I thought I'd share my collection, and first few drives experience.
Collection - It was cleaned and ready when I picked it up. A pile of wheels, spare panels, cover, recovery pack and other bits also waited, and were loaded into my Golf:
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What would I say after this first drive? It doesn't feel like an Atom at all. I'll go into this in more detail at the end.
Back home and I had to play with the lights, as you do:
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The kid got to see if on Sunday a few days after it was home, he thinks it looks great, we've been for a drive and he's decided he likes it better than he did the Atom. Part of this may be the fact he doesn't need to wear a helmet, partly the smoother ride, and partly he can climb into it:
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Based on these first few hundred miles what are my impressions?
As I said above it doesn't feel like an Atom in lots of ways. The way's it's similar is the steering, dash, pedals and gear change... they all feel the same. But how you drive it seems to be very different.
I know the spec as I have it will be quiet heavy, but it definitely feels it. Whereas the atom accelerator seemed more like an electric cattle prod, the Nomad feels much more like you need to rev it much harder to get it to go. Of course it will go, and go quickly albeit not quite as fast as an Atom. The Noise is different too, the engine is more of a rumble, the exhaust more of a drone. Yes the supercharger squeels... but that still has to fight with the exhaust and engine sound. It's not all as pure as the Atom seemed.
You need to use the gears differently too, as Karl has suggested it really doesn't seem to like short shifting early, so 3rd for 30, 4th for 40, 5th for 50 and 6th for 60 as a rough guide is about right, change up any earlier and it doesn't seem to like it, especially 6th. I guess if you keep the revs higher it'll be more urgent, but if you're leaving a 30 in 3rd and plant it'll accelerate up quite nicely, but is far more urgent once the supercharger kicks in at higher revs (circa 4000).
Then there's the suspension/road feel. The Nomad is very comfortable. As I have it now speed humps don't need slowing down for, and rough road is fine. I might tweak it a bit for more pothole/severe bumps... but that'll be later. The Atom almost felt like it would fall apart on a bump, the clatter from the belts, suspension etc didn't help. The nomad doesn't do that. You still feel what's going on, but it copes with the imperfections much much better. It does seem when cornering/roundabouts that you need a lot more hefting to do, the Nomad feels heavy through the steering. The suspension itself doesn't seem to roll, dive etc as much as I thought it would... but it still does, and so you work through a process cornering.
2nd gear round a roundabout and prod of the throttle is enough to start the backend sliding, so far it's been ok catching it, it doesn't feel so quick that you couldn't. Pulling away and planting it also induces wheelspin (and noise), which adds to the fun.
It feels every bit as well put together as the Atom did, a real quality feel to it. Likewise with so many baubles it looks bonkers. Not pretty, but distinctive and bonkers. Excluding the commute, it gets a lot of looks from kids and adults alike, so Ariel still have that nailed. Driving it can be fun, when provoking the backend out, or wheel spinning away from the lights, or even yanking on the handbrake when stopping. People take notice then.
Visibility is good too, maybe it's because I had the belts slightly looser, but joining a DC/Motorway down a slip road, and I could turn to my right and look quite well. It was almost like being on a motorbike in that respect.
It feels a much easier car to drive longer distances, I think that's mainly a combination of suspension and windscreen. It also feels like it can be as daft as it looks. I also like that I'm not being challenged to a race every time I drive, most people seem to just think it looks cool. I think the kid thinks it looks like a life sized version of one of his HotWheels(tm) cars.
"complaints" so far:
- I got back ache after an hour and so have purchased one of the cushions Karl linked to, which makes it much better: https://www.ariel.club/forum/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=17119
- hefting a mass like myself out of it put strain on joints the like, and it can be a tight squeeze with the seats impinging at the back, and steering wheel at the front. I've very much improved my exit technique, as can just pull myself up onto the seat, duck my head under the top rail, sit on the side and climb out, whereas previously I was trying to slip all the way out... which was messy.
- be aware of the heat. In the atom there was just the fan coming on... in the nomad there's a near constant heat draft coming up from the two handbrakes... it's not the end of the world, but combined with sunlight that area got very hot to the touch.
Sorry if this seems to go on and on, it's quite difficult to impart the driving experience, and I'm not even sure I've done it justice.
