The Exocet Miata Is the Most Fun You'll Ever Have Doing Arts and Crafts
If you’re looking for a great car project, start with a Miata and an Exocet kit.
Written by Alex Reale
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
For the tinkerers and junior mechanics among us, taking apart a car and putting it back together can be an extremely fun way to spend a Saturday. And though the world of DIY was once the domain of weekend warriors, like it or not, it’s gone commercial.
Many companies have recognized and catered to this builder’s atmosphere by making car modification kits their business. Exomotive is one such firm, and Exocet their car kit.
Why start with a Miata?
Not all cars are created equally, especially if you’re planning to strip them down to their essentials and then build them back up with different parts.
The Mazda Miata is an ideal candidate for this type of work.
Hot Cars
calls it a “good project car,” thanks to its relative affordability as compared to other sports cars, its reliability, and its superior strength-to-weight ratio.These qualities are great for a car that you don’t want to take apart and put back together, but if you insist on doing a build, then you can’t go far wrong when you start with ease of acquisition, trust in capabilities, and a strong chassis.
A Mazda Miata also doesn’t mind a good hearty modification, says Hot Cars. Unlike some of its finicky compatriots, a Miata will happily integrate changes to camber, spoilers, fuel injections, and even brakes.
Whether you want to beef up your Miata with insane extras or strip it down to just its skeleton, one thing’s for sure: your project will have great bones.
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What does Exomotive do?
Exomotive is a company that supports these projects, and they’re huge fans of the Miata build. Exomotive gushes about the Miata’s “excellent platform for a new exoskeletal kit car,” and calls the building process “lightweight, low cost and massive fun.”
In the years since developing this project, they’ve done some tinkering to improve upon safety, torque, and ease of build. The end result: a Mazda chassis with no roof or doors, hot on the heels of any roadster worth its salt.
In
one video
, a man who used the Exomotive Exocet kit shows off his build to a car vlogger. He explains that he ripped the top of a Miata off, added an exoskeleton on, and shed about 900 pounds from the car in the process. The total new weight of his build, which is like a stylish white drag racer, is about 1500 pounds. It barely fits two people, has no roof, and there’s a joyful Mario Kart feel to it.
The altered Miata is taken for a test drive, and along the way, the builder explains that this project required no welding at all—only regular tools and regular mechanical skills. He calls it “Legos for adults.”
The vlogger is thrilled with the result, crowing multiple times about how it “feels like it weighs nothing.” They whip around California mountain roads in this tiny rice rocket and it looks like nothing but great fun. Maybe it’s time to pull the trigger on that used Miata.
MORE: The Latest News on the 2023 Mazda 6, Will It Be As Good As We Think?
Saving on car insurance
Whether you’re planning to strip down your Miata or not, you’ll want great car insurance. The
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This level of service is why Jerry earned a 4.7/5 rating on the App Store and made it the top insurance app in the country.
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