GRM Exclusive Reveal: Exocet Spec-A

Pretty much at the point where the kit is sitting in the loading dock, ready to ship. There's a very instant gratification at that point.

We had one customer's kit ship today (or Monday) and another was delivered today. They are getting out there!

Warren v wrote: Thank you for your extraordinary patience. I completely understand your perspective. The early adopters ended up with the short end of the stick here, and they've been overwhelmingly patient while we've been working our butts off to make this finally happen. We'll be producing bodywork in order of original order. Once the molds are all brought up to their final surface finish and bodywork production can roll along relatively hands-free, the plan is to bring me into the customer support side of the business (along with continued engineering). As it sits now, the owner is a one-man-banding all of that along with running the business side of things.

Product engineer

Manufacturing process engineer

R&D engineer

Online marketing pied piper

But hey, why (the berkeley) not add customer support to your daily responsibilities and kill what little remaining "dream job" feeling you still have in one shot. All for a company who continues to tell potential customers that chassis lead time is 18-20 weeks.

I sure hope you aren't just an hourly employee, because you are seriously carrying an owners share...

(I may be so so wrong, but this is what I see after fifty four pages of GRM message board dialogue)

In reply to OHSCrifle:

Meh, after formula SAE on top of all the other stuff I did at Tech, this is easy.

Warren v wrote: In reply to OHSCrifle: Meh, after formula SAE on top of all the other stuff I did at Tech, this is easy.

Good answer!

Keith Tanner wrote: Pretty much at the point where the kit is sitting in the loading dock, ready to ship. There's a very instant gratification at that point. We had one customer's kit ship today (or Monday) and another was delivered today. They are getting out there!

Thanks!

Just picked up my '99 donor and almost ready to place order. Does anyone know what SCCA Solo class this car should qualify for???? I spent a couple hours looking through their rules and I think DMod is where it will have to start but just wondering if anyone is trying to get it approved in XPrepared like the Factory Fives and other production kits??

In reply to Karkid: I had an e-mail exchange with one of our local SCCA guys and was told that they'd likely let a normally aspirated Exocet run in DM at local events. Running at a national level will require some work to get it classed, and I would guess it would be easier after there are at least a few running local events. From the e-mail back and forth:

If you want to run DM at Nationals I see a bit of a hill to climb in trying to get it classed as a kit car. If you want to go down that path http://www.sebscca.com is where you start. I highly recommend you read the modified rules as section 18.1.A.1 shows there are currently no kit cars approved. Everyone running a Lotus 7 either has a real Lotus or runs as a clone like I do.

"Members desiring approval of a particular kit car should provide the SEB with detailed information regarding the kit model and contact info, if available, for the OE manufacturer."

Don't know about XP.

In reply to jwagner: Thanks for the info! I have studied the rule book some more and it seems like the car will be more competitive with a turbo in EM, due to the ease of being able to get to minimum weight. 1700-1750 lbs w/driver minimum in EM vs. 1320 in DM. I am guessing complete sport kit to be around 1450 lbs. I weigh 200 with helmet so a 300lb penalty would be tough. 50-100 lb ballast seems like no problem for a turbo. Once you add spoilers and a splitter, the ballast may even be close to none.

You can run a turbo in DM also but it requires an air inlet restrictor on the turbo of 33mm. This might be a Keith Tanner question, but I am curious what a restrictor like that might do a turbo's output???? It doesn't seem like a turbo would do much good choking to death.

Warren, Are the 2 exhausts sold be Exomotive on https://squareup.com/market/exomotive the same except for one having a muffler and the other one being muffler-less? I'm planning on installing an FMII turbo in the future. Would both exhausts work equally well with the only difference being lower sound with the muffler? Thanks.

The turbo exhaust (2.5") has a resonator and a downturn right in front of the diff. The full exhaust has a muffler. We have the turbo exhaust on XP-4. It sounds pretty good, and I have been told after a dyno run from an accomplished tuner that it flows just enough to avoid boost creep with the stock internal wastegate. We did 252 wheel on a DynoJet with a stock '99 motor and standard FM2. There's a little bit of falloff at higher revs that would likely be reduced with a 3" exhaust.

For a street car, I'd get the muffler. The turbo exhaust is right at that threshold where it's quiet enough for the track, but too loud for the street. On the track, the best muffler is one that spins at 100k+ RPM.

The rear cover looks so much smaller when it's on the car! And Justin is 5'9".

Stickers and pictures tomorrow. Everything on this car is pretty close to sorted. Looking forward to UTCC and then cranking out sets of body panels! Big props to Tyler, Justin, and my brother for busting their butts and staying late this week to get the bodywork molds done.

Keith, your hood is already done, I'll crank out the rest of your stuff when we get back from UTCC.

</engineering leak>

POST MORE PICTURES NOW

Warren v wrote: In reply to OHSCrifle: Meh, after formula SAE on top of all the other stuff I did at Tech, this is easy.

And that's why employers loooove Tech grads. We've always had it worse...

Pictures... Been refreshing this page all day lol.

Warren v wrote: The tribe has spoken. As an alternative to a user-assembled temporary Locost glass windshield, here's a permanent windshield option. It is an 18 gauge steel surround that a professional windshield installer can use to install a flat piece of safety glass on your Exocet. We can supply the drawing for the glass. While it would look nicer with sandblaster-cut radii, it could work with straight edged glass, too. We will install this with a custom jig that ensures it goes in perfectly flat so it won't stress the glass. Anticipated cost: ~$300 without glass or weatherstripping.

Any real confirmation if this is actually an option at this point? Getting the answer has been like trying to nail Jello to a wall....it can be done but is it worth wasting the Jello?

From the engineering side of things, it's an option. It would require 4-5 weeks from when I get the word "go" to be welded on a completed car.

We're right about to go on track at UTCC!

Yeah, okay, with the new bodywork and the possibility of a windshield, I really want one of these to commute in...

Boom! Looks great. Good luck!

Wow. Looks great! Much less death-trappy looking than the original design.

Absolutely love it!

Daaaayum! Don't make me go all fan-boi now!

The wing's obviously not optimized yet - check out the minimal end plates for example. There are gains to be found. Personally, I'm waiting for an Outlaw style wing mounted on the top of the roll cage.

Psst: your intercooler is installed backwards

That looks incredible. Well worth the wait. Fingers crossed for a great finish during today's event. Also looking forward to seeing video!

2:13s in the first session. Street tires (NT-01), boost controller cranked all the way down. Time to give it 6 clicks.

Telemetry is showing sustained 1.2-1.3g in the low speed unbanked 1-6 at VIR. Our driver is getting used to the new pavement, he hasn't been to VIR in a while. I'm hoping to break 2:10. In my book, that's not bad for a $22k car on street tires.

The wing is actually too effective, we just cranked it flat.