Atom 4 on Top Gear

[Anon]

Ultima RS .

PLEASE do a build thread.

It is the ultimate crazy car. After seeing the RS at Goodwood, I am sold. I will think how to do this, maybe a video series mapping back to the manual, something no one has done yet. Also a video on the parts needed would be helpful, this has taken me hours of research and learning.

[MingtheMerciless]

At the moment I’m so dizzy with excitement at possibly the only thing there is to look forward to (I might have had a September delivery before shut down) that my build slot is only available for a £100k premium .

Yes Simon pls do build thread on Ultima .

On a slight non sequitur, I will have to cut back on importing to Ireland and paying import tax and leave in the UK. Anyone have theirs in storage and have a recommendation? I’m thinking Wales for 6 months (EVO Triangle and the cool roads around there and Anglesea), Scotland 6 months (OMR and too many to mention) and maybe somewhere in the south for a quick exit to the continent. First trip direct from Crewkerne will be to Pyrenees, weather and time of year permitting. Even if I have to wear a space suit.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[John Scherrer]

... I need to get some nice Norfolk ale for the chaps at the factory

They're apple crunching cider drinkers but have been known to stoop to this stuff ..

Cottage brewing Atom Gold.jpg (84.7 KiB) Viewed 682 times

[Karl V]

[cvjoint]

I once dreamed of an Ultima as well. I still think it's a fantastic creation but I wouldn't buy one. The one time I had a chance to run against one at Laguna Seca it broke down the first minute. Not sure it even left the paddock. Then I owned a C7 Corvette Z06 and did nothing but break down and overheat. Now there is even a midengined Corvette. I suppose if I absolutely had to own a Chevy powered car I'd be happiest with an Ultima or if I could garage 10 cars I'd have one.

A V10 Ultima would be nicest but who would spend years and years to make it run reliably? Then you still have a car that's 1,000 lbs heavier than an Atom and still not as fun or as reliable.

It definitely pegs the meter on the cool factor.

[Anon]

I once dreamed of an Ultima as well. I still think it's a fantastic creation but I wouldn't buy one. The one time I had a chance to run against one at Laguna Seca it broke down the first minute. Not sure it even left the paddock. Then I owned a C7 Corvette Z06 and did nothing but break down and overheat. Now there is even a midengined Corvette. I suppose if I absolutely had to own a Chevy powered car I'd be happiest with an Ultima or if I could garage 10 cars I'd have one.

A V10 Ultima would be nicest but who would spend years and years to make it run reliably? Then you still have a car that's 1,000 lbs heavier than an Atom and still not as fun or as reliable.

It definitely pegs the meter on the cool factor.

A lot of the overheating issues you see with Ultimas tend to be the bigger LS7 engines. The newer LT engines run cooler. I will also probably upgrade the radiator and have no plans to supercharge it. If I go for the LT4 that is supercharged but the LT1 is not so should run cooler. The LT1 is considerably cheaper too and around 450bhp, more than enough for my level of talent.

There are only 3 exotic/rare cars I ever want to own they are; Atom, Radical, and an Ultima. They are the most extreme cars available today. Of course the BAC Mono is also a fantastic car but not worth the money imo, for the price of the mono and can get all 3. I will buy a Radical at some stage, probably a cheap SR3 RX 1500 to play with.

[Yogiatom]

Both collecting cars and the market on line action sites have recently sold Bac Mono's for 60,000 gbp. If I had space I would love to own one as well as the Atom. Be interesting to compare the drive of the two cars.

[Anon]

Both collecting cars and the market on line action sites have recently sold Bac Mono's for 60,000 gbp. If I had space I would love to own one as well as the Atom. Be interesting to compare the drive of the two cars.

Yes they are the old gen 1 cars for that price with the smaller lump and issues that went with them. I would be too worried about reliability of those early cars tbh. Funny, if you drape a fabric cover over your Atom - it looks remarkably like a mono shape! I noticed this in my garage last night.

[cvjoint]

A lot of the overheating issues you see with Ultimas tend to be the bigger LS7 engines. The newer LT engines run cooler. I will also probably upgrade the radiator and have no plans to supercharge it. If I go for the LT4 that is supercharged but the LT1 is not so should run cooler. The LT1 is considerably cheaper too and around 450bhp, more than enough for my level of talent.

There are only 3 exotic/rare cars I ever want to own they are; Atom, Radical, and an Ultima. They are the most extreme cars available today. Of course the BAC Mono is also a fantastic car but not worth the money imo, for the price of the mono and can get all 3. I will buy a Radical at some stage, probably a cheap SR3 RX 1500 to play with.

It's tough to cool a 6.2 to 7L engine at full boil, let alone the forced induction ones. I think as long as you avoid LS9, LT4, LT5 you have a chance to cool it. My LT4 block exploded when it went. I thought they were tougher, commercial grade stuff for trucks plus mine had forged internals from factory. I don't really like engines that go out by losing rods and go piercing the block. When the firewall has to play dual role fire and retention wall I get a little uneasy. An LT1 is relatively unstressed so perhaps it will last, plus the Ultima is light.

I see that preference for formula and LMP analog cars. Yes, I think that's where all the fun is! The Atom is the best though, Honda power, light, open cockpit, stick shift, and aero can be added and can still massacre the berms like a production car. A Radical is a rather dainty thing that has to be kept off the bouncy stuff. Not as exciting to me, plus no stick no buy.

[Anon]

Interesting about your LT4. The firewall in an Ultima is simply 2 pieces of 16 gauge (or there about's) of aluminium.

Drive a Radical RXC, that is exciting. It has so much power, it just eats up the tarmac. The Atom will always out brake it in the corners, but on corner exit the Atom doesn't stand a chance. That said, the Atom 4 still feels faster when you press the loud pedal. The SR3 I guess doesn't feel that quick like an Atom, but you can get them for a steal and they feel like they are on rails even in the wet. Then you look at your lap times and realize just how quick they are.

I like all of them and they are all British. I certainly love my Atom 4 and would say it's by far the best car purchase ever and I haven't even driven it on track yet. I will be adding wings to it when they are back in stock in hopefully a couple weeks when it gets it's first service, now completed 500 miles. I am adding lap timing to it now (GPS module and smartycam) and some further tech. It's nice both Ultima and Atom's now use AIM's hardware- the best in the industry in my view way better than Race Technologies and much more advanced.

[atomiser]

Here is a teaser from my ultima evo build ... where men are men and 1300nm means clutchless gear changes ...

Screenshot_20200603-141727_WhatsApp.jpg (746.06 KiB) Viewed 486 times

[Anon]

Here is a teaser from my ultima evo build ... where men are men and 1300nm means clutchless gear changes ...

Screenshot_20200603-141727_WhatsApp.jpg

When did you start the evo build? have you considered upgrading the clams to the rs?

[atomiser]

Yes and will probably go for RS - once the this beast is IVAed. Unfortunately the build was too far and the wait times too long for RS body for me to delay and change over

The LSX supercharged has also proved problematic to tune to meet the emission standards because of its overlapping cams.

Originally going for ceramics but that didn't work out - the current Ultima setup doesnt apply enough force.

This my second build so alot of the lessons from the first build have gone into this one - in tank fuel pumps, single belt to drive supercharger to bring the engine forward, catch can for all breathers, straight cut gearbox etc etc