Ariel Atom V8
The Ariel Atom is unlike any car sport or otherwise that you’ve ever seen. It doesn’t feature the usual automobile list of creature comforts. For starters it has no top, no windshield, no side body panels, no doors, no air conditioner, no heater, no electric windows, no electric seats, no roomy trunk, no…… get the point? I guess it would be more accurate to say that the Ariel Atom is more akin to a big boy’s go-kart than a car.
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0-60 in 2.9 seconds
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ability to generate an ungodly amount of G’s
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top speed of 140 mph (230 km/h)-150 mph (240 km/h)
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light weight, 1,005 lbs
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price starts at only $65,000.00
For the faint of heart a motorcycle helment might be the preferred gear that you’d want to take along to test drive the Ariel Atom.
The US Atom sports a 4 cylinder turbo charged GM Ecotec engine that replaces the British version’s supercharged Honda Type-R K20 engine. Securing the Ecotec from GM was not an easy task. Craig Bramscher, the owner of Bramscher motor, and the rights to the North American manufacture and sale of the car was getting no where in trying to interest GM in providing the Ecotec engine as the Atom’s principle power plant.
One day Bramscher gets a call from Jay Leno who had seen the Ariel Atom at an auto show in California. Leno was interested in buying one but packing an Ecotec instead of the stock Honda engine. Bramscher informs Leno of his GM Ecotec dilemma. Within an hour Leno …… (for conclusion watch the video).
