I drove down to Brammo with Adam today and took a test drive of the Ariel Atom, so I'll add some comments about my experience.
The staff was amazing. Very polite, knowledgeable, and true car enthusiats. Brian, Tom, and Craig were all top knotch.
In the whole, the car was amazing. The steering was incredible, very fast, and very predicable. The suspension on the test car was VERY easy to drive, and very forgiving of both early and late apex corrections. The car felt planted and stable, with no hints of flex at all. If anything I would say, it is that the car is very easy to drive fast, especially in the 205hp version. It felt like you could drive at 9/10s with the work of 5/10s.
The car assemble quality was excellent, and with more the 40k miles on the motor it sounded and ran like new. Clearly the cars are well engineered and assembled. The test car had the Recaro seats, which were comfortable. I too would probably choose the single plastic seat, as I liked the side support better. The 4 point harness belt system on the demo car was also very nice and easy to get in and out of.
The brakes on the demo car were the Wilwoods (at least in the front), and are of course manual (no vacuum assist). Even factoring in the lack of assist, I suspect the brake pad choice may have been limiting the initial bite in. If stood on hard, the brakes could pull the car down pretty quick however. If I were using the wilwood system, I think I would try the 'E' pads which have great around town grip and good fade resistance, but with unfortunately more dust. My choice will be the Alcons without doubt.
As for the power delivery, I would concur with my friend Adams comments.. Everyone has their own bias as to what is fast. In our case (PDXTuning), we are tune almost exclusively Subaru chassis cars (WRXs, STIs, Legacys, etc). From my personal perspective, my daily driver WRX is in the 450whp range, and I consider the 596whp PDXSTI to be fairly quick. Translating 596whp thru the AWD system on these cars would net something in the 700 crank hp range, delivered to chassis with about 3200 lbs of weight. That would translate to perhaps 350hp at 1600lbs, or 270ish at 1200 lbs. Keep in mind that AWD has some advantages in power delivery off the line, so it is not apples to apples. None the less, the 205hp car was quick, but not the mind blowing scare the driver quick that I suspect the 300hp version will be.
At 205hp, the car was very easy to drive hard at corner exit, and made good use of all of the traction available. The 300hp version seems like it would be the perfect mix of power however, as it would give you the extra umph to hang the tail out more, and once you are fully hooked up, give you the supercar acceleration we all want. ;)
I should add that the 205hp car was not in any way 'slow'. It would out accelerate most things you would see on the road, and does so on pump 92 fuel with great fuel economy as well.
Anyways, on to some pictures!
The test car..
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Here Adam enjoys the seating.
A Honda Engine Atom, with some VERY nice Carbon Fiber work!