Ariel Atom

[R33S2]

just got a quote for price $70,000 for base model due for delivery in april 2006 for track only as it is not through compliance yet.

[geno8r]

$70,000 for base... Grrrrrr

I'd just pay that for the S/C. Give it a year & see what prices are like then. They better go street legal in Aust.

[scathing]

I'd be happy with the NA engine. The K20A is a nice enough motor in stock form, but from what I've heard its still got quite a bit of headroom for modification.

I'd rather just run a big set of cams and a free-flowing exhaust and get the thing to scream, than have all that torque and have powerdown issues. The car's only 500kg, after all.

[R33S2]

Quote:-

As you will have seen on Beyond Tomorrow, Ariel Motor Company in the UK make the Atom, a 520kg two seater road car with the dynamics and performance of a single seater racer - a car that's about having a tonne of fun on the road and track. To give you some idea of the background behind the Atom, Ariel designer/director Simon Saunders (who was featured in the programme) has designed both motorcycles and vehicles including being lead exterior designer for Aston Martin for a period in the 80s and being one of the exterior designers for the Porsche 959. He went on to became a successful independent designer, working on a wide variety of projects and also lecturing in vehicle design. In the late nineties he decided to redefine the Lotus 7 concept in a way that incorporated the superbike experience and in 1999 the original Ariel Atom was born with 120 BHP of Rover power. In late 2003 the Atom was significantly updated including Honda powerplants and Ariel have built vehicles at their manufacturing capacity since this time - around 80 vehicles per annum. In early 2006 Ariel will be moving into a new factory premises which we trust will have capacity sufficient for the Australian market.

As for the Atom itself, it's an all-new production vehicle built to customer order from a large variety of options to allow you to create a vehicle that suits your needs. The major option is, of course, your choice of powerplant and the car that Matt Shirvington drove was a 160 BHP car with a Honda Civic Type S engine which gives a similar power to weight to a Porsche 911 Turbo. There is also a naturally aspirated Civic Type R engined car producing 245 BHP and a supercharged version of the same engine producing 300 BHP in which Matt experienced hot laps at the track.

As the Australian and New Zealand distributor for Ariel, we are undertaking Australian compliance for the Atom and expect to have this completed by mid-2006. Those of you familiar with the Australian Design Rules and the compliance process will know that nothing is simple or guaranteed but we will complete it as soon as possible and are making a serious investment in the process over the coming months. On obtaining our import approval we will be intially limited to supplying 25 vehicles per annum across Australia under the DOTARS Low Volume Scheme.

On the pricing of the Atom, Beyond Tomorrow's policy of giving the local pricing for products may have been misleading for you. The 160 BHP Atom does start at £20,000 in the UK and this does correlate to 46,000 Australian dollars for a UK resident wanting to own an Atom and use it in the UK. It does not, however, cover vehicle modifications required to meet the Australian Design Rules, containered shipping to Australia nor Duty, GST and Luxury Car Tax on landing the vehicle locally. With these expenses factored in we expect the landed cost of the base specification 160 BHP Atom to be between $66,000 and $71,000 but the reality is that it's too soon to offer anything that resembles firm pricing. Perhaps the most important aspect is that our sales model is fair and will allow you to take advantages of any improvements in the exchange rate should they arise.

Unquote:-

[LTSJayce]

ok yes, i've done a search and a few people have posted know of this car and know how it performs...

Runs a super charged honda type-r motor

here's a video

clicky mah linky

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...holy F**K! I'm in lust! It's that light I could build extra space in the form of a rack so I could store it near the GT-R,LOL! (please note:GT-R takes priority over even the undeniable talent of the lustful Ariel...!)