I can't stop talking about the Ariel Atom - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Tron_fdc · 07-31-2007, 07:06 PM

(You know, the one from Top Gear http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaWoo82zNUA )

I drove one today and holy crap was it unreal. I've never been in something that was that fast, and cornered that hard, and was as responsive as this car. I did the half day Ariel Atom experience at Race City (http://www.arielatomexperience.com), and got to take a 275 HP, 1400lb rocket on the track for about an hour with a professional driver at my side. Definately the best $500 I've spent in a long, long time. Frickin unbelievable cars, and I can't stop trying to figure out how I can buy one.

I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who likes to go fast and scare the crap out of themselves. I know I did, and so did about 4 of my friends.

Nuje · 07-31-2007, 07:18 PM

I can take one of those out for $500? HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!! I am doing that. That's tremendous!

urban1 · 07-31-2007, 07:20 PM

http://www.arielatomexperience.com/

your link had brackets in it.

Tron_fdc · 07-31-2007, 07:26 PM

Still 2 days left to do it, and I'm sure there are spots. 2 cars were sitting today while we drove the hell outta the other 6.

Seriously, if you want to drive a car that handles better than most supercars, for a small amount of money, on a racetrack with no speed limit, this is it.

JohnnyB · 07-31-2007, 07:33 PM

That looks like a hell of a fun time.

Tron_fdc · 07-31-2007, 07:49 PM

Yeah, the first half hour you would be paced by a tricked out BMW M3, and once you got the feel for the track and the car.....the Atom would flat out blow the doors off the beemer. I still can't get over how fast the thing was.

A friend of mine grew up driving Ferarri's, Lamborghini's...pretty much every kind of supercar you can think of, and the only car he could compare it to was a Mclaren M8 his old man used to race. I'm pretty sure the Atom would still take it in the corners though!

bluejays · 07-31-2007, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

Yeah, the first half hour you would be paced by a tricked out BMW M3, and once you got the feel for the track and the car.....the Atom would flat out blow the doors off the beemer. I still can't get over how fast the thing was.

A friend of mine grew up driving Ferarri's, Lamborghini's...pretty much every kind of supercar you can think of, and the only car he could compare it to was a Mclaren M8 his old man used to race. I'm pretty sure the Atom would still take it in the corners though!

Dammit! The full day is a whopping $1800, but the half day in Toronto (Belleville) WAS only $500, but it ended July 18th. That is insanely cheap for a car that may be the fastest in the world. Damn, wish I knew, what an opportunity. Lucky guy. What was the top speed you took it to?

Tron_fdc · 07-31-2007, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fleury

Dammit! The full day is a whopping $1800, but the half day in Toronto (Belleville) WAS only $500, but it ended July 18th. That is insanely cheap for a car that may be the fastest in the world. Damn, wish I knew, what an opportunity. Lucky guy. What was the top speed you took it to?

Close to 120MPH (barely into 4th gear), but they put in a cone chicane 3/4 of the way down the straightaway to slow you down. Apparently they were worried about people flying off the end of the track, which would be a real possibility. Things come at you pretty darn quick, even with a pro driver sitting beside you telling you to slow down.

These things had so much torque that you didn't even need to shift out of 3rd gear. There were maybe 3 spots on the track that I could get it into 4th, and it accelerated so quick you were right back into 3rd because the corners were coming up so fast.

At the end of the day the instructors took out the students to show us what the cars could REALLY do. I thought I was doing well, but these guys were unreal. So much fun.