Discussion
First build thread so bare with me 
Having been on here for a while, I saw someone make mention of the Exocet, and decided that I wanted one. Looked around and saw build guides etc, thought I could give it a go. I'm no mechanic, far from it, but bolting bits to a new chassis can't be too hard, or can it?!
The missus was very much against the idea, but I'm a bloke, so went and done it anyway. Bit of searching around found me a 2001 Mk2.5 1.8vvt with only 46000 miles on the clock, heated leather seats, good condition roof and the ever important LSD. Also as a sport model it has the big brakes, and other parts which are desirable, all helping to bring build costs down. Quick visit to see it, money exchanged and it was mine, then a little phone call to the missus to explain what I'd done..
Had 7 months MOT, so I drove it around until late October, and then began stripping it. At this point I put the deposit down on the Exocet kit, and was told a lead time of 12 weeks. Only having limited space, and working every other weekend, this gave me 6 weekends to strip the MX5 sufficiently to fit it all in a single garage, and try to keep the missus happy, not an easy challenge!
Started with the big and easy bits, and progress was good.
Selling parts as I went, I became a local in the hermes drop off shop, even managing to send the roof through them, which was quite an achievement!
Became to get more and more to where I needed it to be, and it was time to start looking for an engine hoist to borrow!
Havent got an pics of body coming off etc, was a bit preoccupied for that! Stuck it on the trailer that the engine hoist came on, ground off the vin plates etc and off to the scrapyard that went. Important to get rid of the vin numbers, because it was a dry shell (no liquids to drain or tyres etc) it could be scrapped as a piece of metal if no identifiers where left, meaning I could keep the V5 and it wont be registered scrapped, very important for when it comes to register the exocet.
The body finally came off on the Sunday before collection, and only being 23 I'm too young to rent a decent sized van, so luckily myself and my Dad's shifts lined up for once, and both had a weekday off, so LWB Transit duly rented, and off up to Mansfield we went.
Must say Stuart and Julie are great, both knowledgeable and happy to answer questions etc, and I got to sit in an Exocet, something I probably should have done before dropping all that money on one, but loved it anyway so all's well!
Got painting some bits that I'll be keeping, nothing hugely exciting, but looks a lot better than when I started. Kit is currently out at the powdercoaters, should be back today, so will update accordingly after the weekend when I can finally get started!
Progress won't be too fast, with working every other weekend, but hoping to have it done for the summer.. famous last words!!
Thanks for reading
Having been on here for a while, I saw someone make mention of the Exocet, and decided that I wanted one. Looked around and saw build guides etc, thought I could give it a go. I'm no mechanic, far from it, but bolting bits to a new chassis can't be too hard, or can it?!
The missus was very much against the idea, but I'm a bloke, so went and done it anyway. Bit of searching around found me a 2001 Mk2.5 1.8vvt with only 46000 miles on the clock, heated leather seats, good condition roof and the ever important LSD. Also as a sport model it has the big brakes, and other parts which are desirable, all helping to bring build costs down. Quick visit to see it, money exchanged and it was mine, then a little phone call to the missus to explain what I'd done..
Had 7 months MOT, so I drove it around until late October, and then began stripping it. At this point I put the deposit down on the Exocet kit, and was told a lead time of 12 weeks. Only having limited space, and working every other weekend, this gave me 6 weekends to strip the MX5 sufficiently to fit it all in a single garage, and try to keep the missus happy, not an easy challenge!
Started with the big and easy bits, and progress was good.
Selling parts as I went, I became a local in the hermes drop off shop, even managing to send the roof through them, which was quite an achievement!
Became to get more and more to where I needed it to be, and it was time to start looking for an engine hoist to borrow!
Havent got an pics of body coming off etc, was a bit preoccupied for that! Stuck it on the trailer that the engine hoist came on, ground off the vin plates etc and off to the scrapyard that went. Important to get rid of the vin numbers, because it was a dry shell (no liquids to drain or tyres etc) it could be scrapped as a piece of metal if no identifiers where left, meaning I could keep the V5 and it wont be registered scrapped, very important for when it comes to register the exocet.
The body finally came off on the Sunday before collection, and only being 23 I'm too young to rent a decent sized van, so luckily myself and my Dad's shifts lined up for once, and both had a weekday off, so LWB Transit duly rented, and off up to Mansfield we went.
Must say Stuart and Julie are great, both knowledgeable and happy to answer questions etc, and I got to sit in an Exocet, something I probably should have done before dropping all that money on one, but loved it anyway so all's well!
Got painting some bits that I'll be keeping, nothing hugely exciting, but looks a lot better than when I started. Kit is currently out at the powdercoaters, should be back today, so will update accordingly after the weekend when I can finally get started!
Progress won't be too fast, with working every other weekend, but hoping to have it done for the summer.. famous last words!!
Thanks for reading
Each to their own obviously, but I think it's criminal to turn a perfectly good, low mileage nice MX-5 like that one, into this fugly Atom ripoff.
It suffers from the same problem that 99% of kit cars do - it looks cheap. From the back to the front wheels it looks great, because Ariel already did all the hard work.
All MeV needed to do was design an innovative and stylish nose cone, and they just whacked on some blob of GRP and stuck a chickenwire grille in.
Apologies if i'm ranting, but it's a real bugbear of mine.
It suffers from the same problem that 99% of kit cars do - it looks cheap. From the back to the front wheels it looks great, because Ariel already did all the hard work.
All MeV needed to do was design an innovative and stylish nose cone, and they just whacked on some blob of GRP and stuck a chickenwire grille in.
Apologies if i'm ranting, but it's a real bugbear of mine.
Edited by Beefmeister on Friday 10th February 11:41
Beefmeister said:
It suffers from the same problem that 99% of kit cars do
Agreed, but thats not the point of the exocet is it? The point is to get the mx5 driveline into a much lighter more track suited package.It should ideally be done with an mx5 where the original body is rotted away beyond economical repair though, kind of a shame hacking up a good looking mx5 for it
Being a UK Mk2.5, it wouldn't have been long for this world anyway. They're generally mostly rust buckets and suffer from tin worn from the laminated front chassis rails, which is pretty much terminal. They can be picked up for well under a grand even in good nick so no real shame with what he's done. Yeah the exocet is pretty ugly (I would have gone with an MX5 based westfield myself) but it's an excellent way to get a pretty capable track toy.
Good to see someone else working on building one of these. I am planning on following this, but my donor is currently sat in the garage until I've finished my mini off! I have also had the dilemma about chopping up an MX-5 but the thoughts on mine are that is is pretty rotten, and I could either sort the immediate rot, which will likely cost me more than the car cost and end up with an average looking car, or then go into a full rebuild which would be much more than the car would be worth.
In the end I figure that they aren't rare and precious (at the minute!), and that as long as all useable parts go into keeping others on the road, then at least part of my car will live on, which is slightly better than the large number of cars that are being broken because they are worth more in parts than as a whole car.
For me, the fact that it uses so much of the donor is also a good thing - it might drive differently to a westfield or roadrunner with Mazda running gear, but it means that you are still using "standard" parts through the whole drivetrain - and can still tap into the vast market of bits available - and it looks different to all those seven-type kits out there.
I can see the point that the Exocet isn't a looker - although I think that it is also very dependent upon the way that the builder has finished of small touches - the front-end especially, which can look quite different (see some of the exomotive cars from the US), and will be something that I will pay close attention to. I think that built right, and with the right finishing touches that they can look like a focussed car, built for a purpose, perhaps not pretty, but not ugly!
Good luck with the build - I'll be watching with interest!
In the end I figure that they aren't rare and precious (at the minute!), and that as long as all useable parts go into keeping others on the road, then at least part of my car will live on, which is slightly better than the large number of cars that are being broken because they are worth more in parts than as a whole car.
For me, the fact that it uses so much of the donor is also a good thing - it might drive differently to a westfield or roadrunner with Mazda running gear, but it means that you are still using "standard" parts through the whole drivetrain - and can still tap into the vast market of bits available - and it looks different to all those seven-type kits out there.
I can see the point that the Exocet isn't a looker - although I think that it is also very dependent upon the way that the builder has finished of small touches - the front-end especially, which can look quite different (see some of the exomotive cars from the US), and will be something that I will pay close attention to. I think that built right, and with the right finishing touches that they can look like a focussed car, built for a purpose, perhaps not pretty, but not ugly!
Good luck with the build - I'll be watching with interest!
Colour scheme is dark blue panels, dark grey chassis, just back from powdercoaters but its snowing outside so pics can wait until tomorrow, looks awesome though! Can't complain at the service either, picked up Wednesday afternoon and dropped off Friday afternoon, if anyone needs a powdercoater in Norfolk I'll happily recommend
Regarding the front end, I went for the double grill nose, bit more modern looking than the one pictured. Hopefully look good
Regarding the front end, I went for the double grill nose, bit more modern looking than the one pictured. Hopefully look good
Edited by Clarkey2110 on Friday 10th February 17:09
Very nice, some good progress there!
Glad it was a rust bucket that was cut up. I had an M2.5 in the same colour and it was just fantastic on roaad and track. Apart from the lack of grunt for overtaking.
The stock iron block motor is damm heavy and has limited potential, at lest NA.
Are there any kits out there that use the MK3 MX5? It's engine is closely related to the Duratec I4 and has tons of potential. 2.5s drop in too
Glad it was a rust bucket that was cut up. I had an M2.5 in the same colour and it was just fantastic on roaad and track. Apart from the lack of grunt for overtaking.
The stock iron block motor is damm heavy and has limited potential, at lest NA.
Are there any kits out there that use the MK3 MX5? It's engine is closely related to the Duratec I4 and has tons of potential. 2.5s drop in too
5harp3y said:
front end could be better but hey ho it will be so much fun
One thing most photos don't show any cars at their best, especially using camera phones...... Because of the wide angle lens the front end look bulbous, and this is a feature of a lot (even some professional) car images. There is also another nosecone for that model which IMHO looks better (in real life as well as in photos)- It's called the "double grille" and is on their website with a nice little car configurator to design your next build!
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