First Official Pictures
10 October 2012 16:20
It's difficult for Ariel to come up with a mid-life refresh for
its cars - there simply aren't that many bits to fiddle with in the
first place. Still, the boys from Somerset must have succeeded, because
what we have here is the freshly updated Ariel Atom 3.5.
As the name suggests, it's a development of the Ariel Atom 3, with a
crop of minor visual tweaks and some mechanical changes too, keeping Caterham and BAC looking over their shoulders.
What exactly is new on the 2012 Ariel Atom 3.5?
You'll do well to spot the visual changes: they come in the form of
new triple-lens front light clusters with LED indicators, and full LED
rear lights.
Ariel claims more and more of its customers are using their cars as
'regular transport' (respect is due) and Ariel has tried to make the
Atom less of a daylight-only proposition. The only other cosmetic
difference is a reprofiled bonnet panel.
Anything different under the Ariel Atom's skin?
What little skin there is, yes. The exoskeletal chassis has seen
changes brought on from lessons learned in the Mugen Atom and 500bhp V8
model.
In 3.5 guise, the Atom is stiffer, and boasts its best-yet torsional
rigidity. The dampers and engine mounts have also been revised to take
advantage of the stronger base.
And what of that engine? The Atom still comes in two flavours of
Honda VTEC four-cylinder, which in normally aspirated guise screams out
245bhp. However, the supercharged version has had power lifted in the
Atom 3.5, up from 300bhp to 310bhp, with changes to the intake, mapping
and fuel system also liberating more mid-range poke.
You'll be reading your rapidly increasing speed from an all-new
single-screen LCD instrument display, which sits below a row of F1-style
gearshift change-up lights. A data logger can be added to the driver
display to give real-time information including lap times and a G-force
calculator.
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