Here’s a little write up about my first real trackday with the Atom.
It was the first real trackday with the Atom for me (only did a day with disabled children before), first time I drove the Atom with R888 semi’s at speed and first time on this specific track ever. All though I have done quite some trackday’s with my previous cars and have quite some experience with shifter karts on outdoor tracks, I was quite excited about this day!
It was a 230km ride to the TT circuit in Assen, Netherlands, it is most famous for it’s biking heritage. Because of that purpose there is lot’s of “grass” to slide over if one doesn’t make a corner or forgets to brake in time. This was something I like and the fact that we hired the complete track with 10 cars, in the end there where 15 cars at the track and no more than about 5-6 in the same moment on the track, so nice and quiet to get used to the car, the track and the new tyres.
At first I drove behind an experienced driver to understand the lines of the track, get a feel with the clipping points and experience where the braking points should be. At this point a prepped BMW E36, 2 prepped Clio RS’s and a Porsche GT3 flew by on the left and right, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to collect enough pace to not be passed all the time, these guys where professionals and semi-professionals in prepped cars. Than I got in the car with the “instructor”in his regular, non prepped BMW 5 series and he explained the track basics again, but this time phace to phace in his car.
Now I went out on my own to get some laps done! After 3-4 laps I really got a hold of the track and my pace got consistent allready, all laps within half a second from another around 2.09. Some laps later the instructor went out on the track behind me, in order to pass me and show me some more lines, but he didn’t get passed me…instead he only saw the rear of the Atom for a couple of seconds and than he gave up, he told me afterwards I found a whole lot of speed in this little time.
Inspired by the great feeling the car gave me in the first stint, I went out for another and this time I noticed the stability and trust the Atom gave me, it wasn’t tricky at all, it communicates beautifully where the end of the grip is and I was perfectly able to turn in and correct the car with the gas and steeringwheel as wanted oversteer or balance at the end of the mechanical grip, all this without getting the idea the car will bite at some point. I was happily surprised as I read some stories in the past about guys saying the car was snappy and tricky…I think the opposite!
With the R888’s up to temp I could push the braking point to the limit and after a nice straight over 200km/u, full brakes at 50-60 meters was possible (depending on the corner following) This car (with Alcon’s front) really brakes like a madman!
At this point I noticed the fully prepped (and on full slicks) Golf in front of me braked about 40-50 meters earlier than me! I got so used to the massive braking power allready, I almost forgot normal 1300kg cars need to brake some bits earlier.
Now I had trust enough in the Atom and I got to really push it to (my personal) max, I had never driven a car on the limit like this with so much confidence, at some points I was able to powerslide a bit, but mostly I drove on grip and to my own surpise I got passed all the prepped cars ánd the GT3…the difference from a 2nd gear bent onto the straight, together with the Porsche was pretty big and this made me smile…I have never been able to outperform a GT3! In corners the Atom turned out to be a lovely dancing partner.
There also was a prepped Saker with it's professional driver training that day, but (luckily
) it wasn’t on the track with me, so I seemed to be the fastest car on track at this point.The most important thing I learned this day is that all my previous cars where streetcars in the basis and where tweaked in order to perform as well as possible on the track, but the Atom really is and feels like a trackcar tweaked just enough to be road legal. Obviously I knew this allready, but now I really felt what the Atom is able to do, it didn’t let me down, engine and brakes felt better and better on the fly instead of fading after a while of spiritual driving! The R888’s gave lots of grip and the lack of downforce in the long and fast lasting corners was just fun! I don’t need to put the lap record, I only need to have maximum driving fun and that’s exactly what I got!!!
Here are some pics of the day, there is a litlle video, but the maker hasn’t uploaded it yet, I will update if he has. Unfortunately my onboard cam died when driving out pitlane in the first lap, so I have exactly 2 seconds of material...
