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I'm just finishing up my LFX exocet, and I figured this would be the best time to start another build. The LFX car is amazing in every way, but was designed to be street legal and it is only the sport cage (no roof bars). There is a part of me that really wants a full race cage on a car that I'm going to be beating hard on the track. I have kids and need to be responsible, so that's a perfect excuse to do a completely insane LS3 exocet build. Luckily a few guys have already done this, so there are some resources available. I'm going to start posting up my notes and build progress as I go. One of my good friends is doing the same build but with an off-road version of the exocet (basically different suspension and big tires). Should be fun, I'll have two LS exocets in the same garage and building them together since it seems easier in my head that way. After working on an exocet you get spoiled. Everything is wide open and very easy to access and working on a normal car after is just not as fun. These things are pretty damn amazing.
Both will be Race frames with the full top bars. I hate the look of the exocet full windshield and the sport windshield doesn't work with the race cage. So I'm going to have to figure that out. Maybe cut down the sport glass support and weld it so it fits.
Both frames are going to be ordered next month and delivered together hopefully in about 3-4 months. That leaves plenty of time to start getting the parts ready.
Crate engines are stupid expensive and you can still get low-mile LS3's. So both cars will be getting C6 corvette pull-outs. The owner of the off-road car wants an auto trans, so we have to figure out if anything comes close to fitting the trans tunnel. I'm going with a new T56 magnum as replacing transmissions is one of my least favorite things.
I'll post up all the info I've been able to find for LS exocet builds tomorrow. There are some differences versus the LFX and NB builds, but nothing too crazy.
Color: spent some time trying to find a color scheme I like and stumbled upon the pic below. I'm thinking the frame in the blue and the bodywork in the gray.
Just had a half hour call with Dino (#deathmachine) from Speed Circuit. Great guy and gave me tons of good advice.
Driver side headers need to be modfied to clear steering column, even the Sanderson Block Huggers
He's running an E36 M3 front sway bar and said it fits perfectly with the LS
Recommended a Radium fuel cell which I was looking at already
Recommended a QuickTime Bellhousing for the T56 to get better engine placement
Recommended the 3.23 cts diff
And a whole bunch of other small stuff. I'll be ordering a bunch of parts through him and keep getting his input as I go through the build. He also mentioned he is working on a bunch of LS exocet specific parts which is awesome. There is definitely a lack of some of the parts needed and quite a bit needs to be fabricated right now.
I have the E36 bar in my NA - I wouldn't call it a perfect fit. I needed to extend the mounting points down and the arms back to meet up with my endlinks. Might be easier if using NB control arms. Oh - and the 3.23 getrag's are most easily found in cadilliac SRX SUV's. If the yard allows a sawzall, you can drop one in about 1/2 an hour by sawing through the upper control arm to drop the knuckle. Just gotta use a VIN decoding service to figure out if it's G80 option, can't quite make out the options tag easily while it's in the car. But hey, local pullapart sell's em for $80 and they're pretty common in the yard now.
Tremec just released their T56 Magnum F transmission. If I'm not mistaken this should be a drop in with a very close to factory shifter location for miatas and exocets with LS engines.
11-26-2019, 12:19 AM
LS3 Exocet Insanity Build (x2)
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