Noisy video - warning, ridiculous Exocet content

If you've got 3:06 to spare, turn up the volume and click. This was a tough day at work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqbWDPua7a4

I hope you guys have a good vision plan!

No production roof, not rallycross legal.

....

But seriously, it's always a good day at work when everything works according to plan.

I should show this to my employer. He's been thinking of doing track days, and his dad is putting an LS3 (i think) into a Solstice, but something like this would be a little bit cooler, I think...

Knurled wrote: his dad is putting an LS3 (i think) into a Solstice, but something like this would be a little bit cooler, I think...

Probably still has more trunk space too

Should I be ashamed that I giggled like a school girl while watching that?

My pants just got tight.

This guy's power-to-weight with a 180lb driver is right between a McLaren F1 LM and a P1. Pretty good company:

www.tinyurl.com/power2weight

That is amazingly drool worthy

Whenever I see your videos of V8 Exocets and Miatas on a track I'm amazed at how easy it is for the motor. There's all the drama of a weightlifter eating a sandwich. While I'd absolutely love to drive one, on some level I miss the whole wringing-the-most-out-of-the-motor experience. At a track day, unless there's some really serious competition, don't you end up like the biggest guy in the room picking a fight? There's no measuring yourself against equals. No hard fight well-won. And if that punk in the Nissan somehow takes you, well it's kinda egg on the face. Not to be a total wet rag, but there's another side to mechanical domination.

Show up to supercar track days so it will be a fair fight, and if you get passed by one, it's a car that costs at least an order of magnitude more so there's no shame

There you go. I found that my NA V6 Stalker ran very close with the faster Vettes, so I'd try to pick run-groups with them. There was another thread talking about how the ante has been upped considerably over the last few years at most track days, so I suppose the chances of being the playground bully are lower than they were 8-10 years ago.

Meh, sounds interesting for a few seconds of throttle but it is obvious that you can't make use of all the power - at least on that track.

So how scarey would it be for someone used to driving a Miata to jump into that thing with no heads-up?

I think "Meh" is the most infuriating word in the current vernacular. Makes you sound like a bored teenager who can't be bothered to get off the couch to turn on the X-Box and just keeps judging the result of other people's work or skills as insufficient for his entertainment. But that's just me.

Yes, this would be a fun car on a bigger track. But when it comes to shaking down the car on a track that's 15 minutes from our shop versus towing for 6 hours to discover a problem, we chose the former. I did use full throttle on the track and in the video, but of course a short straight won't allow me to reach internet-approved speeds (which means Veyron or higher). I apologize for wasting your valuable internet time with such an inferior product.

Meh indeed.

kreb wrote: Whenever I see your videos of V8 Exocets and Miatas on a track I'm amazed at how easy it is for the motor. There's all the drama of a weightlifter eating a sandwich. While I'd absolutely love to drive one, on some level I miss the whole wringing-the-most-out-of-the-motor experience. At a track day, unless there's some really serious competition, don't you end up like the biggest guy in the room picking a fight? There's no measuring yourself against equals. No hard fight well-won. And if that punk in the Nissan somehow takes you, well it's kinda egg on the face. Not to be a total wet rag, but there's another side to mechanical domination.

Some of that is the nature of the LS motor. It always sounds a bit, well, meh The motor in my car always sounds as if I'm only on about 30% throttle and shifting at 4000 rpm as I run it out to redline with all the lights on the sequential tach flashing in panic mode. You're still wringing the most out of the motor. You just get a lot more out of it.

At a Miata track day, my V8 Miata is a bit of a beast and spends a lot of time blasting past other cars. There are always the outliers to play with, of course, and there are a couple of guys I need to deal with next time I got to Miatas at MRLS . But most of my track days tend to be shared ones, and I get to play with things like modifed Porsche turbos, LS-powered racers, the McLaren, GTRs, Vipers on slicks and other fun stuff. Even at my local track, I'm trying to catch a very well driven supercharged Mustang with aero and Hoosier autocross tires. Far from the biggest guy in the room! You just need to set your sights high.

This Exocet will run with the fast kids, but I'm not sure it would catch up with that Formula 1000 that passed me last year.

But that's not the point of this car. It's not built to be a track monster. It's going to be used for road trips and a certain amount of hooning, and the mechanical excess is part of the appeal to the owner. He's the sort of guy who will run a 1000 mile trip on a Triumph cafe racer because he wants to, and he's getting old enough that he'd prefer to do it sitting down. We test the car in controlled circumstances to make sure it's healthy and ready, then the actual use ends up being less severe.

NOHOME wrote: So how scarey would it be for someone used to driving a Miata to jump into that thing with no heads-up?

The cool thing about the throttle is that it's not stuck wide open The powerband is very linear, very controllable. The two customers who commissioned this car were at that track test, and neither of them had experience with anything like this car - or the track they were driving on. Both of them are intelligent people, so they worked up to it and drove gently at first. We also introduced them to it gradually, starting by giving them a ride in a naturally aspirated Exocet to see the track, then we let them drive the naturally aspirated car. After that, I gave them a ride in the XXXocet before finally turning over the keys.

If you're used to a 1.6 Miata that's basically WOT everywhere all the time, you'll have to get rid of the habit of thinking of the accelerator pedal as a switch. But it's a very controllable, transparent car to drive, so there's no real difficulty in learning it. You just need some discretion.

I think seeing the giant engine through the open tubes might give them a heads up

Keith Tanner wrote:

NOHOME wrote: So how scarey would it be for someone used to driving a Miata to jump into that thing with no heads-up?

You just need some discretion.

In other words, I would die.

The only time my glasses left my face like that was stepping out of a C-141 at 150 knots. This "car" looks just about as violent.

I now want to build a V8 Exocet. I mean, I already wanted to, but now I really want to.

Keith, what kind of rpm were you turning at the end of the straight? Was it in third gear?

I think it needs a bigger track.

Keith Tanner wrote: I think "Meh" is the most infuriating word in the current vernacular. Makes you sound like a bored teenager who can't be bothered to get off the couch to turn on the X-Box and just keeps judging the result of other people's work or skills as insufficient for his entertainment. But that's just me. Yes, this would be a fun car on a bigger track. But when it comes to shaking down the car on a track that's 15 minutes from our shop versus towing for 6 hours to discover a problem, we chose the former. I did use full throttle on the track and in the video, but of course a short straight won't allow me to reach internet-approved speeds (which means Veyron or higher). I apologize for wasting your valuable internet time with such an inferior product. Meh indeed.

kreb wrote: Whenever I see your videos of V8 Exocets and Miatas on a track I'm amazed at how easy it is for the motor. There's all the drama of a weightlifter eating a sandwich. While I'd absolutely love to drive one, on some level I miss the whole wringing-the-most-out-of-the-motor experience. At a track day, unless there's some really serious competition, don't you end up like the biggest guy in the room picking a fight? There's no measuring yourself against equals. No hard fight well-won. And if that punk in the Nissan somehow takes you, well it's kinda egg on the face. Not to be a total wet rag, but there's another side to mechanical domination.

Some of that is the nature of the LS motor. It always sounds a bit, well, meh The motor in my car always sounds as if I'm only on about 30% throttle and shifting at 4000 rpm as I run it out to redline with all the lights on the sequential tach flashing in panic mode. You're still wringing the most out of the motor. You just get a lot more out of it. At a Miata track day, my V8 Miata is a bit of a beast and spends a lot of time blasting past other cars. There are always the outliers to play with, of course, and there are a couple of guys I need to deal with next time I got to Miatas at MRLS . But most of my track days tend to be shared ones, and I get to play with things like modifed Porsche turbos, LS-powered racers, the McLaren, GTRs, Vipers on slicks and other fun stuff. Even at my local track, I'm trying to catch a very well driven supercharged Mustang with aero and Hoosier autocross tires. Far from the biggest guy in the room! You just need to set your sights high. This Exocet will run with the fast kids, but I'm not sure it would catch up with that Formula 1000 that passed me last year. But that's not the point of this car. It's not built to be a track monster. It's going to be used for road trips and a certain amount of hooning, and the mechanical excess is part of the appeal to the owner. He's the sort of guy who will run a 1000 mile trip on a Triumph cafe racer because he wants to, and he's getting old enough that he'd prefer to do it sitting down. We test the car in controlled circumstances to make sure it's healthy and ready, then the actual use ends up being less severe.

People have been saying meh on the interwebz since '98 or so... I'm in my 40s and never owned a game station so your stereotyping may need some recalibration

I didn't say anything about the product or quality of work now did I? Why so touchy?

Sorry, AMG, you hit a sore spot at the right time. The term wasn't in wide use 15 years ago, it's something that I've only seen in widespread use in the last couple of years. I apologize for the outburst. I've been at this too long, internet weenies are finally starting to get under my skin.

jstein77 wrote: Keith, what kind of rpm were you turning at the end of the straight? Was it in third gear?

I was going back and forth between third and fourth gear, depending on what we were doing with the car. Sometimes I'd just leave it parked in fourth. The engine was still fresh so we were using a very conservative rpm range, I think the shift lights were set to go "all in" at about 5000 rpm. I wasn't watching the tach, just trying to keep the shift lights out of the third or fourth stage. Doing a rough calculation, I think we were at about 4000-4300 at the end of the straight.

Meh, I thought your response to AMG's post was reasonable.

dculberson wrote: Meh, I thought your response to AMG's post was reasonable.

(SFX: heads exploding)