I bought a kit car a few weeks ago. Or more precisely, I put a deposit down on a
kit I will build into a car inside my two car garage that is two car sized in
legal definition only. Not in the more
common definition where a person could actually fit two cars and other garage related
stuff inside and close the door.
The car is an Exocet and it’s made by Exomotive. The kit is Miata based and the company is out
of Atlanta. I happen to own a Miata and
also live in suburban Atlanta. I’ll take
alignment of stars for a thousand Alex.
I had been threatening to buy a kit for a while and made the
final decision right before the end of last year. Several reasons finally pushed me over the
edge but it really came down to the fact the car roulette wheel was pointing to
“kit car” when the music stopped. Yes I
do understand the difference between musical chairs and roulette, and also
recognize music is not used in the playing of one of them. But let me explain.
My car hobby life can be pretty accurately be explained by
the Automotive Wheel of Chance. The Automotive
Wheel of Chance works like this:
Imagine a wheel divided into four roughly equal quarters like
one of those child size pizzas where the pepperoni looks like pencil erasers
instead of normal pepperoni. The wheel
rotates and at a certain speed.
Sometimes it rotates quickly and sometimes it rotates slowly. Music plays as it rotates just because.
One slice reads “Maintain the same course”. Which means keep doing what I’m doing. I’ve spent most of my car life doing just
that whether it’s been autocrossing or attending track days or just working on
the same car. There’s nothing wrong with
the wheel spending some time in this quadrant, it’s how I learned to be a
better mechanic, trouble shooter and driver.
Another slice on the Automotive Wheel of Chance, or AWC as I
like to call it, (actually I just made that up right now.) reads “Air Cooled Porsche 911”. The
Porsche 911 is the “it” car for me. I
like Ferraris and think Corvettes are pretty neat but the 911 is the car I fell
in love with as a 13 year old boy reading car magazines and it’s attraction has
stuck with me. I’ve been in the – I’m
going to buy a 911 come hell or high water – phase several times over the past
15 years. As far as I know none of the
three have happened.
In terms of good, solid 1980s Porsche 911 buying tips known
by guys who haven’t actually ever looked at a 911 for sale my knowledge has to
put me in the top three in the country. Books,
web forums, or bulletin boards as they used to call them (I’m looking at you
Pelican Parts), car shows, even a PCA track day or two (in my non Porsche),
I’ve spent time with them all learning and preparing. One of these days the music will stop and the
AWC will be pointing to air cooled 911.
And I’ll be ready.
The third slice of the Wheel says “Build a Kit Car”. Which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who
read the first paragraph. There is
something about assembling a car in a garage from a bare frame to a running
automobile that appeals to me. Back
before the internet was the cornucopia of information it is today, and people
read enthusiast magazines to get information about the interest they were
enthusiastic about, I read an article in a car magazine detailing the assembly
of a Caterham 7. I knew of Caterham and
I knew of how they bought the rights to manufacture and sell kits of the famed
Lotus 7, but I hadn’t really paid much attention beyond that. After reading that article I was convinced I
had to build a kit car. After a little
searching I discovered the existence of several other companies making Lotus 7
type clones. I also discovered all these
companies had two things in common; the types of cars their kits assembled
into, and price. As in they are all
expensive.
Since then my interest in Kit cars has remained and the
internet has become more useful. Every
once in a while I’d fire up the Google and look at kit cars. Each and every time I’d reach the same
conclusion: “These things are awesome, but for 30 grand I’m just going to go
buy a 911”. And then I’d immediately
start looking at 911s for sale.
So I won’t deny affordability played a big part in the
decision. The fact Exomotive builds a
kit that is affordable, allows me to use all my Miata go fast stuff from wheels
to shocks to aluminum fly wheel, heck it even allows the use the
aftermarket sway bar end links currently
on the car, really made it an easy decision.
Plus I can sell a bunch of stuff I’ve accumulated over the years to help
subsidize the build. Anyone need a black
hard top? How about a roll bar? Doors?
Fenders? Anyone?
I’d like to think by this time next year I will be most of
the way through the build, maybe even ready to wade through the registration
process. Or maybe I’ll still have a pile
of parts in the garage. Hopefully it is the former.
Oh yeah, the fourth section on the Automotive Wheel of
Chance is actually divided up into several smaller slices within the
quadrant. Things like:
Sell everything and go kart racing. It can’t be as expensive as everyone
says. The dang things don’t even have
suspension!
Muscle cars are awesome.
I should buy one. They can go
pretty fast in a straight line. And
really, how hard could body work and rust repair be?
Classic British roadsters are practically a rite of passage
in the sports car world. What’s a little
oil fire and electrical short now and again?
Oh, and one more thing.
To my friend Kyle, who lives in southern California and owns a 1973
911T, I’m sorry. I know
you wanted me to get an SC or Carrera. I
did too, but the music kept playing.
I’ll have to live vicariously through you for my 911 fix for a
while.
