Hi Steemians,
I've not posted on Steemit in a while so I thought I'd make my "comeback" with a quick story about my day at a track driving an Ariel Atom. For those of you who don't know, an Atom is one of the fastest road cars in the world. The model that I drove was the 3.5R. Specifications are 350 bhp from a 1,998cc supercharged Honda engine which propels the 550 kg car to 60 mph in 2.6 seconds and to a top speed of 155 mph. Needless to say, even on paper this sounds like an absolute beast of a machine, and boy it was.
The track on which I'd be doing my laps were at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground, and the circuit is shown below. It's a 6.5km circuit and I was to do 3 laps of it.
The first thing I had to do after checking in with 6th Gear Racing was to go on a familiarisation lap in a BMW with one of their trained drivers. He took me around the circuit and described the braking and turning points on the circuit. I've not done anything other than go-karting before, so trying to take all this in knowing that you are sitting in a £70,000 piece of kit, driving around a track with other supercars such as Ferraris and Lamborghinis. If you hit one, you could be in for a hefty bill!
Anyway, after the familiarisation lap, i got my helmet on and did my laps with my instructor.
Before we set off, the instructor said that we would use the first 4 gears just to get out of the pit lane and from then on, the track was set up so that the Atom could get away with just using 4th gear for the whole time. Yes, from about 15mph up to over 100mph, it would only use 4th. 5th and 6th were reserved for going stupidly fast.
It took a while to get used to it and 3 laps were nowhere near enough to be able to confidently unleash the full power of this beast, but my last lap was the best and I was whizzing around the corners at over 60mph and through the chicanes at over 100. The car has no ABS, no traction control and no power steering. It is basically a supercharged go-kart. Amazingly, it is road legal in the UK. Maybe once i have made my millions on steemit, i'll get one to drive around in!!
It was a great day and I hope you have enjoyed reading my story.
Have seen the atom on top gear and know just how fast it is,you must of had an amazing time. Thanks for sharing.
Damn I really want to take on of those for a spin. The fastest car I've driven was a e30 with a twin turbo LS1 pushing around 800hp at the wheels and at around 850kg it was stupidly fast!
To be honest the first time I pushed the throtle to the max I shat myself :D
and that was in 5th gear!
Like others have mentioned: I remember seeing the Ariel Atom featured on Top Gear and reading about it here and there. It's great you were able to drive one. Sounds super exciting.
I wouldn't have guess that you could leave it in 4th gear for the entire track but come to think of it when you have such a good power to weight ratio gear changes would become less necessary when the track is set up to fit the one-gear technique.
OMG I'm so jealous! Honda powered rocket ship. I'll never forget Jeremy Clarksons face on top gear while banging one of those around.
That looks like an awesome day out, I know those cars are crazy fast and a bit scary seeing as you are basically sat on the road in it!
It was just crazy, never felt acceleration like it.
That looks so fun!!!!! Look at the look on that face .. PRICELESS :) I envy you for being able to experience that .. thank you for bring a smile to my face today!!! SUNSHINE247
@markangeltrueman That is a fun driving experience! 🚗
Wow! must of been a great day - Those G-forces must of been incredible!
I am so jealous ! I would love to drive one of those. Seems like you had a lot of fun ;-)
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what a nice way to spend a day :)