire: steering rack. I need to investigate how the rack was depowered. It has never felt quite right.

[Nauraushaun]

@nickhasanexocet nice

[RallyDarkstrike]

@nickhasanexocet Bah, speed isn't that important. If you're using it for autocross, it's the acceleration and handling that matter!

bounciness isn't good though....any idea what you'll replace the current parts with?

[Zaphod's Heart of Gold]

Indelicate question, and feel free to completely ignore me, but how much did it cost you to build and what frame did you go with?

Years ago I was planning to build an exocet, bought the miata and tore it down, then ran into a bit of a financial issue I wasn't expecting and had to scrap the plans. I even drove down and visited the guys at Exomotive, got to sit in their original turbo exocet, see the production... I was into it. I have since recovered financially but sold off all the miata parts (for a pretty good profit) and have moved on to other things. I still want to build one though...

Also, we need pics. Or at least I do

[davesaddiction]

@nickhasanexocet

YES

[nickhasanexocet]

@zaphod-s-heart-of-gold

I went with the race chassis. Total cost to get it driving and registered was around $17k. You'll notice that I run fenderless and wingless. It's probably worth it to invest in the SpeedCircuit fenders and a BigWang rear wing. That certainly adds to the cost, as does having a decent suspension.

Photo by HushyPushy from last year's Rally From Home South. 100+ degrees and AQI air quality of like 400 from wildfires.

[Zaphod's Heart of Gold]

@nickhasanexocet How much was your donor car? The one I picked up back in....2013? was a '94 with a Torsen LSD and a hard dog roll bar for $1400. I sold off the parts I wouldn't need and made back my cost before even trying to start a build. Then tax time came and I found out the company I had been working for the previous year fucked things all kinds of up and I didn't have the expected funds to build the car

[nickhasanexocet]

@rallydarkstrike They do make a set of Ohlins for the exocet....

[nickhasanexocet]

@zaphod-s-heart-of-gold I didn't buy the donor. I actually took over someone else's failed project. The guy had started it with his friends and lost steam when the beer ran out. They seemed to have fun tearing apart the donor then kind of.... stopped. I paid $12k for the race chassis + donor parts. Great deal but the open diff exploded after like 5 miles so I replaced it with a torsen.

[RallyDarkstrike]

@nickhasanexocet You already ordered them, right?

[nickhasanexocet]

@rallydarkstrike Hah, I have not. I'm waiting to see how much it's going to take to get the Miata out of jail the ye old tuning shoppe.

• Miata Tuning
• New PC
• Miata Body & Paint
• Exocet gauge cluster
• Exocet suspension & wing
• Miata Framerail reinforcements, frog arms, and roll cage

Roughly in that order.

[RallyDarkstrike]

@nickhasanexocet What's the PC for...? 3D modelling and stuff for it?

[nickhasanexocet]

@rallydarkstrike CAD and gaming (Apex)

[RallyDarkstrike]

@nickhasanexocet Your 'old' PC is probably better than my current PC

[nickhasanexocet]

@rallydarkstrike It's a computer I won from Newegg in 2013 in a photo caption contest. I've swapped the mobo, power supply, and graphics card.

i5-4670K
32gb ram
GTX 980

[RallyDarkstrike]

@nickhasanexocet Yup...I have an i7 3770 @ 3.4Ghz, so your CPU is a little better than mine (one of those benchmarking websites says 6% better, lol).

I have 16GB of DDR3 RAM and a Radeon HD7870 video card (which one of those benchmarking sites says is 126% slower than your GTX980 )

If I could upgrade the damn video card, I'd keep this rig for another few years, but cards are so damn expensive and hard to get right now