Hi! I'm Edward Loh with Motor Trend and we're here at California Speedway with the Ariel Atom. As you may know this legendary track car is imported from England and is a track-day screamer. We're here to put it through spaces. So, hey! Let's go for a ride.
As you can see, one of the most interesting things about the Atom is that all of its inner workings are exposed. Things like the suspension, the brake cylinders, even the pedals you can see from the outside. And on this end, you can see the upper and lower A-arms and the steering rack.
On the passenger side, there is further evidence. This is a purpose-built track-day car. As you can see there is an emergency power shut off and a switch for the fire suppression system. On the driver's side, there is another switch for the fire suppression system which activates the extinguisher that's under the dash.
Acceleration in this car is phenomenal. You have to be careful to launch because if you're not, you can spin out very easily. The car would like to walk sideways, in fact, for top speed runs for a quarter mile, they recommend starting at second gear, just because there's too much real spin at first. So let's check it out!
Alright! I am now on the figure-of-eight course in the Ariel Atom. The power of this car is spectacular. It should be, the car only weighs 1400 pounds and has a 300 horsepower, Supercharged Ecotec engine. It's the same engine you find in Chevy Cobalt, Supercharged and the Saturn ION RedLine.
There are very few cars in the world that handle as well as the Ariel Atom. It's partially because of how stiff and how light it is. I am sitting in a carbon fiber tub surrounded by a work of two-wheeler steel. The suspension is easily at strength. They're corny, two-way adjustable dampers with Aftermarket H&R springs, as for the rubber, Yokohama ADVAN A048, very, very sticky and great for high-speed driving.
If you take it on a racecourse, you have excellent visibility through the bodywork. You're able to position the car anywhere you want on the racetrack. Just look through and see where you're putting your wheels, it's as easy as that. Just driving, you have a non-assisted, rack-and-pinion steering system, a great 5-speed gearbox and the pedals are probably the best part of this vehicle.
They're perfectly spaced for any kind of high-performance driving technique you want to use, whether it's left-foot braking or even throwing. The brakes on this car are equally amazing. Its disc brake is all around with 4-piston Alcon calipers. With the car that's this light weight, that literally means you can stop on a dime.
So obviously, this thing is perfect for the tracks. It's got a lot of power. It's got a great handling. But where we're going next, might be a different story.
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