Super charged ariel atom and autocar magazine
Discussion
hi guys my name is steve . my ariel atom 2 should arive in a couple of weeks its all built just waiting for the papperwork to come through .my atom is the first one with a jackson racing supercharger fitted to it giving it around 280 BHP. i do believe ariel will be doing it as an upgrade shortley.anyway ariel asked me if i would alow auto car to test drive it as it was the first one. this is before i have even recieved the car and driven it myself. at first i was quite excited about the idea but after thinking about it i said no. this has made me feel a little uncomftable as i feel im letting simon and tom down {the guys at ariel}. just realy asking everyone what they think of this? have i done the write thing? what you would do in this situation.
I wouldnt let the magazine anywhere near it! I think you were dead right to refuse,Simon could easily fit a supercharger to the demo car,couldnt he?? I paid the best part of 28k for my Atom2 so yours must be a few more 1000's on top of that figure. Do you think the guy driving it around the test track will have that in the back of his mind whilst he is thrashing the arse off your pride and joy ,somehow I think not.
Mark
Mark
Agree with all of you. Never let a jouro near your pride and joy - they don't give a damn - e.g. dial in thousands of revs and sideslip the clutch and damn the consequences. Let Simon's demontrator demonstrate. There are so many horror stories about what mags do to private individual's cars.
However, If you take delivery before March 27th, we'd all love to see you and sit in the passenger seat at Mallory!
However, If you take delivery before March 27th, we'd all love to see you and sit in the passenger seat at Mallory!
Yes in deed Bruce, a cracking idea !! Passenger rides in the first supercharged atom.
Steve ,we would love to see you at mallory but get it booked quick as the places are filling up quick,if your car isnt ready by then I could maybe borrow the engine and put it into my chassis, another 70 horses would be very welcome.
mark
ps, I had a guided tour round the Radical factory today,they let me sit in the new S4 road car,much smaller in size than their usual cars,and very quick too !
Steve ,we would love to see you at mallory but get it booked quick as the places are filling up quick,if your car isnt ready by then I could maybe borrow the engine and put it into my chassis, another 70 horses would be very welcome.
mark
ps, I had a guided tour round the Radical factory today,they let me sit in the new S4 road car,much smaller in size than their usual cars,and very quick too !
glad to here most of you agree with my answer . unfortunatly cant make malery track day due to kids first birthday on the 26 march and i would have to leave then to get to mallary refreshed as i live on the south coast,another problem is i have no trailer yet not enough mony after paying for the atom.mark you got away lightly at 28K mines nearer 34K so another 2.5K for a trailer will have to wait. hopfully you guys will arange another day soon and i will definatly come,be good to get together and compaire the cars to see if the supercharger is worth paying the extra cash for.ive driven the demo car and it was great fun although alot more vibration than my old 340r. any one had the spoiler kit fitted intrested to know what thats like as thats the only opstion i did not have. i also here new lightweight magnesium wheels are in the pipeline so start saving guys goto go bye speak soon
Hi Group,
£6k for a supercharger convertion is good value me thinks, I turbo'd my Grinnall scorpion and the whole package was the thick end of £8k,and considering you have the only one on the planet its got to be worth it.
I am even considering having mine done at a later date,I'll see how yours performs first.
I had the front and rear wings fitted to mine ,the only problem is adjusting it,extremly fiddly! also you have to be very very aware of the road conditions,ie pot holes etc. I clonked my wing the first day on a kerb whilst turning the car round,I have since remade the wing end plates from 7mm dural and fitted small aeriels so that I can see the position of the wing. I have about 10 degrees of downsweep on the front and rear wing , the car is very steady at 120mph, I havn't been faster than that yet as I have only done 600 miles.
Just a general point,my miles per gallon is shit! I reckon I get 25 ish ,what do any of the rest of you get??
Regards
Mark
£6k for a supercharger convertion is good value me thinks, I turbo'd my Grinnall scorpion and the whole package was the thick end of £8k,and considering you have the only one on the planet its got to be worth it.
I am even considering having mine done at a later date,I'll see how yours performs first.
I had the front and rear wings fitted to mine ,the only problem is adjusting it,extremly fiddly! also you have to be very very aware of the road conditions,ie pot holes etc. I clonked my wing the first day on a kerb whilst turning the car round,I have since remade the wing end plates from 7mm dural and fitted small aeriels so that I can see the position of the wing. I have about 10 degrees of downsweep on the front and rear wing , the car is very steady at 120mph, I havn't been faster than that yet as I have only done 600 miles.
Just a general point,my miles per gallon is shit! I reckon I get 25 ish ,what do any of the rest of you get??
Regards
Mark
display2u said:Never actually measured it! It seems that a 20 litre jerry can lasts about 3 sessions on a track day (and less before I had the new-style petrol tank and integral pump put in!). Given the aerodynamics (or total lack of them) on an Ariel, 25mpg when driven in a 'spirited fashion' doesn't seem too bad.
Just a general point,my miles per gallon is shit! I reckon I get 25 ish ,what do any of the rest of you get??
Regards
Mark
!! 25 to the gallon was taking it really easy, honest , I dread to think what it will be when we get to mallory. Hi Steve,
We had the first ever production Atom 2 and gave it back to Areil for a Mag, they made sure it was looked after and we didn't have any problems.
Tom and Simon did make sure the it was looked after.
Ariel is saying that the conversion will be a retro kit for about £3-4k, the extra money over the £28k would be for additional extras, racing rods, Alcons, Adj shocks etc, all adds up!
See you all on the 27th.
Julian
We had the first ever production Atom 2 and gave it back to Areil for a Mag, they made sure it was looked after and we didn't have any problems.
Tom and Simon did make sure the it was looked after.
Ariel is saying that the conversion will be a retro kit for about £3-4k, the extra money over the £28k would be for additional extras, racing rods, Alcons, Adj shocks etc, all adds up!
See you all on the 27th.
Julian
Hello everybody,
I'm Jean-Pascal, first french owner of an atom 2 since february 04. Fantastic car . i'll try to homologate it in France, but i can drive during 4 months with GB plates.
Steve, i have seen your car in the "factory" and have discussed of it with simon. He told me that he will make a supercharged car for him (or modify its Atom, i don't remember) in a few weeks, so don't worry about the Autocar test.
The amount for the Supercharger seems high, go to www.jacksonracing.com to have an idea of the selling price (without labor cost ...), but simon confirm about 6 000 Euros.
I will drive the Atom on a fench track this WE (Val de Vienne, 50 miles south-East of Poitiers, if you know), hope to have some rain for fun.
If someone interested, i have made a small video of the atom 2 acceleration , but its 5.4MO to transfer.
I'm Jean-Pascal, first french owner of an atom 2 since february 04. Fantastic car . i'll try to homologate it in France, but i can drive during 4 months with GB plates.
Steve, i have seen your car in the "factory" and have discussed of it with simon. He told me that he will make a supercharged car for him (or modify its Atom, i don't remember) in a few weeks, so don't worry about the Autocar test.
The amount for the Supercharger seems high, go to www.jacksonracing.com to have an idea of the selling price (without labor cost ...), but simon confirm about 6 000 Euros.
I will drive the Atom on a fench track this WE (Val de Vienne, 50 miles south-East of Poitiers, if you know), hope to have some rain for fun.
If someone interested, i have made a small video of the atom 2 acceleration , but its 5.4MO to transfer.
Hi Jean-Pascal!
Welcome to the Atom Forum! I have raced mine at Folembray - no idea if that is a well known circuit in France... It's a very short but very twisty track.
Perhaps if you would like an outing with us, we could come down to Brands Hatch for a track day - in Kent so not too far from le Chunnnel! Or better still, we could have a trip to France!
Welcome to the Atom Forum! I have raced mine at Folembray - no idea if that is a well known circuit in France... It's a very short but very twisty track.
Perhaps if you would like an outing with us, we could come down to Brands Hatch for a track day - in Kent so not too far from le Chunnnel! Or better still, we could have a trip to France!
yes had the car for about 2 weeks now it had to go back due to blocked injectors.simone has fitted an inline fuel filter now and has also upgradeded the ECU.done about 400 miles in it now,very very fast. makes a great whistle noise as the supercharger spins up. very tricky to drive slowly as the slightest touch of the thottle makes the car shoot foward a bit kangaro stile for the first 50 miles.the clutch is quite hard to press down just wondering if anyone else has the same problem also the bite piont very high. the brack light also stoped working but fixed that now wire completly snaped in unit. found small amount of brake fluid on the footwell only a few drops so im keeping an eye on that. hope its not just me that has these little problems. i have asked somon to send me a copy of the dyno test 3 times now but still have not recieved it. the car is sopposed to be 280 BHP but last time simon quoted 275 BHP and on the ugraded ECU it says atom 260 so im asuming thats 260 BHP so im going to get it dyno tested so ill know for sure. hondata in kent said that they would do it and that they could check the suppercharger to as there is a new pully wheel now that increases the boost presure from 5 PSI to 7.5 PSI bigger ingectors and unfortanatly another ECU however they are quotting over 300 BHP and soposidly still relible,( not that the cars been reliable so far).but unfortantly it all cost money.i also asked about the dymag wheels had a quote from ariel of 1825 pounds not including tryres and thats tradding in my wheels as well.bit pricy,contacting them directly now. still at the end of the day the car is fantastic fun , had to laugh at myself when accelerating with just sunglasses on , could not breath . so crash helmit is a must , yes the wheels do spin up easy , tacken it to my local airfield were practised some donuts and some snacky s bends with the back sliding out, noticed little bit of under steer untill you give it a little blip which brings it round great. hopefully going on a trck day to goodwood on may 15. ill take some pictures of the suppercharger when i tack all the plastic covers of, but not realy sure how you put them on the web site so some info on that would be appriciated. still read all the posts though guys and im glad everyone had a good track day at malory and bedford, i contacted the trailer people but they did not have a trailer wide enough so im going to buy my own, as most of the tracks are a little far for me in worthing on the south coast in fact its probly nearer to go and visit Jean-Pascal in france (HE HE) . speak to you guys later cheers STEVE
dentz said:
found small amount of brake fluid on the footwell only a few drops so im keeping an eye on that.
I get that as well - I've never worked out where it's coming from - as far as I can tell it just seems to be soaking through the rubber brake lines that loop down over the foot well, but common sense tells me that can't be happening. I did wonder if it's splashing up out of the fluid resevoir, but it's not that either - oddly, I seem to find a few drips after it's been left in the garage for a while, but if I'm using it regularly it's fine.
I've mentioned it to Simon/Tom a few times, but they've not had any useful ideas.
dentz said:
hope its not just me that has these little problems.
Unfortunately not. I'm sure yours is a lot better than mine was for annoying little initial problems, but make sure you check everything on the car each time you take it out until you're happy that everything's on tight.
Cheers, Ross.
Steve&Ross
When I did Bedford, I couldnt understand the blotches all over my jeans, now I do! I have white steaks all over the tubework from brakefluid obviously dripping out under hard cornering.
Now ,its either, fabricate a drip tray or plastic leggings on the next track day.
I have got used to giving my car a thorough going over before each trip out, you get used to whatspanners,sockets,screwdivers,pliers,hammers,
wrenches,levers you need, and the task can be completed in quite a short time,sometimes as quick as the trip itself!!
When I did Bedford, I couldnt understand the blotches all over my jeans, now I do! I have white steaks all over the tubework from brakefluid obviously dripping out under hard cornering.
Now ,its either, fabricate a drip tray or plastic leggings on the next track day.
I have got used to giving my car a thorough going over before each trip out, you get used to whatspanners,sockets,screwdivers,pliers,hammers,
wrenches,levers you need, and the task can be completed in quite a short time,sometimes as quick as the trip itself!!
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