Remember the Ariel Atom? This lightweight, no-frills, road-legal sports car once wowed Jeremy Clarkson with its out-of-this-world acceleration, having a 2.0-liter supercharged Honda K20A engine as a powerplant. And as a result, 0-100 in just 2.8 seconds and having his face almost being ripped off for not wearing a helmet, not to forget having set a blistering lap time across their test track at 1:19.5.
But somehow that was not enough for the guys at Ariel Motor Company, so they proceeded to make a much more powerful version which this time bears a V8 made from two Suzuki Hayabusa engines. With 500bhp onboard a 550kg track/road car, the Ariel Atom 500 came on top of the Top Gear Power Board with an astonishing 1:15.1, leaving the other supercars far behind its trails.
But as long as mankind lives, there will never be a halt in the pursuit of speed and power. A tuning company from South Carolina called DDMWorks had added the Atom into their sights for improvement, which they thought that the Atom might need a bit more power. Working with the Ariel Atom 2 bearing the 2.0-liter Ecotec engine, they had strapped on both a supercharger and a turbo to give out an extra “oomph” for this road-going go-kart. They got an extra “oomph” indeed as instead of having around 300bhp, they now have more than twice than that with an output of 700 horsepower!
Of course, strapping on those two was not the only thing that they did as the pistons, connecting rods, and the fuel pump needed to be changed to withstand the immense power. The supercharger also needed a custom air-to-water heat exchanger to cool it off, besides of having an air-to-air intercooler for the turbo. Nailing down the power to the ground are 225mm Toyo R888s for the front and 275mm R888s on the rear.
Although the end result had hunkered down the Atom to about 660kg, it is still a very light car with very much power. This upgrade might have definitely come with a warning sticker that advice the occupants to wear a helmet at all times while riding this car to avoid having either their face deformed or bugs embedded deep into their skin. Hopefully this one will make its way to Top Gear UK and prove that the numbers are not just for show.
Source:
http://www.gtspirit.com/2012/08/03/official-ariel-atom-700-by-ddmworks/ 
Connect with Facebook
Ariel Atom Set To Scare Jeremy with 700HP Upgrade 
Linear Mode
