Yahoo Autos The Exomotive Exocet Is a Ariel Atom You Can Build in Your Garage
Nowadays, lightweight track day cars seem to be everywhere. Ever since the Ariel Atom became a hit, they've been popping up left and right. Morgan 3-Wheelers, BAC Monos, Polaris Slingshots, Drakan Spyders, all looking for a space in this overpopulated niche space of the industry. Exomotive saw an opportunity to take a piece of the pie, but took a different approach. With a kit it offers online, all you need is a donor Miata to build the enthusiast's car of your dreams.
The Exocet kit is a reengineered chassis of tubes and metal floors designed to accept the Miata's many excellent bits and pieces. It remains a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, so the balance inherent with the Miata's design is still present. Since the Exocet has no body panels, it's extremely light, and because the chassis is built with a roll-bar, it's ready for the track. If a Miata drivetrain isn't your style, Exocet has engineered the chassis to accept a turbocharger on the Miata's motor, or replace the engine altogether with an LSx V8.
In his latest One Take, Matt Farah of The Smoking Tire often refers back to the Ariel Atom when driving the Exocet. It's considered the benchmark of the class, with a similar chassis design and open-air philosophy. The difference is, the Atom is a mid-engine car, making it a very responsive, but twitchy car to drive. With the more traditional front-engine rear-wheel-drive setup, Farah even goes as far to say it's more fun than the Atom thanks to its predictability.
Watch as Farah hits the canyons and shows you don't need to spend all that money to pick up an Ariel Atom when you can build a better car yourself for a third of the price.
