GRM Exclusive Reveal: Exocet Spec-A

Here it is with a windshield and the upcoming body kit.

Sultan wrote: I like it better with the cage. Now how about a windshield:-)

If you give a mouse a windshield, he's going to want a hardtop. If you give a mouse a hardtop, he's going to want some windows. If you give him some windows, he's going to want a dashboard. If you give him a dashboard, he's going to want an interior. If you give him an interior, he's going to want A/C. If you give him A/C, he's going to want a trunklid. If you give him a trunklid, he's going to want a spare tire. If you give him a spare tire, you might as well have just given him a damn Miata.

These things are four wheeled motorcycles, the lack of creature comforts is the reason why it's fast to build, light, and affordable. I usually wear a full face motorcycle helmet when driving these things. If you really want a windshield, start with a "Race". You could easily make a template that fits in the front tubes and cut out some plexiglas with a jigsaw. Hold it in place with some 1 3/4" tube clamp mounts and you're done. Might want an aluminum vertical brace running along the middle. Congrats, you now have a huge air brake.

There is a wind deflector option available, but it's 8" tall, not a full windshield.

It might be worth noting that a proper windshield made of safety glass and wipers are required for registration in many states, unless you're keeping the Miata papers.

I wouldn't consider a car without a windshield unless it was full-race. There's far too many flying projectiles out there not to be covered up. As for wearing helmets on the streets, first it looks seriously dorky. Second, it looks pretentious: "Hey look at me, I'm a racer!". Third, it separates the driver from the senses, kinda like a condom of 1/4" thick rubber. Lastly, at high speeds I don't like the wind buffeting. I did a 20 minute lapping session in a Birkin with Brooklands screens and just didn't dig it.

The windshield could be removable and removed on track if drag was a concern

Warren v wrote:

Jaynen wrote: Sexy, and great choice on supporting the CoT wings. Warren could you do a mockup with the race versions full cage for me?

http://i.imgur.com/eKtELGr.jpg

Oh hell yes, and thank you Warren

Keith Tanner wrote: It might be worth noting that a proper windshield made of safety glass and wipers are required for registration in many states, unless you're keeping the Miata papers.

Yeah, that whole "safety glass" thing can be annoying. Thankfully every customer we have in those states has found a way around it (PA has a loophole that allows no windshield). Hand-operated clip-on marine wipers have worked so far, too. For the others, well, got a friend with a CJ and some zip ties?

I hate to interrupt the love fest, but you should really do better than that.

kreb wrote: I hate to interrupt the love fest, but you should really do better than that.

Twas a joke.

It would appear that in addition to being a tin knocker, I have a tin ear!

Now that I think about it, I think there should be more than an added windshield. How about an all wheel drive station wagon or maybe a truck version.....I wonder if there are any such vehicles out there like that......

Seriously even the Westfield has a windshield. It doesn't seem like a huge change to the concept.

Flat safety glass is easy. Make a template, walk in to a local glass shop. The one for my locost cost me $30 custom cut to my dimensions, including the mark that shows that it's safety glass. Cheaper than Lexan.

Sultan wrote: Seriously even the Westfield has a windshield. It doesn't seem like a huge change to the concept.

There's a lot more to it than you give credit. It needs a surround, molding, trim, wiper provisions, safety analysis, aero analysis, mounting solutions, possibly a dedicated jig, a relationship with a glass cutter, a significant investment in test pieces, and a new shipping crate. Based on the requests of those with deposits and the many more sending us pictures of their donors being torn apart, a glass windshield is in very low demand.

We have some plans for a simple bolt-in flat safety glass windshield and surround that doesn't look half-assed, but it's realistically not on the top of our to-do list. Nearly all of our buyers are opting for no windshield or deflector at all. It doesn't make the car's experience any better, and it makes it slower, so it probably won't happen until we get a customer willing to put down a deposit on the condition of offering a glass windshield solution. A DIY safety glass windshield like Keith mentioned is certainly an option for now. I'd like to be able to accommodate everyone's feature requests, but the main reason why we can sell such a high-quality kit for a fraction of our competitors prices is due to our very lean operations. To bring up the old engineer saying: "Good, cheap, or fast. Pick 2."

If you want the essence of an Exocet with a windshield, MEV makes the "Mevster", which Exomotive can import for you:

Personal Opinions Ahead, please don't read this as Exomotive-Canon

Personally, once you add full bodywork and a windshield, I would rather have a tight stripped-out NA Miata. When you add interior bits, lots of bodywork, windshields, tops, windows, etc, the cost, time investment, annoyances, problems and rattles just increase exponentially. For me, the Exocet is not supposed to be a practical replacement for a sports car. It's a toy, an alternative to a sport bike. That's where the advantage lies, in creating a new experience attainable by just about anyone with some hand tools and $10k. The kit car market is filled with failed ventures that tried to accomplish production-car-levels of fit and finish, practicality, and NVH. These are low-production products. There is a reason why every properly done "wholistic" low-production car (AVI Racing, Singer, etc) ends up costing $100k+ or requires 1000++ hours of labor (GTM, full-interior Shelby Daytonas and GT40s, etc). The little things take a lot to do right, and there are no economies of scale to help you. To design a complete car, it takes many years, dozens of engineers, and millions in funding. The Exocet is a clean break from that boutique manufacturer mentality. The goal is simple: add lightness and simplify. It has no pretensions of being a practical, usable car. It really is a motorcycle with twice as many contact patches. With that mentality, you can achieve 1500lb curb weights and handling that you will never experience outside of a kart or lesser-formula car. It's all about the driving experience. Anything less raw, and you'd be better served finding a used high performance car. I would rather have a ratted-out C5 Z06 than deal with a kit car pretending to be a real car. The Exocet skips that whole kit-supercar "poor man's McLaren F1" BS, and can get you in the driver's seat with less than 100 hours of work. That's just my vision for the car, but dont' worry, I'm not the one steering the ship.

Damn Warren I will not comment on blanking car again. It was a reasonable suggestion.

Good luck

There's already been offered a solution to making a windshield work for now, and an expression of plans to do something better integrated later. It's just not going to be contingent on getting the first kits out the door. I take Warren's responses as "If people want it we will do it but it comes at a lower priority right now because most customers are not asking for that"

I'd imagine a stripped NA could get down to 1800lbs or less? So if you really want things like a heater or windshield/roof you can still get there. I agree with what Warren has said for me going from miata to exocet is more to turn the car into a "sport bike" rather than adding power reducing weight by a bunch and having a more raw experience

Sultan wrote: Damn Warren I will not comment on blanking car again. It was a reasonable suggestion. Good luck

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come off as argumentative, I was just trying to give some sort of rationalization for how I'm prioritizing features. Obviously my job is to support the customers' needs, and a glass windshield is utterly essential for long-term compliance with a few states. The long-winded reply was just my personal opinion on why the kit car market in the US has been stagnant for the last 30 years, and how the Exocet fits into that. Please forgive my mouth, sometimes it develops a positive damping coefficient.

I wrote it mainly to head off the inevitable emails and questions about windshields, doors, windows, etc. From the amount of emails I get, I suspect there are a multitude of forum lurkers for each poster. We get a lot of people asking about those features, and I just wanted to get my "vision" for the project down.

Jaynen wrote: There's already been offered a solution to making a windshield work for now, and an expression of plans to do something better integrated later. It's just not going to be contingent on getting the first kits out the door. I take Warren's responses as "If people want it we will do it but it comes at a lower priority right now because most customers are not asking for that" I'd imagine a stripped NA could get down to 1800lbs or less? So if you really want things like a heater or windshield/roof you can still get there. I agree with what Warren has said for me going from miata to exocet is more to turn the car into a "sport bike" rather than adding power reducing weight by a bunch and having a more raw experience

Regarding a stripped 1.8 NA, the tub weighs 900 lbs. The 1.8 subframes/driveline/etc weigh a good 850 lbs without power steering or the A/C compressor. That's with no seats, steering column, battery, fuel tank (38 lbs!), dash, interior, carpet, etc. The absolute bare minimum with no roll bar, a light fuel cell, one composite seat, and no hacking on the body should be around 1900. I have never seen pictures of a scale display with a Miata lighter than 1950. That's no A/C, heater core, power steering, dash, etc. That said, my experience with lightweight Miatas isn't all that big. Here's an example of the effort that went into a 1900 lb Miata: http://www.lightweightmiata.com/beast/

Keith can answer this much better than I can, although the gravity up in Colorado is a bit lower. ;)

Sultan wrote: Damn Warren I will not comment on blanking car again. It was a reasonable suggestion. Good luck

The Exocet is not for you. You're suggesting Warren turn it into something it doesn't need to be. Perhaps you'd be better served ordering a kit from CMC.

Oh that's right, they went tits up years ago.

I live in PA, and the windshield thing gave me pause as well. Apparently there is a loophole, which is good. I'd wear a full face helmet to drive it too; since I also ride a m/c and know what it feels like to hit insects at 50 mph. I can't imagine looking any more dorky than someone astride those silly Can-Am Spyders. People are going to stare at anyone driving an Exocet; they probably won't even notice you wearing a helment. But really...how much street driving would one do with this car? It would be nice to drive it on the street, to-from the track, but I really can't see spending a lot of time doing that with one.

Warren, I understand and applaud your viewpoint on the car's purpose. Not everyone will be a customer. If you have enough customers to keep you in business with the product as-is, I wouldn't change it either.

If you can build the car, you can find an answer to the windshield question, I would adapt a boat windshield in a removable fashion.

Why would you want to add a glass windshield to a car with no weather proofing anyway.

Because you may need it to register the car. Technically, it's required to be road legal in Colorado. Side and rear windows aren't, but a front windshield made of safety glass and a way to clean it is required. There's an exemption for old fart hot rods, but it doesn't apply to something like the Exocet.

I can see a pretty easy removeable windshield solution for the caged car. For the non-caged, it's a bit more complex but nothing the locost guys haven't been doing all along. They're all going to be a bit crude, but it's not as if we're bolting it on to a D-type Jaguar here.

I did once come up with an altitude correction factor for our scales But nobody's ever claimed our scales were light, because I weigh realistic things using accurate scales instead of doing the magic math that usually accompanies lightweight cars. I think our first race car was in the 2000 lb range wet with a hardtop, cage and big turbo, but it was definitely not streetable. The doors won't even support themselves. I've also seen a top-level CSP car with a bunch of trick mods such as an alternator the size of a hamster, and I think he was still over 2000 wet.

Warren- Next time I am in Atlanta can I stop by and go for a ride in one? Maybe drive?

I was hoping to do a Locost in the future but time, time, time, keeps me hoping instead of doing. The Exocet seems like an option I didn't even know about until yesterday.

I don't want to belabor the point, because everyone's said their parts well. It wouldn't take much to fit a removable windscreen to either the race or street models. I respect Warren for keeping his eye on the ball IRT priorities. One of the main reasons for all the enthusiasm about this product isn't just the product itself as much as it is Warren's professional attitude. He's not a restorer looking to make some kits on the side, or someone with his head in the clouds about building into the next Factory Five with only a welder and some molds. If I was in the market for a kit, I'd likely have a deposit down, but I've done a kit car before and want to build one from scratch now. I'm sure however, that 99 percent of GRMers would jump in an Exocet at the track before they'd risk their asses in an unproven homebuilt.

octavious wrote: Warren- Next time I am in Atlanta can I stop by and go for a ride in one? Maybe drive?

Of course, we make appointments all the time (we'll take any excuse to drive these things around). Insurance concerns currently make test drives difficult, but the passenger seat is open season. One of the things we're working on is a track rental option, most likely at Atlanta Motorsports Park. Email Info@Exomotive.com when you know your schedule. We should be in our new building in Atlanta proper by August; our current shop is nothing special.

Yep - I too applaud Warrens approach. Its clear hes a car guy who also operates a business. The 2 can be directly connected, or mutually exclusive, or in this case, a mix of the 2. His enthusiasm for cars is evident in the way he keeps us updated, and the clear joy hes getting from the development. His business side is clear from the way his plan was generated, communicated, and executed.

You can please some of GRM all of the time and all of GRM some of the time...

I truly plan to have the space and cash available to take a shot at this in several years. I SINCERELY hope Exocets are still available when that day comes.

I appreciate the support, but to set you guys straight, I definitely don't run the business. My side of things is engineering and production. Thankfully Exomotive's founder is awesome and tolerates me blabbing to you guys about how much fun I'm having with the project.

I just wanna go fast.

Bravo warren on your statement. While not in the auto world, I've done projects of various kinds all over the place and the number one killer is scope creep, aka not keeping your eye on the ball.