New Member Introduction Post

[Steve]

As the first member of Ariel Atom Chat, I'll get the ball rolling.

My name is Steve and I live in Maple Valley (near Seattle), Washington. I own a 2006 Ariel Atom 2 #RAM280 which I purchased from a previous owner in Toronto, Canada and then drove home to Seattle.

I enjoy collecting and driving fast cars as they were intended to be driven.

[FishKiller]

Fishkiller here, In the Maple Valley area of Washington.
Enjoy track events and doing mods to the atom.
Bought an 06 205hp atom in 07 with 52 miles on it, out of Houston Texas.
Had really poor brakes, as I found out at the Reno WCAI event.
That has been resolved, as I now have 11.5 floating rotors, stopped by six piston stoptec calipers.
Upgraded progressive rate bellcranks.
Removed the helper springs from the coilovers, nice and quiet now.
And a few other mods to feed the motor and allow better acceleration off the corners.

[Norm]

I drove by the Atom factory in Ashland, OR on my way back from California in March of 2007 and stopped to see what was going on. I was very impressed by what I saw them building. An amazing little car. At the time they were saying the waiting list was 10 months and being way too impatient for that! I looked used and found my car in Dallas, TX and had it at my house by the end of April.

Mods:
Harrop supercharger
forged Diamond 9.5:1 pistons
Fortress exhaust and header with Jet Hot E-coat (this might actually be a downgrade)
Quaife close ratio 6 speed conversion
SPEC 2+ clutch and aluminum flywheel
custom intake
Custom MAF housing
Aquamist HFS-5 metered meth injection
remote oil filter and cooler
oil accumulator
custom air to liquid intercooler
dual pass end plate with option B
60 lb injectors and return style fuel system
295/35-17 rear tires
Garmin GPS with EcoRoute HD
Dual tune ECU with meth and non-meth maps switched by Aquamist
78 lb valve springs
helper coil spring removal
60 N/mm rear springs (too stiff)
progressive bell cranks
Flameball lit shift knob

Mods in progress:
New exhaust header and exhaust
Single pass intake
Ported head
Cam upgrade
possible valve spring upgrade to match cam, awaiting input from Head Porter
Balance shaft delete
Small pulley to match ported head
98 lb injectors
50 N/mm rear springs

Would like:
big rear fenders
louvered front fenders
Integrated datalogger and camera system containing a dash I can actually see!
Front and rear wing
LED head lights
LED full lighting like Masked Spaz
Darth "wicker" mod

I would also like to attend tuning school and learn to use HPTuners properly. And of course, a lot more track time ...

[bolus]

hey guys, whats going on over here?

My car is currently a giant pile of parts in my garage as I wait for my replacement clutch to arrive

[Norm]

Well with Bolus's arrival we now cover two states!

[SaturnV]

Hello all,

Glad to have found another forum (not that there is anything wrong with the existing one, it's just nice to have another option).

My name's Craig and I took ownership of an Atom 3 245 in January of 2010. By this time, I had planned to be on the track, but money has gotten tight over the past few months and I've had to cut back on my recreational expenses. Hopefully I'll still be able to get out to Pacific Raceways before the weather changes. In the meantime, I drive my Atom every chance I can, including commuting to work a couple times a week. I'm not sure what I enjoy more: the performace of this car, or the reaction it generates everytime I drive it.

Today I had a fun encounter with a new Cadillac CTS-V. When you open up an Atom next to another car that you know is very fast also, it makes you realize just how speedy these cars are. I left that Caddy easily. He caught up at a light, gave me a thumbs up and then did a nice burnout.

Anyways, thanks for setting up another forum here Steve. I look forward to meeting you sometime (soon hopefully). I'd love to hear the story of your cross country trip home with the new toy.

Here's a pic:[attachment=0:3byugdv4]IMG_1270_small.jpg[/attachment:3byugdv4]

By the way, that's Rob Sloman's very nice Atom in the background, also known as Dingo on the other forum.

[Sagen]

Greetings all!

Dan here. I live in Redmond, WA and have managed to meet most of the Seattle area owners. I've also been fortunate enough to drive to Laguna Seca and back where I met a bunch of other owners for CalScot's West Coast Adventure II. I do what I can to get the car out for track days, but I generally only manage a few a year.

Seems like I am always tinkering on changing something (par for the course for this crew). Things I remember changing?

Harrop Supercharger with 60 lb-hr injectors
Hytech Exhaust
Palatov Motorsports Rear Uprights
Palatov Motorsports Bell Cranks and Pushrods

The car started as a Brammo Ecotec 245 with Alcon Brakes and "Girlie Seats" as another NW owner likes to refer to them. Now I have to figure out how to keep the intake charge cool as that seems to be the weak link.

The most recent "too much fun" activity was attending the Lap Attack at Pacific GP and figuring out just how fast I can thrash the car around a kart track.

[Steve]

SaturnV and Sagen: Great to have you guys join us. Welcome!

[DarthChicken]

Somehow I missed this part of the forum.. ooops.

I've had my car since March of 2007, and have 22k miles on it. Every year I've had it, I've taken it on a roadtrip of some sort out of the state - with Bolus to OK the first year, Reno the second, and CA for the last two (infineon sears point and laguna seca this year).

Last year I built up a turbo kit with my friend Jeff Perrin (from Perrin performance). My car puts down 300hp at the wheels, and over 290ft lbs of torque. Its basically a tractor, anybody need some stumps pulled? LOL

Here's a picture of me and Positron having some fun at Infineon. Its one of my favorite pictures and I have it up on my wall in my office, because its one of the few times I actually ahead of him on the track, LOL

[Steve]

That is a SWEET pic. And the WRX-inspired colors of your Atom are cool. Glad to have you with us!