GRM Exclusive Reveal: Exocet Spec-A

15 away from production = 119's on the table?

In reply to gl21133:

This makes me very happy. I'm #130 and I'm a weekend away from having the body off of my donor. Very much excited to see my number getting closer and closer. 94 donor.

A few in-progress shots from the XXXocet.

Teardown so we can powdercoat the frame.

That happened quickly.

The Dominator 2.0 headlights. We had to weld these brackets on to the frame.

Tiny yet very bright LEDs for front running lights.

Turn indicators are in the mirrors.

Getting there...

Sooooo, what are the odds of a side-by-side XP5 and XXXocet on the Mitty Parade Lap?

Warren v wrote: Sooooo, what are the odds of a side-by-side XP5 and XXXocet on the Mitty Parade Lap?

Delete "on the Mitty Parade Lap" and insert "drag race" haha

Are you guys going to be set up Friday at the Mitty? I can't make Sat or Sun.

Yes, we'll be there on Friday.

Some more pics. This was a suggestion of the owner, I think it may become popular. A partial upper panel to stop rocks and hide some of the car's underwear.

This is just pornography. The end plates have not yet been installed.

Windshield mockup. We'll have it made from safety glass by a local shop. Takes a day or two, costs less than one headlight

That is freakin SEXY! The only nit I would pick are the trailer lights out back. Everything else looks quite cutting edge and stylish. The rear lights, however, look like they belong on a farm implement.

Do you have any product info for those LED running lights?

Like combo turn (Amber LED's center) and red brake (LED outer ring). It looks good on my trike and bright!!

Looks like those windshield mounts will fit a race chassis. Will they?

Lights are tough, especially DOT legal tails. You either take something off a production car - which everyone will spot immediately - or you use universal ones which are almost always built to either the standard 4" round or 4" oval.

The tails on the car were the choice of the owner. We originally had ones with a white center and a red ring, which look much less generic. He requested the all-red variety, so we complied. The good thing is that they look different lit, and most importantly they're very visible. Here's how they look lit up - these are the white center version but they illuminate the same. Don't mind the color shift in the tail only version, that was the camera having difficulty. It's an even red when viewed with a human eyeball.

The mirrors are not the typical $10 ebay unit, they're a little more robust. You can see they mount differently than the cheap bar end mirror, which is a lot more common. But there are only so many options out there...

Running lights are a 4.5W 17mm SMD LED.

I took care of all of the paperwork and whatnot to get this girl street legal yesterday. Its been rainy here but I got to dive her about 40 miles. Its a hell of a ride. Cant wait to put on some serious miles.

Looks awesome - have fun!

Love the color combo.

Guess what I'm driving home tonight? Cue the maniacal laughter.

Remember: With great power comes great responsibility... Ah screw it! Hoon the hell outa that thing.

Keith Tanner wrote: Guess what I'm driving home tonight? Cue the maniacal laughter.

A few more detail shots on the XXX.

Brag plate.

Windshield! The frame is from Exomotive, the glass was done by a local shop. It's the same shop that did the glass for my Locost, at the time I didn't know how difficult custom windshields were supposed to be so I just walked in with a cardboard template. They didn't blink an eye. Fast forward to Monday and the same thing - I walked in with a template and the frame, they said "no problem, do you want us to mount it in the frame too? It'll be done on Wednesday". They actually thanked me for giving them so much time to do the job...two whole days. I love The Glass Brokerage in GJ.

Cost was $125, which is the same as a poly windshield from Exomotive. It's laminated safety glass with an etched logo, cut by hand and with a polished lip. A lot of states will require that your windshield is safety glass, not just plastic.

So before you think that custom glass is hard or expensive or needs to be done on a waterjet someplace hundreds of miles away - ask your local glass shop.

The Dominator 2.0 headlights used on this build are not technically street legal for a car, so we've also got a set of 7" round sealed beams that suck for light output but that are 100% legal. We'll ship the car with both sets of lights.

Man, the awesomeness just keeps on increasing. When I first saw the UK Exocet I basically went "Kinda cool, but ugly and the engine is too far forward". As the USA team developed a head of steam it became clear that they had the sort of commitment and expertise that's all too unusual in the kit car world, so I started paying attention. Since then, detail after detail has been addressed - well. Somehow they've even made it relatively pleasing to the eye (especially the most aggressive versions). And the sort of lap times that are being run at the track speak for themselves. So there's precious little to bitch about Except......

With these crazily high-powered versions popping up all over, don't you think it's time for a stretched wheelbase model?

Given the open nature of an Exocet (even with body kit on) how much of a fan am I going to need on the radiator?

Mine has a 40mm aluminium radiator and has a rotrex supercharger so there is an intercooler in the nose. I will be using the car on road and some seriously hard track use. I have pulled out the A/C fan and am thinking that a single 12" or 13" Spal fan will suffice?

papahet wrote: Given the open nature of an Exocet (even with body kit on) how much of a fan am I going to need on the radiator? Mine has a 40mm aluminium radiator and has a rotrex supercharger so there is an intercooler in the nose. I will be using the car on road and some seriously hard track use. I have pulled out the A/C fan and am thinking that a single 12" or 13" Spal fan will suffice?

Papa I've been doing research on the rotrex for my miata, do you have a build thread anywhere? Was it a kit?

You'll need just as much fan at slow speeds as you would on a Miata, I would think. We did find that the turbo XP2 cooled much better on track than a similar Miata, probably due to the complete lack of pressure buildup in the engine bay. So at speed, I'd expect a lot less fan to be required.

We have come across another Exocet, umm, "characteristic". The fuel tank is mounted at a different angle than in the Miata, and this messes up the design of the internal sump. High lateral gs and thirsty engines cause a fuel starvation problem in left turns. I've confirmed this with another builder. Hydramat may be a good option, but we're looking to see what we can do to modify the tank now.

I guess someone could throw an angle finder on the top fuel pump portion of a Miata and use appropriate sized spacers on the Exocet to make it the same.

The rear mounting points are level with the fronts in the Exocet chassis. In the Miata, they're 7" higher. It's not a subtle difference. The bodywork won't cover the tank at that angle.

We're building an extension to the stock baffling and rerouting the return line so it feeds into the sump. The factory return does, but our modified setup just dumps from higher up in the tank which would make the problem worse. We'll know in a few hours if this does the trick.