Now THAT'S my favorite car and has been for quite some time! Weren't the rights bought by an American (yes) but maybe that's just for North American production. They are now using a GM sourced ecotec motor and Jay Leno helped in the finagling of that. Interesting story. I'm sure that Jay has one by now.
Chris
99BBB"Mal Osborne" wrote
Not a chance. Detroit has never produced a car with Miata handling and as for looks, the thing looks like a Prowler that just came out of a trash compactor.
Gus 91 BRG
The Mustang was original designed as a two-seat roadster. In order to keep costs (and price) down, the decision was made to base the care on the Falcon frame, and that's when it became a four-seater. Similarly, the original Thunderbird was a two-seat roadster, but Ford decided that wasn't selling well, so made it a four-seater.
Pretty darn cool, there was a page or two on it in the last (May?) Car & Driver. This is one of those cars (the Lotus Elise is another) that doesn't have any pretense of sensible, yet my brain spends its time thinking of ways to try and justify getting one.
I guess if money is any concern you could argue that a good sportbike will also give you plenty of grins and actually not give up much practicality to the Atom. Though the Atom would still have a safety advantage, and of course even a Ducati won't get nearly as many looks.
There is a bunch of those cars being made in the UK due to a huge track day scene. Apart form Ariel and Lotus all ready mentioned in this thread names like Radical and Palmer are making race cars that are also road legal (in the UK where they have crazy laws even allowing stuff like this:
Soon you can have your cake and eat too - or more to the point you can have Track Day car made by a bike company. KTM is in the process of making one of those cars!
Make that a HUGE safety advantage--you could walk away from a wreck that would turn a motorcycle into a ball of bloody metal. Plus, on Top Gear the Atom trounced a sportbike around the track, outbraking it into the first corner then pulling away steadily.
Hey, I could even see someone's wife letting him have an Atom, but not a bike. "But honey, it's worth the extra money for safety." Heh.
The mind boggles.
Iva & Belle.) '90B Classic Red.) #3 winkin' Miata
Score one for the UK.
I hadn't thought of that one - let me give it a try....
:-)
You can even go for an electric version and add some mpg arguments.
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