AtomFest

Video take during AtomFest last month. In lapping sessions, several cars ran 1:22's

Works fine for me. I usually use IE, but use AOL once in a while. Just tried AOL. No problems.

I think the S2000 would make a really nice choice with it's high reving nature and a 6 speed tranny. I'd also like to consider a turbo'd Ecotec from the Solstice/Sky platform. Won't shound as good but should have a nice wide powerband. Once I get a chance to recover from AtomFest I'll have some time to consider it all. One more photo from Fayetteville http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h269/SuperCobraBuilders/Temporary/IMGP2593.jpg

My brother and I attended, bringing a couple of Atoms for display only. The 1962 Super 7 was beautiful and my bro spent about an hour talking with 7018. We're thinking about building a LC or two to add to our stable. Here's a couple of photos from Saturday. http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h269/SuperCobraBuilders/Temporary/IMGP2606.jpg http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h269/SuperCobraBuilders/Temporary/IMGP2605.jpg http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h269/SuperCobraBuilders/Temporary/IMGP2616.jpg Has anybody built one with the Honda S2000 drivetrain?

Jeff, I checked out your GRMUTC video. Wow, it really brought back my memories of our day at VIR. Unfortunately by the time of your vid, we were on the sidelines, but enjoyed the experience anyway. I like your car. That high winding sequential shifting, sweet thing is a real blast. Nice driving too. -Randy

On board Atom video from VIR, Hallett, Black Hawk Farms

Just checked my Traqmate files. Our best top was at the end of the main straight - 128 mph. We dealt with two limitations: of course the aero was bad, but on the back straight we topped 4th gear at 7,000 RPM and then had to go to 5th (overdrive). The RPMS dropped to 5,000 and our acceleration pretty much died. Full course times were 2.13 in the older car and 2.16 in the new one. Both cars are 245 HP spec. Peak speed through the climbing esses was 118. This was our first visit to VIR. http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h269/SuperCobraBuilders/UTC/image003.jpg http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h269/SuperCobraBuilders/UTC/image002.jpg

Here's the latest on a customer modified V8 Atom including a build log and a short video of the first engine start. http://www.dpcars.net/atom.htm The engine/trans weighs less than the current 4 cylinder options and produces approximately 375 HP This COULD become a production option in the future.

Looks like 1:37.024. No doubt that is quick. Except for our breakage (described above), I believe we'd be in similar territory. If we go back, we definitely need to go up a notch or two on our mid-spec engine. VIR is an awesome track. We arrived a day early and the Lotus crowd invited us to join them. We ran the full course and I just loved the climbing esses. We met the Lotus engineers who had worked on the Ecotec engine design team. Nice guys and they had a real interest in the Atom since it housed their "baby." http://www.nasaracing.net/VIR_July_07/grm_utcc_07_results/Final%20UTTC%20Grid.html

7evin: Looks like that Atom is a little larger in the 2nd shot. Must be gaining on you! http://usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/636057008_pics 125.jpg http://usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1889757670_pics 125a.jpg I'd definitely be in for a day at Hallett. I think it would be great fun and a real oportunity for us to learn mor about each other's cars. I have a couple of portable Traqmates we could use too, to get some comparative cornering G's, segment times, etc. I'll bring a laptop and we replay each car's best laps in a race sim. Xromad: That one looks familiar. Was he at VIR for UTC? or maybe at Blackhawk Farms? Seems like I have some video of a yellow car with flames like that one. The one I remember is V6 powered. http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h269/SuperCobraBuilders/UTC/IMGP2480.jpg

Thanks Al, I don't know about R&G. Sounds like a great idea though. I might be recovered from all the AtomFest organizing work by then.

Hello guys, I was just Googling a bit for Atomfest references, trying to see how well we had been doing with our promotional efforts, when I came across this thread. Let me first say that I appreciate anybody who goes to the effort to create and maintain a forum like this one, knowing how much work it is. I have been a gearhead all my life I'm over 50) and all my attentions have really been paid to drag racing. My uncle was an IHRA pro dragracer in the 60's and I got the bug way back then. I've had lots of muscle type cars since, including a sweet 66 Hemi Belvedere, several Mustang Cobras, and a few Corvettes. http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h269/SuperCobraBuilders/Ariel%20Atom/IMGP1980.jpg Never went to a road course until I bought an Ariel Atom. Since, then I have done more than a dozen track days with the Atom, an '03 Mustang Cobra and a C6 Vette and had a ton of fun doing it. I've been to Road Atlanta, Road America, VIR, Blackhawk Farms, Eagles Canyon (with Keith) and what a blast. I've been to a couple of autocrosses along the way and those were great fun too. I found your thread to be very interesting and I agree with a good bit of it. I do think that any forum of enthusiasts can get a little cerebrally inbred and it's not too hard to see signs of that on both sides of the Atom vs 7 discussion. If you were not passionate about your car, you surely would not put up with many of it's idiosyncrasies. Same goes for the Atom. Keith thinks the Atom guys didn't check out his Locost, but I did. You may remember Keith, I was trying to get the Traqmate to work on your car. Of course Tim, also an Atom guy drove your car during the test too. That's him in the photo in the opening page of the GRM article. http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h269/SuperCobraBuilders/Eagles%20Canyon/IMGP1883.jpg The Atom is in it's second revision now. The GRM article has it a bit wrong, saying that Brammo christened it the Atom 2 because of their modifications. Actually the first Atom was powered by a 120 HP Rover engine and the chassis was significantly different in geometry and structural detail. One would not mistake it for anything but an Atom, but nonetheless, what you see now is gen 2. Gen 3 is expected to be released in a few weeks, although is seems like it has taken a long time to get there. It's more evolutionary than revolutionary, but being fans of the 7, you all must have a better understanding of that than I. I appreciate the Atom not only for what it can do on the street and track, but what it has done for my overall enjoyment of things automotive in the past year. I expect many of you would say the same about your car(s). There's a good chance that when you come to AtomFest, the Atom you will drive is one of mine. My car was originally scheduled to go to Eagles Canyon, but two days before we were to leave for Texas my car was involved in an involuntary off road excursion put it's participation to an end. After much scrambling we found a substitute Atom. (Can you imagine how hard that was?) The car we ended up bringing was brand new with 15 miles on the odometer when we decided to bring it. We drove it from Arkansas to Texas just to put some miles on it before the track run. On the way, I could tell, even on the street that something was bad wrong in the power department. My car, a 230 HP model was obviously stronger than this 300 HP rated car. Lots of posts on the AtomClub Forum about this, but in a nutshell, the test car had some major problems. I personally trailered it back to Brammo a few weeks later for a complete post mortem. Even more significant than the lack of power for the test was that while my car had five or six track days on it with the usual time to sort out the chassis, the substitute car had none. With a different spec shock, we were at a loss as to properly adjust the car and of course it showed. I provide this information simply to improve the record, not by way of an excuse. http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h269/SuperCobraBuilders/UTC/IMGP2448.jpg