Potential owner from Worcs, Midlands

[JonG]

Hi there, looking to get into Atom ownership soon. I've wanted one since first seeing the Atom2 300 featured on Top Gear in 2004. I have driven an Atom 3 around Prodrives test track and it was everything I expected and more. I'm now in a position to purchase one having sold my Impreza P1 last year, had a year of ownership of a Westfield Megabusa and now want my dream car.
I've taken a look at an Atom 2 300, reg. WA04 LKD. Same car that was featured in that Top Gear feature. It now has the aluminium front and rear wings fitted and bodywork colour change to orange. It's also fitted with a steering wheel mounted SPA micro dash, logger and lap timer so obviously been used on track.
Does anyone know anything about this particular car? It's currently showing 11k miles and MOT history shows its had limited road use, 5 in total and last MOT expired in 2015.
I have spoken with Ariel who say they haven't seen the car since 2005. It has been mainly owner maintained. I have provisionally got a big discount on this car should I decide to buy it. The garage who are selling it have agreed to send it to Ariel for a service and inspection prior to the deal being done.

[V6ollie1]

Hi mate.
I also viewed this car last month.
Ariel raced this car in britcar series after being featured on top gear. It looks like it had alot of development parts fitted to it.
It's low mileage but had a very shady history with the previous owner going to prison and the garage selling it were looking after it for the bloke that owned it while he was locked up.
When I looked at it he said he wanted close to the asking price 30k which imo is far too much for this car.
I walked away and continued to view a few other cars as it just seemed a bit dodgy.

[JonG]

Hi mate.
I also viewed this car last month.
Ariel raced this car in britcar series after being featured on top gear. It looks like it had alot of development parts fitted to it.
It's low mileage but had a very shady history with the previous owner going to prison and the garage selling it were looking after it for the bloke that owned it while he was locked up.
When I looked at it he said he wanted close to the asking price 30k which imo is far too much for this car.
I walked away and continued to view a few other cars as it just seemed a bit dodgy.

Hi, many thanks for you're info. How along ago did you view it? I was given exactly the same story. It's still at 30k although I got him down a fair bit more based on the very limited history. With the deal of having the Ariel inspection done first, I thought it was worth it as if it turns out a bad un I haven't lost anything.

[V6ollie1]

I viewed it about 3 weeks ago.
The guy selling it knew nothing about the car. I spoke to ariel about it who told me the limited info they had about it being there race car.
I think if the price was 10k cheaper it may be worth it.

[cheeky_chops]

ive been watching for a year and this has been forsale for most of it - didnt look as figured if it was decent it would of gone

Have you got one yet? Im in solihull and like you dream car for 15+ years - picked up mine last week!! Hope to get a meet orgainsed with Ollie (if same one from FB) soon

[JonG]

I pulled out of the deal yesterday. The car went to Ariel for inspection. I had already waited over a month for this inspection to happen. It had been more than a week since the inspection was completed. I had been messaging the garage owner for the results but only got reply from his showroom sales guy
saying the owner was apparently away on holiday. He couldn't tell me what was found wrong with the car, only that the owner was deciding what work he would instruct Ariel to carry out. I felt I was being kept in the dark so pulled the plug.
I will continue my search.