Mugen tunes Ariel Atom – special edition limited to 10 units

By George on January 15th, 2011

Famous Honda tuner Mugen has done their magic on the lightweight extreme Ariel Atom. The special edition is built to celebrate 10 years of production and 1000 Atoms manufactured.

Edition of just 10 cars for each of the 10 years, each signed and numbered, the Atom Mugen has a special livery of red chassis, white bodywork and red graphics showing the number of the car to reflect the unique union of Ariel, Mugen and Honda.

Heart of the Atom Mugen is the Honda K20Z Type R engine, which is tuned by Mugen to produce 270bhp at 8600rpm in normally aspirated form. Each Atom Mugen engine is stripped, measured and fully blueprinted at Mugen Europe’s Northampton headquarters. The engines are reassembled with high performance, higher compression pistons, high lift camshafts and new valve springs.

A lightened balanced flywheel is fitted together with a limited slip differential to the close ratio
Honda 6 speed gearbox prior to installation in the Atom.

In front of the driver is a new LCD flat screen display housed in a carbon fibre instrument panel. The multi function display is programmable with the ability for the driver to scroll through displays via menu buttons and also shows 3 colour gearshift lights and standard warning lights. A master alert warns if any function goes outside programmed perameters for quick and easy reference on track. Additional data information, such as lap times and logging, can be viewed through the display to bring another element to the serious track day driver. 3″ FIA full harnesses with crutch straps are fitted for both driver and passenger as standard with options of further competition parts for racing.

0-60mph comes in 2.9 seconds and a top speed is 150mph, with torque increased to 255Nm @ 6,000 rpm.