Ariel Motors released details of the latest version of the Atom, and it’s the same car as before, only a bit more. The Atom 3.5 gets a new set of light front and rear, but it looks exactly the same as all the old models, and that’s a good thing. Nobody though this ‘toy’ car would soldier on this long, so you’d forgive Ariel for not changing it much.
With the new 3.5 Atom, Ariel engineers has been more busy tweaking the chassis. The car now has more torsional rigidity thanks to a stiffer chassis setup and new engine mounts, as well as revised damping. The goal was to make it more stable on the track. Tuning the Atom for road use is irrelevant, but nevertheless, those changes are said to make the car more tolerable on public roads as well.
The standard 2.0 liter Honda engine remains unchanged in its naturally aspirated version with 245 horsepower. But the output of the supercharged version is increased, slightly, to 310 horsepower. You also get a new LCD screen, which is basically your whole dashboard, with new graphics.
We’re quite keen to see what they have in mind for the next Ariel Atom V8.