Exocet

In reply to JahjahSQC :

Shop Cats know a good car when they see it.

I'm really struggling with the state of Georgia. 3 trips to the DMV & still not vin plate. I have a good feeling about my next trip.

In the meantime I've started working on some other little projects.

I never liked the toggle switches I rigged up to pass inspection but I also knew I was never going to run the Miata switches. Then I found out about the Kubota switch. After a terrible experience with a certain race car wiring company, I decided to just make my own bracket, buy the switch assy off amazon, & break out the voltmeter to figure out the pins myself.

I wired in the horn & headlamps which were super easy. I'll do the turn signals next week sometime.

Designed in Onshape. Printed on a Bambu P1s in PLA. Using M5 hardware & Ruthex threaded inserts.

Street legal & it feels so good. Took me right at 4 months once I had the car completed.

The inspection process for Georgia was easy once I figured out how to get it done. However, the title process was a huge pain because whats listed online & whats required in-person are completely different. 

My current plan is to just drive it throughout the nice mild Georgia winter *knocks on wood*. I'll get an alignment, finish the tune, setup the brake prop valve, setup the suspension, & work through any bugs I come across. I'd like to get some miles on it to make sure next spring I can start doing autocross, track days, etc...

Great read. Hopefully you can get images for the early parts of the thread.  

I've always wanted one of these since they first came out.  

Actually, my first love has always been a locost, my first Keith Tanner post was actually from his days on locostusa.  However, as my dad has reminded me, trusting my own welds to hold up is a scary proposition for me. And time. It would take me 40 years to finish my own car.  

I bought a 2008 NC this spring after my wife made me pass up on a nearly completed exocet car in SC that was $13k.  (Miata not Ls powered).  

I've always wanted a v8 powered one, not for the overabundance of torque etc. But for the sound of a v8.  To the points of dreaming a long stroke 4.8 for higher max rpm but lower power or more spread out power.   Or even thoughts of just a ford 302. Though I'd prefer a more modern transmission like your T56 than some 80's T10 glass jaw 5 speed.  

Mad_Ratel said:

Great read. Hopefully you can get images for the early parts of the thread.  

I've always wanted one of these since they first came out.  

Actually, my first love has always been a locost, my first Keith Tanner post was actually from his days on locostusa.  However, as my dad has reminded me, trusting my own welds to hold up is a scary proposition for me. And time. It would take me 40 years to finish my own car.  

I bought a 2008 NC this spring after my wife made me pass up on a nearly completed exocet car in SC that was $13k.  (Miata not Ls powered).  

I've always wanted a v8 powered one, not for the overabundance of torque etc. But for the sound of a v8.  To the points of dreaming a long stroke 4.8 for higher max rpm but lower power or more spread out power.   Or even thoughts of just a ford 302. Though I'd prefer a more modern transmission like your T56 than some 80's T10 glass jaw 5 speed.  

It makes a glorious sound! & this is so much power that that it is completely unnecessary. After building this thing, I don't know if I'd want to take someone else's almost complete Exocet. The registration process alone is daunting.

I also went back through & uploaded what I beleive are the correct images from the first page.

So good to see an Exocet thread end in a completed, driving car. Looks great, congrats! I'm hoping to make some serious progress on mine this winter.

My Exocet needs two thing right now. A finished engine tune & an alignment. I have a local service shop that has given me stock alignments on my previous WRX & Miata that I built so I was going to swing by the other morning right at their opening & get a driveable alignment. Unfortunately, my Exocet won't clear their drive-on alignment machine, so now I've found a shop with in in-ground alignment machine that does all the local "stance" cars. I'll go see them in a couple weeks.

I decided to go ahead and try to start doing some WOT pulls so I can finish my remote tune. I have some back roads near my house that are straight & that's where I always go to test & tune. Approaching the first straight away I quickly roll into the throttle & I'm amazed at how immediate the power is from the Ls2. My previous projects had a turbo 2.4 & turbo 2.5. They had similar horsepower, but you can't beat a V8's torque. However, doing a WOT on a slightly curvy road with the entire suspension just torqued randomly proved to be a bad idea. The rear end really wanted to throw me into a ditch. It would push to the left very aggressively when pushing the pedal all the way down. So I pulled into my cool-down parking lot, snapped a couple photos, & went home to send the data logs off to the tuner in hopes he was able to get anything out of what I had.