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Post by steadfast on May 12, 2016 19:59:13 GMT
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Post by greg on May 14, 2016 18:15:34 GMT
Redoing the front arms now. Also the rear hubs.  This color is a huge mistake. My wrinkle black powder was in an unlabeled bag and I mixed it in with the Kingsport grey without realizing it till after the part was done curing in the oven. What a surprise!!! Absolutely love it!   The front and rear hubs had a textured look to them anyway so now the arms match. Love winning with my mistakes!   With the APR studs and 20mm spacer I have 1" of stud left which coincidentally is exactly what I had on the stock setup. Meaning I'm better off with this than I was running the 5mm spacer on the stock studs.  Just waiting on the tires to be mounted and the fenders now. Unfortunately I found out the fenders won't be ready in time for Carlisle next weekend. So debating going fender less or rigging up the fiberglass ones to work. |
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Post by greg on May 20, 2016 0:42:48 GMT
What a day! Tires were finally mounted yesterday and I gave the car a make shift alignment.   Turns out JNC 15x9s are not quite the same as the Holeshot 15x8s. Even with a 20mm spacer the rears touched the parking brake mechanism. Lucky I still had my 5mm spacers to push them out far enough.  This was yesterday. Today was my first legal street drive. Where did I go? To work of course....  Then back to the inspection station to get my stickers. Turned into a 45 min drive because I stopped to fix a loose hood pin. Had all kinds of people come up and talk. Turns out there was a car show in Nottingham at the Hers Chip factory so I went there. What a surprise! Hundreds of cars here! Mostly classics. I fit right in... No one noticed me...  Just kidding! Got a whole stack of invites to other shows and charity events!  Also finally got to meet the man who engineered, built and drives the Giant Super Chopper Cart!! Quite a machine! Found out he had been following my build and was excited to see the Exocet. Great guy, hope to see him at more events.  What a day! So... How is the car? The FM coil overs are perfectly streetable. Handle bumps and pot holes with a lot more comfort than I was expecting. I may buy another set for the DD Miata because they are that good. The 245mm Maxxis tires hold the power a LOT better than the 205mm NT01s and I think this just has to do with a street tire vs a true race tire. Race tires need heat to work... The rear still kicks sideways but it's a lot more controllable than before. I am also currently running around without a rear sway bar. Will put it back for the cars first Auto X event and see if I like it. No PS on the tires is no more or less challenging than before. Car is still very streetable and easy to park. Drove by 3 cops and none of them bothered me... I also wasn't giving them a reason to... Also.... Wear a helmet if driving over 40mph. Tomorrow I am meeting up with Kevin from Exomotive in Carlisle. |
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Post by zeitgeist on May 20, 2016 1:38:10 GMT
Great update Greg. Looks like you are really enjoying your car. Thanks for sharing.
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Post by greg on Jun 7, 2016 12:19:02 GMT
Been working so much that I haven't even driven the car since the last post. Weather was finally nice, no rain in sight. Went out for a random night cruise. Didn't even bring the helmet. Bugs and rocks in the face... No care. All smiles anyway. http://instagram.com/p/BGVcNQ0QodO   In the video you can see the headlight projection but it doesn't do a very good job of showing you how well they actually work. They're better than the stock Miata headlights. |
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Post by davelutter57 on Jun 13, 2016 23:30:21 GMT
Greg, where did you source your headlights from?
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Post by greg on Jun 14, 2016 11:45:07 GMT
Greg, where did you source your headlights from? Photon from the UK. |
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Post by ndmorepower on Jul 8, 2016 19:11:21 GMT
Greg we need to talk! I tabled my build (2 years ago) due to PA laws! I would love to hear how it went for you. BTW nice build!
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Post by greg on Jul 8, 2016 19:20:03 GMT
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Post by greg on Jul 11, 2016 1:17:32 GMT
Well after about 20 miles with the car, discovered a number of issues with the gauge cluster. Basically, the tach intermittently wouldn't work above 5k rpms, the speedo was off a couple mph and then there's the issue with the odometer reading 141k when the car was title fresh with 0 miles. Found a guy on eBay who said he could reprogram the odometer but he disappeared (probably due to legal issues). So I gave i a try myself. Not too difficult. Desolder the chip, put it into a serial converter, then use a hex editor to reprogram it. Unless you're horrible with soldering like I am... And you screw up the chip... So basically my gauge cluster was junk. What to do? This!  Speedhut 2 5/8" boost, 4" tach/speedo with turns and high beam, 3 3/8" fuel, oil, water and volt gauge.  LED Check Engine light from Painless and two generic automotive red LEDs for the brake light. I had a second one for the alternator light but that was before I learned the Hydra doesn't use the alternator light... Which is fine because the Speedhut gauge has a light for that. Also ordered a new gauge cluster from Exomotive. Quick turn around now that they are caught up on orders. Sold my old one to Alex.      I'm very happy with these gauges. The speedometer is GPS so it will always be accurate no mater what I do with the wheel or gearing setup. The tach required a 4.7k "pull up" resister to work but that was easy to install. It came with the gauge. Tach is setup to receive 2 PPR and matches the hydra digital readout perfectly. Shift light comes on at 7k, redline is 7400. Discovered the alternator is over charging the system. Never would have realized this without the gauge! The reason is the alternator is regulated by the Hydra which comes with a default duty cycle setup for a stock Miata. Being the Exocet has much much less load, these settings had to be lowered. Very easy to do. Works perfectly now. Put more miles on the car today. Very happy with how it runs, drives and cruises. Just need a final alignment now and it's done done. AutoX scheduled for the 30th in Dover. Can't wait! |
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Post by jon on Jul 11, 2016 14:35:17 GMT
+1 for speedhut. Minus the price, I love mine. I've only had one instance in some heavily tree'd road that I saw the speed bounce around. It usually finds GPS lock in about 15 seconds.
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Post by kecclest on Jan 13, 2017 2:26:26 GMT
What windshield wiper did you use to get through inspection? The code indicates that it has to be automatic and has to include a washing system. Seems ridiculous for the Exocet. Where did you go for your enhanced inspection?
I read your PA registration thread and if it's not too far away I'd like to use the same inspection station.
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Post by greg on Jan 13, 2017 4:24:55 GMT
What windshield wiper did you use to get through inspection? The code indicates that it has to be automatic and has to include a washing system. Seems ridiculous for the Exocet. Where did you go for your enhanced inspection? I read your PA registration thread and if it's not too far away I'd like to use the same inspection station. Doesn't need a washing system. Let's just say the inspectors helped me pass. If you have the list of enhanced vehicle inspection stations, it's the one in Oxford PA. Tell them I sent you. |
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Post by greg on Apr 13, 2017 4:28:26 GMT
Renewed the insurance and registration today... 308 miles on the car. With the new job I now have more time to drive the car, but working weekends took away the racing fun.   In all this time I haven't done anything other than drive the car. Although I did have to fart around a bit more with the hydra. There was a variance between voltage that the ECU was seeing and what the battery was being charged at. Almost a full volt off in fact! That took some tweaking to the target voltage tables and some monkeying with the PID to get it all to work correctly. After that, some of the running quirks went away. Only real "issue" in the tune now is a 100-125 rpm idle rev when warmed up. It hasn't bothered me enough to monkey with it but I suspect maybe it's closed loop O2 control related. |
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Post by nixeqnx on Sept 12, 2017 18:35:52 GMT
Hi Greg,
Apologies for posting on an old thread, but I'm looking to see an Exocet in person. I think your near the PA/MD line? Me too, just on the south side. If possible, please send me a message. I can't send you one without having 20 posts first.
Thanks,
~Nick
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