As there are no suitable Atom 4's on the market (and I haven't got the patience to wait 28 months for a new one) and those that are for sale seem to be priced well over list or missing the spec. that I want, I was starting to think about Exige S3s, as I'd looked at these back before I bought my Atom.
Anyway, this week I had to make a trip up to the factory in my daily to drop off a couple of parts and as always had a long chat with the ever helpful and fountain of all things Ariel, Rookie. He confirmed he'd need a couple of hours to sort things out and so instead of hanging around, I decided to drive up the M5 to visit the Lotus "agent" in Bristol to see an Exige 410 they had for sale, having made a call to them on the way.
An hour and a half later, I arrived at Rybrook Prestige's very impressive showroom complex in Cribbs Causeway - they sell new and used Bentley, Rolls Royce, Lamborghini, Maserati, McLaren and Lotus from there, but strangely they had no Lotus showroom. The car I had come to see was in fact their entire Lotus inventory - a 2018 5,500 mile Exige 410 Sport, which was bizarrely stored in a warehouse across the road where they kept all the cars which had been sold - it was parked between and Hurracan and a Range Rover. The (McLaren) salesman had warned me over the phone that it had a missed service in 2020 due to the pandemic and had been hill climbed, but when I asked for a test drive he said I couldn't as the MOT had run out. On returing to the very shiny McLaren emporium, he explained he wasn't very familair with Lotus cars and that their only Lotus "specialist" wasn't there, and that when he was, he didn't really have enough to do on Lotus and so was working on their other marques. He explained that Rybrook had only recently been apppinted a Lotus agent and that the new Lotus approach was to sell Emiras & Electres direct to consumers via the Lotus website, not via the dealers, and hence why they had no new cars to show. He admitted that he wasn't really sure what the role of an agent was!
So I left Rybrook unimpressed and returned to the factory to pick up my parts, thinking how much of a contrast this was to Ariel's approach.
On returning to Ariel and whilst waiting to settle my bill, I was standing next to the factory's (5th) new demonstrator, which I'd seen on the factory's Facebook group. It has a really good spec - 350 upgrade, LSD, baffled sump, launch control, boost control, Ohlins, AP Brakes, reversing camera, Rizoma mirrors and carbon everything - including painted carbon bonnet and air intakes, which I hadn't seen before. The only thing missing from my ideal spec. was the forged wheels.
I knew that their previous yellow demonstrator had been sold in December last year (the new owner is on here) and so I asked Steve if anyone had put their name down for this one when they had finished with it.
He suggested I talk to Tom (I suppose Ariel's equivalent of the Lotus MD Matt Windle) so popped across to his office, and he was happy to confirm that they would indeed be selling it at the end of the season, that it was due to have the forged wheels fitted (
) and that it would be advertised at list.Needless to say I won't be buying a Lotus, as I have to put my name down for the demonstrator.
Whilst the factory runs it in for me:vroom:, I will enjoy the scream of my supercharged 3 over the next few months and most probably put it up for sale in late Summer, having taken it up to the factory for its 16th service to ensure it is fighting fit and ready for its next owner.
Here are a couple of photos taken from the factory's FB page:
