A collaboration between Ariel and Mugen, the latest version of the original ‘no screen, no roof, no doors’ Atom celebrates 10 years of production and 1000 Atoms manufactured. Made in a Limited 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. Featuring a tuned Mugen Honda engine and a high level specification, plus the opportunity to further option the car, this latest Atom gives further choice to the driver looking for the ultimate, normally aspirated trackday car.
Mugen (meaning unlimited in Japanese) engines have famously powered hundreds of race and championship winners, including Formula 1, since 1973 when Hirotoshi Honda, son of Soichiro Honda, founded the company. Basing their work almost exclusively around Honda powerplants, Mugen was an obvious partner for Ariel who have used the Honda Type R engine in the Atom for over 7 years. Working closely together on the project Ariel and Mugen found many similarities in their approach to the project, resulting in a hand built engine in a truly handbuilt car.
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 longer freeflow inlet manifold is fitted with a bigger diameter throttle body together with race grade spark plugs.
The engine also features a full baffled sump and is finished with a carbon fibre Mugen cover. After assembly each engine is tested on the Mugen dynamometer and carefully run in prior to full power test. After 7 days of work on every engine they are bore scoped and inspected prior to sign off. 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.
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