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St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15-'16-'17,'22
That 500HP V-eight was a product of Hartley enterprises of the US, if I remember correctly. The chatter about that engine and car is years old, but I seem to remember that it was two Suzuki Hayabusa cylinder and cylinder head assemblies on a specially-built billet crankcase and using a crankshaft made specially for combining two four cylinder motorcycle engines into a V-eight configuration. 10,500 RPM come to mind.
The Ariel with that engine was to be built in the UK, limited to a total of twenty five cars, all of which were spoken for, years ago, at a price of $250,000 each. The American Ariel factory, TMI, that I am dealer for, has not mentioned that car for years, but last I heard, none ever made it to the US. And I have not heard of any making it into an actual buyer's hands, any where in the world. My personal opinion is that if any of the V-eight cars were ever actually delivered to a customer, we should have heard about it by now.
But the prototype V-eight that the UK built back in the day was supposedly tested by the UK factory to be even quicker than our currently available Ariel Atom Turbo with a 2.4 liter Honda K24 Turbo engine of 365HP and six-speed LSD transaxle with a factory quoted 0-60 of less than 2.8 seconds.
So here in the US, we will have to be content spending less than 100K for an Ariel, and taking almost 2.8 seconds to get up to 60 mph!
Eddie FourFather Hill
Last edited by FourFather; 12-03-2016 at 03:08 PM.
Here is the Radical Powertech V8 engine, designed in England and has been in production for years. It is used in the Radical SR-8. And yes, it does use Hayabusa Heads and Cylinders.
Just watched the Ariel v-8 on YouTube. Fifth gear and Top gear had it on their shows. Oh my Lord what a car!! It cost 150,000 pounds which is 192,000 dollars at the exchange rate of 1.28 today. I am a little surprised the 3S is 90,000, but love the rawness and track ability.
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15-'16-'17,'22
Here are some gee readings I recorded a few weeks ago with my Ariel Atom demonstrator/company car, running on the road race course at Hallett Motor Raceway near Tulsa, Oklahoma. 1.8 mile course with 10 turns and elevation changes!
Lots of fun and extremely low maintenance and cost of operating.
Eddie FourFather Hill
Last edited by FourFather; 12-13-2016 at 05:12 PM.
Hi Eddie. Watched the videos. Loved the footwork - heel and toe - even some left foot braking which I've only tried during autocross. Thanks for the free lessons.
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15-'16-'17,'22
Originally Posted by Fagunza
Hi Eddie. Watched the videos. Loved the footwork - heel and toe - even some left foot braking which I've only tried during autocross. Thanks for the free lessons.
What kind of top speed is achievable?
You are welcome. I highly recommend learning left foot braking, even though it may take a while to get comfortable with it. It can really help lap times on the road racing course, and it recently allowed me to avoid an accident on the street.
Ercie and I were in our motorhome pulling our enclosed Ariel Atom trailer on the way to a race at Hallett, Oklahoma. We were going 25 in a 25 zone in the right hand lane, in a small town, when the car in the left lane, with the rear of his car slightly ahead, but pretty much even with the front of our motorhome, suddenly turned hard right, right in front of us, and quickly stopped, partially sideways, in the middle of our lane. No warning, no turn signal, like he was crashing us on purpose. I hover my left foot over the brake pedal whenever in close traffic, and so all I had to do was quickly apply hard pressure with my left foot, and I stopped with less than an inch between my motorhome and his car.
If I had had to lift my right foot off the throttle , move my foot over to the brake, then apply brakes, we would absolutely have made hard contact.
I think everyone needs to learn left foot braking. Especially if what ever you are driving has only two pedals! It just does not make sense to me to not be able to stop a few thousands of a second quicker in an emergency, which could very well be the difference between a crash and a near miss.
Left foot braking not only helps my lap times on track, but recently avoided a certain crash, on the road.
Top speed with an Ariel Atom? With 10 turns on a 1.8 mile course at Hallett, there is obviously no chance to achieve top speed, but I still see 123.5 mph between corners. The Ariel factory tells me they see 155 mph between corners on their test track, which is Virginia International Raceway. I have seen 135 between corners at Eagles Canyon Raceway, near Decatur, Texas.
But I have never had a desire to, nor gone anywhere to check top speed, and haven't heard of anyone that has.
I did go 323.74 mph in my other car, but I never ran it further than 1320 feet under power, so I don't know what the top speed would be on that one either.
Last edited by FourFather; 01-23-2017 at 11:11 AM.
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15-'16-'17,'22
Originally Posted by C7Joy
Just, WOW!
I practically go into vertigo in a 1G corner!
In my other car,
Going from 0 to 272MPH in 3.0 seconds like I did here, showed 5 1/4 gee during the early part of the run. And still accelerating at 1.0 gee at 320 MPH!
In a top fuel car you learn very quickly to put your head/helmet solidly back into the headrest BEFORE you hit the loud pedal! Otherwise you knock yourself silly at the hit.
These Ariel Atoms are the closest thing to a top fuel car for the street. No doors, you get in each one the same way. You strap in with five belts in both cars. The main chassis of steel tubing is up to your shoulder in both cars. Front wheels out where you can see them. Very quick, very direct steering. Supercharged all aluminum engine right behind your head. Wings front and rear. A lot of tire footprint for not a lot of weight. Power-to-weight ratio at the head of the class. Beautiful welds in plain sight on both. Performance at the head of the class.
BIG DIFFERENCE, THOUGH IN OPERATING COST ! I can road race my Atoms for a full season for less money than the cost of one 4 1/2 second run with the top fuel car. In ten years of racing the Atoms I have never even seen a spark plug out of one, let alone have to replace one.
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15-'16-'17,'22
I received the following (unsolicited) email from one of my Atom 3 buyers--
QUOTE
"Dear Sirs,
It has been 10 yrs since I raced 125 Shifter karts & 250 Shifter karts in anger here in Texas on the track. Even though five of those years have
been on 600cc & 1000cc track bikes, I evidently haven’t forgotten everything.
My new Atom 3 # AA30XXX in my humble opinion is the following;
1) Constructed with excellent workmanship/craftsmanship,
2) Well designed in balance and efficiency,
3) Excellent in power to weight balance,
4) Excellent in performance grip feedback along with taught controls all around,
5) Truly Is as user friendly as a fast track vehicle can be (minimum mass),
6) Better than most 250 shifter karts in handling, balance, rotation & throttle control,
7) A true friend to the driver that can accurately steer with both the wheel and the throttle.
After today, with only 100 track miles on the motor & the street Yokahamas, I’m already looking forward to the performance gains when the engine is fully ready. I can certainly tell the thing will be truly quick with track slicks and a few more coil over/dampening tweaks. Still, as it was economically purchased; it points well, has minimum push on entry, responds perfectly to throttle, and promptly asks for the rest of the gas.
Bless you guys for this wonderful “track toy”. " UNQUOTE
12-03-2016, 03:05 PM
