Geoff (the other one) in Idaho - Race chassis #114 build

[gl21133]

Starting to get pretty close to really building here, so I figure it's time to start one of these.  My name is Geoff, same spelling as the gent in Cali but I'm obviously a bit further behind.  I'm in Idaho (Boise area) and I expect I'll be the only one of these in the area for the foreseeable future.  I'm waiting on chassis #114, an unpainted race version.

Background:
After running a Classic Red 97 in autocross (ES) last year, I've become quite enamored with the Miata chassis and powertrain.  Having come from 3 previous turbo Subarus, I love the feel of an NA motor and the low bulk and complexity vs. a WRX.  Fall rolled around up here and I needed a project and miraculously my wife ok'd the purchase of an Exocet chassis.  Unfortunately the market for donors up here is a bit scarce (took me 2 months and 5 failed purchases just to get the red one) so I ended up settling a bit and purchasing another 97 I found on Grassroots, this one in Montego Blue.  A bit more than I wanted to spend, but it was in great shape with a tons of extras and a large number of mods that I would have added anyway.

The manliest garage in all the land:


I ended up flip flopping and deciding to use the red one for the build, de-modding the blue one to prep it for ES for the 2015 season.  I live in a county with emissions requirements so I had to wait until after the first of the year to get my semi-annual emissions check done.  Got that out of the way, got the AC drained properly, and started teardown.  It hurt to do so slowly but as the car was in good shape and more expensive than most of the donors in here, I wanted to try and make as much as possible back on parts.  On the plus side, it's got 78k miles and a fresh maintenance baseline so it should last quite a while.  Fast forward to today, and I'm finally ready to pull the shell.  It was my goal to get it done in February, looks like I'm going to squeak in just under the wire.

Current state:


Rolling around under the car tonight I count 22 bolts holding the body to the roller.  8x top shock mounts, 6x rear subframe, 8x front subframe.  Sound about right?

Short term I'm hoping for a fun around town and autocross toy.  Keeping the motor NA with H/I/E, using the FM spring/Illumina combo that came on the blue one, not a ton of other mods.  Racing Beat front and rear bars, poly bushings, new motor mounts, and that's most of it.  As much as I want to do the little big brake kit from FM, I don't feel that the stock brakes are too bad with a 2200 lb car, so I expect great things with a 1500 lb car and better pads and rotors.  I'll probably throw a happy meal clutch/flywheel in just in case I want to turbo it long term, but we'll see how it feels with just a significant diet.

[BTD]

Woo Geoff! Come back to CO someday and I'll buy you a beer.

[gl21133]

Dammit Dan, don't say that! The wife wants to move back to FoCo. I for one am sick of moving.

[steadfast]

Welcome aboard. Us Geoffs gotta stick together.

[einy]

Well, my daughter is already threatening to write Geoff on my car in honor of the electric car built on Top Gear .... Does that make three ?

[gl21133]

Is yours electric einy? That'd be pretty awesome.

Big day yesterday:



This strap method worked well, one long 10k lb ratchet strap through the seat belt towers and wiring harness holes in the firewall:



In process:



Off:



And some crappy pics of how we used the 8" 2x4s to prop up the suspension:

Rear:



Front:

[einy]

Nope ... mine will initially be 1.6 liters of bone stock Miata engined fury (for now)! I think said daughter is predicting the quality of my workmanship in comparing my Exocet to the Top Gear electric car (a.k.a. Geoff)!

[gl21133]

Well then, I assume you'll have to redo it and rename it Hammerhead Eagle iThrust?

[gl21133]

Big week of purchases. 2x sets of wheels, 2x sets of tires, and lights. The credit card isn't happy with me.

[thestig]

So what wheels and tires did you choose?

[gl21133]

Mar 6, 2015 1:14:14 GMT thestig said:

So what wheels and tires did you choose?

I was actually just coming in here to post that as it's been a point of annoyance for me.  As most of you know, at 15x8 et0 wheel is hard to come by, at least in a decent make.  I'd love a set of Work TE37 V's, but $2k was a complete budget buster.  Originally I was going to get some big (38mm) spacers and use the wheels I have, but I'm just not comfortable with that big of a spacer.

The vast majority of the 15x8 et0 wheels are replica brands of unknown/questionable quality (Avid.1, STR, XXR, etc.).  I like the Traklites that Exomotive sells but after looking into them more, I don't see anything that really differentiates them from the other Chinese brands.  They're also out of stock in flat black for a good while so I kept looking.  

After a bunch of annoying delays (most of which were due to lack of stock) I ended up buying Rota Grid V Max's in Full Royal Sports Bronze for track/autocross use:



And XXR 530's in Chromium Black (15x8.25, but the extra 3-4mm shouldn't hurt too much) for road use:



The XXR's are backordered into May, but I don't think that'll matter too much.  Rotas should be here Monday.  I almost went with another set of Rotas for daily use but their 15x8 et0 selection isn't particularly great.  IIRC they have the Grid V, Grid V Max, Kensei, Kyusha, RKR, Shakotan, X04, and Zero Plus.  I hate polished lips and most of the wheels are ugly, so it was really either the Grid V or Grid V Max.

I know a few guys that race on Rotas without issue, and they're at least one of the OG replica companies, so I trust them a bit more than the other rep brands.  Not super stoked on the XXR's, but after doing my research I don't expect issues on a street driven 1500 lb car.

For tires I picked up a used set of Hoosier SM6's (I hear they're identical to the R6's) for the Rotas and a used set of Direzza ZII's for the XXR's.  The Direzzas will be a bit stretched but shouldn't be too bad, the Hoosiers should fit the 8" width well.

As far as other purchased parts, the Flyin Miata happy meal clutch/flywheel arrived today, that should go in this weekend.  Energy Suspension bushings will go in soon too.  Went with Dominator 2.0 lights.

[thestig]

Yeah the whole wheel offset dilemma is driving me crazy. I am thinking the traklite 15x9 on 225/45/15 Hankook RS3's. Maybe the ROTA GRID V in 15x9 but the wheel weighs 16lbs. I know the consensus is that the 205 is faster around the track with the light exocet, however I want a bigger contact patch and wider wheels.

[gl21133]

From what I've seen the weight of the Traklites has been...optimistic. I'd be interested to see what those actually come out to.

[einy]

Mar 6, 2015 3:42:21 GMT thestig said:

Yeah the whole wheel offset dilemma is driving me crazy. I am thinking the traklite 15x9 on 225/45/15 Hankook RS3's. Maybe the ROTA GRID V in 15x9 but the wheel weighs 16lbs. I know the consensus is that the 205 is faster around the track with the light exocet, however I want a bigger contact patch and wider wheels.

My understanding - which may not be fully accurate - is that 205's are the widest tires that will fully fit under the Exomotive supplied fenders, if that is important to your build. I have been told that you can remove the inner radius lip to fit wider tires "under" the fenders, although I'm not completely sure what this would look like.

Then again, if fenders are not part of your build, or if you choose to use other fenders vs. those from Exomotive, this is all irrelevant.

[nomdenom]

ah these rota's look pretty nice.
so do they have enough clearance to run with no spacers at all ?
with a BBK too ?