The Atom Video Thread - Post links to Atom videos here

[anx10us]

Yes I meant knicked.
GoPro 5 is good as has GPS which is good for overlay on any track recording.
Ideally I would like to not leave the car unattended for a long period and the way the camera is set it looks secured.
I might just get a GoPro as sound has been very disappointing on the cheapocam.

If you get a GoPro get a windsock for it (basically a sponge cover) ...

[Sommi]

Yes that's the plan.
I don't plan to track till next year and will buy in time for that.
Hopefully I can buy bulk track days and make the Atom ownership all that more special.

[anx10us]

Yes that's the plan.
I don't plan to track till next year and will buy in time for that.
Hopefully I can buy bulk track days and make the Atom ownership all that more special.

You absolutely have to track the car, its such a fantastic experience, compliant, progressive and f*cking fast, you can spot every apex, brake later than everyone and out accelerate everyone, its like having a cheat code for trackdays ...

opentrack actually do a membership for unlimited trackdays - https://opentrack.co.uk/club-ot

Its £3500, so you would need to be looking at 10 trackdays per year, however you can make decisions very late on whether to turn up to a trackday, or even go to several in a day ...

[Sommi]

Thanks. Sounds like a good package.
Open track seems to have ok reputation from what I have read on this forum.
Got their email for booking a track day for today as many cancellations happened. Now I know why. It's a bath tub out there!

[anx10us]

Thanks. Sounds like a good package.
Open track seems to have ok reputation from what I have read on this forum.
Got their email for booking a track day for today as many cancellations happened. Now I know why. It's a bath tub out there!

In my experience they are great, good track time, cancellation with 100% credit up to before registration on the day, free garages, free photography etc .. very positive experience so far ..

[anx10us]

Snetterton 300 configuration with Javelin, awful weather on the way and for half the day, dried up for an hour or so, then back to light rain, was 'interesting' as it was difficult to know how dry or wet the track would be from one minute to the next .. First time at track in Atom with limited dry laps, at a guess a 2:11 is doable, i'm 320 bhp, on ZZS tyres ..

[wasp]

Snetterton 300 configuration with Javelin, awful weather on the way and for half the day, dried up for an hour or so, then back to light rain, was 'interesting' as it was difficult to know how dry or wet the track would be from one minute to the next .. First time at track in Atom with limited dry laps, at a guess a 2:11 is doable, i'm 320 bhp, on ZZS tyres ..

That was great for the first time out.

If you ditch the ZZS's for A052's then you will gain a lot of grip tbh. This will allow you to carry a bit more speed through some of the corners, also meaning that you can run a higher gear which uses the torque to drive out of the tighter corners, rather than being at the top of the rev band and having to change gear (Coram onto Start/Finish for example.) There is a lot more than you can imagine on the brakes too. You can obviously pedal, I reckon that you can shave your time to a 2:06....but definitely not on the ZZs's.

Cheers,
Stu

[anx10us]

Snetterton 300 configuration with Javelin, awful weather on the way and for half the day, dried up for an hour or so, then back to light rain, was 'interesting' as it was difficult to know how dry or wet the track would be from one minute to the next .. First time at track in Atom with limited dry laps, at a guess a 2:11 is doable, i'm 320 bhp, on ZZS tyres ..

That was great for the first time out.

If you ditch the ZZS's for A052's then you will gain a lot of grip tbh. This will allow you to carry a bit more speed through some of the corners, also meaning that you can run a higher gear which uses the torque to drive out of the tighter corners, rather than being at the top of the rev band and having to change gear (Coram onto Start/Finish for example.) There is a lot more than you can imagine on the brakes too. You can obviously pedal, I reckon that you can shave your time to a 2:06....but definitely not on the ZZs's.

Cheers,
Stu

That's exactly what I wanted to hear, I think my lines are pretty good (apart from Palmer), for me I'm still learning the car and I did have a massive spin earlier in the day at about 90 mph ... I'm building speed every time I go out on track, you have spotted my weakness which is leaning on the brakes way to early, I think next trackday that needs to be my main focus, learning how hard I can lean on them. I really appreciate the feedback ...

[Preseh]

Here's a video of one of my quick laps at Bedford yesterday. First time at the track and second track day in the Atom so still getting up to speed but Bedford is a great track! The problem is, the Atom is SO fast that you end up catching traffic non-stop



Interestingly even with the sports rad my temps were heading up to 104C at the end of the straight. My peak speed at the start of the session was 148mph whereas towards the end I was only at 144mph so that might confirm the loss of power that Simon (Bob Smith) on the Facebook group was experiencing.

Car is going back to Ariel next month for a service anyway so will be speaking to the factory to get their thoughts.

[anx10us]

Here's a video of one of my quick laps at Bedford yesterday. First time at the track and second track day in the Atom so still getting up to speed but Bedford is a great track! The problem is, the Atom is SO fast that you end up catching traffic non-stop

Interestingly even with the sports rad my temps were heading up to 104C at the end of the straight. My peak speed at the start of the session was 148mph whereas towards the end I was only at 144mph so that might confirm the loss of power that Simon (Bob Smith) on the Facebook group was experiencing.

Car is going back to Ariel next month for a service anyway so will be speaking to the factory to get their thoughts.

Great lap, 7 seconds quicker than my poor first attempt, my excuse is 320bhp, ZZS tyres, no traction control and no aero ... I was hitting somewhere near 134 down the straight (GPS), I also had high temperatures without the sports radiator ... I now appreciate how much more I can lean on the brakes !!

[Preseh]

Thanks! Our lines look very similar so I'd imagine the time pretty much all comes from the a052s and the power upgrade. I've not got traction control on mine either but in hindsight probably should have specced it I think there's a lot more to come from the brakes for me too but hopefully that'll come with seat time. I find it quite difficult to maintain consistent hard pressure whilst heel and toeing because the brake pedal is quite long. [mention]wasp[/mention] do I remember you saying at Silverstone that you were chatting to the factory about that?

[anx10us]

Thanks! Our lines look very similar so I'd imagine the time pretty much all comes from the a052s and the power upgrade. I've not got traction control on mine either but in hindsight probably should have specced it I think there's a lot more to come from the brakes for me too but hopefully that'll come with seat time. I find it quite difficult to maintain consistent hard pressure whilst heel and toeing because the brake pedal is quite long. @wasp do I remember you saying at Silverstone that you were chatting to the factory about that?

It’s unlikely to happen this year, but would love to get out on track at the same time to see the difference between the two ;-)

[Preseh]

Thanks! Our lines look very similar so I'd imagine the time pretty much all comes from the a052s and the power upgrade. I've not got traction control on mine either but in hindsight probably should have specced it I think there's a lot more to come from the brakes for me too but hopefully that'll come with seat time. I find it quite difficult to maintain consistent hard pressure whilst heel and toeing because the brake pedal is quite long. @wasp do I remember you saying at Silverstone that you were chatting to the factory about that?

It’s unlikely to happen this year, but would love to get out on track at the same time to see the difference between the two ;-)

Yeah absolutely. I'm 100% going to be doing Bedford again next year. Would be great to get quite a few Atoms out on track and compare them all. Just realised I did have my GPS enabled on the footage and the max speed on the back straight was 134mph GPS with 144mph on the speedo. At Silverstone there was about a 10mph speedo difference between an Atom with wings and one without so that makes sense that my top speed is fairly close to yours.

[wasp]

Thanks! Our lines look very similar so I'd imagine the time pretty much all comes from the a052s and the power upgrade. I've not got traction control on mine either but in hindsight probably should have specced it I think there's a lot more to come from the brakes for me too but hopefully that'll come with seat time. I find it quite difficult to maintain consistent hard pressure whilst heel and toeing because the brake pedal is quite long. @wasp do I remember you saying at Silverstone that you were chatting to the factory about that?

I've just come back from two days at Spa, which has some incredibly heavy braking zones. They really are quite epic when you commit to them and the car is very stable (although when I was running the wings they were a lot more stable.) The calipers had air blown through them last time the car was at the Factory which helped a lot but after the first morning the brake pedal still goes longer than the throttle making heel and toe trickier than it should be.
The car never got hot but weirdly I got a higher top speed at the end of the Kemmel in Map 2, rather than 3, although that was in the morning so it was a bit cooler.
The AP brakes are incredibly effective but the feel is nothing like as good as the old car with Alcons. I don't know of a single person who prefers them tbh. They are hard to get confidence with as the pedal is long and the initial biting point is soft. In my opinion this is the only area where the car is a step backwards.
The heat issue is known and the wings create such drag that the engine struggles to keep cool enough to maintain power through the day (or even a session if the temperature is over about 20 degrees c.)
I think that with wings, the car needs better heat shielding and possibly an Aquamist set-up or similar.
Running without wings at Spa, the car was definitely less stable (the wings really work) but was more playful and even if it is a couple of seconds slower overall, I much prefer the handling characteristics.
Cheers,
Stu

[Preseh]

Awesome, bet Spa was epic Stu. Interesting re map 2 and 3 - I've been keeping mine on 2 on track because it feels the most predictable but will have to play around with map 3.

What sort of temperatures were you seeing during the day? Simon on Facebook has data to suggest there's a significant pullback on power once you creep up past 104C and my ~4mph down on the back straight seems to confirm that. It's a shame though because I've got the sports radiator and for the price I'd expect a decent drop in temps but my temps are the same as a car with the standard rad.