A lot of credit for the powertrain and setup goes to his cool dad. Tony from UMS tuning. Reputable tuner, race car builder, shop owner and race stewart at NASA and GTA (screw Tesla fanbois) :)

Yeah it's pretty crazy, that car is running a stock mount location replacement Evo 10 turbo and a divided manifold for a true twin scroll setup I believe.

It makes the same or more amount of torque as most 1.8 cars around these forums that make 400+whp. And want to know what's insane? Still has 2.5" catback. He's switching to 3" soon and that should help the top end because right now the HP curve hits a wall and flatlines at 5800rpm. So about 380WHP from 5800 to 7100. Torque peak is 380ft-lbs at 4500-ish.


He's a solid driver. I think the first time he drove a racecar on track was in 2014 at just 13 years old. It was actually my car that he was driving and I was in the right seat instructing for the weekend.

That's right, Tony was saying he stuck 20g internals in the X turbo.

Working on the splitter tonight, realized we were the two fastest RWD cars at the event, period. Cool.

Do corvettes not come out on the west coast? I believe some showed up at Road Atlanta and kicked some ass.

I haven't seen any serious Corvette's in awhile.

A Corvette is certainly an easy button to serious speed. However, no car is a guaranteed winner. There was a Corvette in LRWD at this SLB... Ultimate Street Car Challenge competitor, presumably well set up, nowhere near the podium. That said, the LRWD record at Buttonwillow is held by a Corvette, so you know it could get up there.

Looking at results from the last two years of GTA at Road Atlanta... several Corvettes attended in various classes. Only one made it on a podium (2nd place).

There have been vettes in Gridlife events that have been serious threats to the front runners. This thing comes to mind. https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...g?format=2500w

While I agree that we all want to see further development and racing wins on a BP powerplant, one does have to wonder how much faster that thing would be with a more historically reliable powertrain at the types of power we are talking about. I mean, we are still in stock LS territory (power-wise) but I'd bet the reliability of a less stressed powertrain alone you'd see lap times drop since you should be able to get way more worry free race hours on a less stressed engine.

There is a bit of a weight penalty with the LS, and the transmission options are all heavy as well. It honestly surprised me that E mentioned even thinking about an LS.

In theory, maybe.
But v8 swapped Exocets weigh what my ST5 car weighs(few hundred pounds lighter than Vegas), and only go a second or two faster than Spec Miatas.
V8 swapped cars require every other system of the car to also get heavier.

It would be easier and more worthwhile to put Vegas' drivetrain into OGK, resulting in a total package that is probably 400lbs lighter. Upgrade to a 3d splitter and make the two tweaks we've already outlined to the engine package.
330/2250 Bullet 2017
419/2470 Vegas 2018
600/2100 OGK 19/20 theory

As an aside, we should all look to Formula D cars for some stateside inspiration. Tube front, tube rear, pretty similar "production unibody" remnants must remain. 1000whp is normal. Pretty sure the top 10 FD cars would port into Limited class and be on the podium.

Sure. But at the same time you are making reliable power, lap after lap. I'd imagine the weight gain being smaller than most think considering he is probably running the largest intercooler he can fit in there as well as various other bits. Even a K20/K24 would be a superior powertrain choice and he could bolt it up to the current transmission that's in there using kmiata adapters.

Damn. That's quite surprising to me. That's with ST/TT (not HPDE) drivers in both the spec and Exo? That seems like a much smaller delta than I would be expecting.

However if that 19/20 setup could be possible, and you guys have time to dial it in, I can see that being disgustingly fast.

P.S. Make a SuperMiata splitter/air dam kit :)

Exocets have stupid amounts of drag. A fully "lightened" Exo with a VVT motor has a lower top speed then a normal 1.8 miata. They just make up the time under braking and in corners.

No doubt LS swaps weigh less than a lot of people think (mine was 2114 before the cage and some other stuff, I'm guessing between 2200-2300 now with cage but no aero), but there still is a trickle down effect on the drivetrain components of extra weight. But like Dan said, the LS miatas usually aren't as fast as you'd think. They're still lots of fun though :D

...do they, though?

They lose six seconds on the straights and make up two in the corners.

Your skepticism is well founded.

I have not yet seen any in car video or data that conclusively shows an Exo going as fast as a Miata with equal equipment, let alone faster. Lots of ambiguous testimonials (and anger!). They're fun for sure, just not faster on a road course than a Miata with the same mods.
We spent several days on both track and street dialing in our Xida Race and XL with Sonny, data recording, pyrometers, suspension cams, careful kinematic and chassis measurements. IOW, not a peanut gallery guess but an opinion based on direct personal experience and significant data collection.

I'm sure this will get me some hate mail. To that I say, show me proof otherwise and I'll change my opinion.

Not really. If you look at OEM 6 speeds, sure. But Tex/Jerico/TKO options are all under 95# dry weight to my knowledge.

This is true, although I've heard nothing but bad things about the TKO for road course duties and >6000rpm. Hadn't ever looked into the other two though