Atom 4 first drive

[IanG]

Lucky enough to get a drive in a 4 today
Full of excitement

Fist impressions you do get a sense of it being bigger.
Having a good look around the engine noticed that the engine is rubber mounted a big plus point over the 3.5 as that’s solid mounted.
Still looks a amazing bit of kit as do all Ariel products.

Hoped in
Seats are a bit big for me as I have B6 Tilletts but not a major problem after the first drive didn’t notice them so they aren’t that bad.

Start up easy
Then the first niggle
Lights start wobbling as there a lot of vibration strange as the engine is rubber mounted oh well mine dose as well.

Clutch is light
Then engage gear well that’s a bit uninspiring.More on that later.
Pull away really exited.

First time I had to apply the breaks well that was unexpected they are terrible no braking it felt like there was air in the system.
The Alcons just feel right one light push and you have scrub off all the speed.

The car is blistering quick a completely different drive to the old supercharged ones
It’s very noisy maybe that’s the exhaust easy fix though.
A completely different driving style is required the and this is where the next niggle comes in

The gearbox is interesting the gear change is not very positive and the gearing is a bit strange.
I can see the sequential box working well in it.

This is not a criticism on the car just my point of view after being lucky enough to get a drive and not having to own one.
Would I change my 3.5 for a 4

Sort out those things and it will be up there with any supercar then maybe.

[reg]

Challenge accepted

[GraemeW]

Would those Acuity shifter bushes help the gear change issue? This was described somewhere on the forum or the Facebook group.

[robfitz]

Took mine out for a blast today, still running it in. I think the brakes are ultimately effective but they don’t feel great, the pedal is quite soft at first and I do wonder if some different pads are in order. Always liked Pagid RS14 or 42 in my Elise.

[reg]

Took mine out for a blast today, still running it in. I think the brakes are ultimately effective but they don’t feel great, the pedal is quite soft at first and I do wonder if some different pads are in order. Always liked Pagid RS14 or 42 in my Elise.

They do pull the car up on the road, but you don't have the initial feel as you did with the Alcons. I have AP's on another car (albeit servo) and they are mega. It's not the calipers, they are big enough, discs are just dumb round things. I think first a bleed, then switch to Pagids, then look at the master cylinder. I washed the car the other day and used 'Dragons Breath' on the wheels. This really oxidizes the discs. After a hard drive you can clearly see that the pads are not cleaning the discs up. Residue was left. I think whatever pads have been fitted...... IIRC the factory said either 2500's or 1144's are not working. I have 2500's on a car which weighs 1600kg, they are really a great pad for fast road use.

It's in for it's first service in a week or so. let's see then

[reg]

Would those Acuity shifter bushes help the gear change issue? This was described somewhere on the forum or the Facebook group.

It has them fitted Graeme. The gearbox is just very different in feel. I was going to fit new indent springs, but now I have come around to the thought that it's not worth throwing money as it what is ultimately a 'cooking' gearbox mated to a FI engine.

[Preseh]

What pads are fitted to the AP brakes? I've got the two piece APs which come with the Ferodo DS2500 and they're fantastic at stopping the car albeit the brake pedal is quite long so that takes some getting used to.

[Sir Nick]

I read that as a fair and balanced review from a long standing memeber. More so, unbiased becauase he's not inverested in the product.

[wasp]

Sounds like a fair review to me.
The gearbox bushes do make a big difference to positivity, especially on track. Mine is now positive on changes, especially 5/4/3, where it was rubbery and lacked precision before.
The brakes improve in time but the Alcons remain a better braking system for initial bite and thus confidence imo.
The AP's (I have the J jobbies same as Matt) are incredible when you really lean on them but they have significantly more travel than the Alcons.
The 4 is definitely a quicker car than the 3.5 in every scenario that I can think of but the3.5 has an entirely different character and thus it could be argued is more fun on track. It's more visceral.
Cheers,
Stu

[Monza]

I have same feeling concerning Atom 4 brakes to long, no bite. If we consider that the AP calipers are good, first is to try real high friction pads even cold like CL RC8 (0,60) or Pagid RST1 (0,54) or Ferodo DS3.12 (0,54) and if not enought to reduce pedal free travel and increase bite, the second thing will be to put a bigger master cylinder tu push more fluid in the caliper for same pedal déplacement. Pedal can be little bit harder but not so much with high friction pads.

Caliper AP Racing CP7600D46
(same caliper on Exige Cup i think)
pads thickness 16,2 mm (not more)

Pagid E4349 RST1-4349
CL 5038W45T16-RC8
Ferodo DS3.12 FRP3085G

NOT TESTED YET

[wasp]

Very interesting thoughts JP.
I'm not convinced it's the pads (the DS 2500s don't seem to last anything like as long as the Mintex1144's in my old 3.5, which makes me think that they are soft enough. They seem to be very good to me when heated well and with heavy pressure.
The problem is the pedal travel, which increases through a track day. If you try a larger master cylinder I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
The old Alcon set up never faded or went long in my experience.
Cheers,
Stu

[jaylatti]

I went from a 3 to a 4 Atom and was over the moon with the car except for the gear change.It was awful. I like to shift fast and was regularly getting locked out of gearshifts. Plus the shift feel was very vague. I was the first person to get and modify the acuity bushings to fit which was an improvement in feel but I was still getting lockouts.To resolve this i removed the clutch delay valve from the clutch cylinder and replaced the tilton cylinder with the AP one ,its been faultless since. To improve feel even more I replace the detent springs with the uprated hybrid racing ones and replaced the gearstick knob with one thats twice as heavy.Also replaced the gearbox oil with Amsoil mtf, its just sublime now well happy ! Received my car back in 2020 and posted all this on Facebook. Apparently Ariel now do the uprated bushings thanks to my research so pretty cool ,was also the first to do the detent springs and clutch delay valve delete (see my Facebook posts) If I couldn't have resolved the gear change issues I would have been seriously thinking of going back to a 3, it was that bad.

[kelvin12382003]

I went from a 3 to a 4 Atom and was over the moon with the car except for the gear change.It was awful. I like to shift fast and was regularly getting locked out of gearshifts. Plus the shift feel was very vague. I was the first person to get and modify the acuity bushings to fit which was an improvement in feel but I was still getting lockouts.To resolve this i removed the clutch delay valve from the clutch cylinder and replaced the tilton cylinder with the AP one ,its been faultless since. To improve feel even more I replace the detent springs with the uprated hybrid racing ones and replaced the gearstick knob with one thats twice as heavy.Also replaced the gearbox oil with Amsoil mtf, its just sublime now well happy ! Received my car back in 2020 and posted all this on Facebook. Apparently Ariel now do the uprated bushings thanks to my research so pretty cool ,was also the first to do the detent springs and clutch delay valve delete (see my Facebook posts) If I couldn't have resolved the gear change issues I would have been seriously thinking of going back to a 3, it was that bad.

Hello mate, do you have any photos for your gear shift upgrade ?


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[jaylatti]

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[jaylatti]

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