Top Gear @ 8.30!!!!!

[Supercharged 2]

20:30 Today

BBC2

Top Gear 2004

More automobile-oriented antics presided over by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. The BMW 1 Series elbows its way into the world of the small hatchback, Jeremy and James look at the range of cars flooding the market from South East Asia and the Ariel Atom takes to the track. Meanwhile, Richard splashes about in a supercharged German army half track and Trinny and Susannah are this week's Stars in a Reasonably Priced Car

[Joe M 0]

20:30 Today

BBC2

Top Gear 2004

More automobile-oriented antics presided over by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. The BMW 1 Series elbows its way into the world of the small hatchback, Jeremy and James look at the range of cars flooding the market from South East Asia and the Ariel Atom takes to the track. Meanwhile, Richard splashes about in a supercharged German army half track and Trinny and Susannah are this week's Stars in a Reasonably Priced Car

:shock:

[coolrado 0]

another brilliant show thats made me want an atom even more than ever 8)

[Andi 2,147,483,647]

But would you wanna look like this? :shock:

[coolrado 0]

it would be a small price to pay :lol:

took this pic at the motorshow, the people on the stand kept looking at me strangely as i had been looking at it for half an hour, they are a work of art IMO

[Jim 2]

That Atom was awesome. And the noise from the supercharged Civic Type-R engine was quite nice as well.

 

Just wouldn't really want to use one as a daily driver, especially in the summer. You'd have to wear some kind of plastic sheeting over whatever you wore. And could you imagine trying to justify your purchase to your girlfriend / wife as being 'something sensible'?! :)

[coolrado 0]

damn you beat me to that avatar :lol:

[Jim 2]

I thought someone else would go for it, so I had to act fast :D

[bcstudent 0]

That Atom has similar wheels to my Corrado. Must be special!

[dinkus 10]

But would you wanna look like this? :shock:

 

Heh heh, they used that pic in Top Gear mag a few months ago when they were plugging the "coming up in this season's Top Gear..." bit :)

 

You want to talk to Scruffythefirst about practical daily runners... he's planning on using his 320bhp/600kg Dax Rush as a 'daily runner' and is currently debating if he wants a windscreen or not. No mention of a roof so far....

[G60Jet 1]

Awesome show, they should put that washing machine car on ebay and see if it sells for more than the pacific imports lol

[Jim 2]

Anyone managed to capture to PC that whole Aerial Atom segment?

[BigTartanJudge 0]

Nope sorry, but just to be complete the proper spelling is "Ariel" Atom :wink:,

 

Cheers,

 

BigEastSideVWG60

[coolrado 0]

there is a good section in the new jeremy clarkson hot metal dvd i got for christmas on the atom, pretty similar to the top gear feature 8)

[W3RKD 0]

its on again now too....

[coullstar 0]

Im sorry but that Atom cost £29k and thats a lot of money for a play thing. How can they justify that price?

The bike cost £6k. If you ride a bike properly you will have way more fun than the car.

[bcstudent 0]

Can the Atom lift its front wheels at 100mph? Doubt it! To be honest I'd love one for the track if money was no object but generally, if I'm going to get cold in/on a vehicle I'd like to be able to make progress in traffic. In a jam that Atom's as fast as the Morris Minor it's sitting behind.

 

Anyway it's rice-powered FFS.

[coolrado 0]

i would rather have the atom than any bike, the fact is the atom does beat any bike around a track and is not just a play thing there is no reason you coudnt use the atom every day if you had the right clothing :D

and it would certainly turn more heads than any bike

 

and 29k is a bargain compared to some of the cars the atom trounced on the leader board

[bcstudent 0]

Bikes pulling wheelies turn heads!

[Scruffythefirst 0]

Bikes pulling wheelies turn heads!

 

Dont you mean remove heads?

 

The atom had such a crappy lap too, easily faster than the enzo, but I doubt its faster than a turbo busa dax rush.

[bcstudent 0]

Bikes pulling wheelies turn heads!

 

Dont you mean remove heads?

 

LMFAO

[coolrado 0]

bikes pulling wheelies ooooohhh im sorry but it just makes the rider look like an even bigger prat than they did before wearing their village people outfit :lol:

a mate of mine wheelied for 1 mile on his mountain bike for charity once :wink:

 

even my crappy 50cc honda vision and nsr 125 could pull wheelies so power has b*gger all to do with it :lol:

[CoxyLaad 0]

i would rather have the atom than any bike, the fact is the atom does beat any bike around a track and is not just a play thing there is no reason you coudnt use the atom every day if you had the right clothing :D

and it would certainly turn more heads than any bike

 

hmmmm......I think I might take exception at this, unless you have something other than the top gear programme to go off.

 

A number of points to note:

1. The bloke riding the bike was not cornering anywhere near as hard as the bike is capable of. FFS the bloke's knees were nowhere near the floor! I certainly think this was a staged effort (or a substandard bike rider)

 

2. Why chose a 600 to go up against? why not any of the big sports bikes available? duke, aprilla or any of the big 4 jap monsters? I'll tell you why, cos the ariel would struggle. Did you see that edition of Evo mag?, where they pitted about 10 top sports cars up against a GSXR1000, albiet a quite tuned one. The bike comprehensively demolished all in a straight line drag, which was to be expected, but it also beat everything out on the track including a radical SR-1.

 

I mean f*ck me I would love an Ariel Atom over any of those big bikes, but I doubt it would be quicker than them, under any conditions other than braking into corners. and certainly not on the open roads.

[coolrado 0]

like i said "on the track", ok in a drag race or track with very few corners the bike would trounce the atom but it has been proved many times that a car will beat a bike around a proper track .

 

the bike has two small contact areas wheras the car has four wide contact points so more grip to play with

 

i have often been driving up and down the a5 following bikes who are struggling to stay on the road for some of the sharp corners wheras i could have taken them faster in the rado but get onto the straight and the bike dissapears, but if i wanted straight line speed, knackered knee caps and to look like a human condom i would buy a bike, but i dont so i will stick with cars :wink:

[M777CUSGTI 0]

The supercharger sounded fantastic!

 

Id rather have an atom any day then a gay bike....Dressing up in a leather gimp suit to go and ride a bike isnt my idea of fun :lol:

 

However, scaring the old and frail to death with the sound of that supercharged engine would be fun all day long! :twisted: