Atomless

Last week I waved bye to the Atom after taking the difficult decision to sell the car. Weirdly it was easy to make the decision to put the car on the market but actually finding a buyer and then having the car collected has taken some time to sink in.

The Ariel was a car I have been looking at for years and after nearly two years on the waiting list I became the proud owner of the 300bhp monster AT04 FUN in Jaguar Racing Blue. But two years later, and while the love affair hasn’t ended, I decided enough was enough and I needed a more serious relationship, not the one night stand I was having every occasional weekend when the weather was perfect. Having only covered 2,000 miles in two years the Atom proved an expensive foray and with the summer quickly ending I picked the opportunity to advertise the car.

Finding a buyer for such a specialist car was different to selling any other kind of vehicle so I turned to PistonHeads however in the end the interest came through a supercar broker based in Worcestershire. The buyer, a keen car enthusiast, spends time on race tracks so is probably better suited to the Atom than myself who actually preferred to look at it than drive it quickly. Don’t get me wrong, it is quite an experience to drive something so pure (ie no traction control, ABS or power steering), but I realised I am not that motivated by speed and actually just the pleasure of driving along country lanes with the sounds was enough for me.

However with the car now gone it does feel like a loss, I have written before about some cars having soul, the Atom definitely had one. My only way of dealing with it is to work out what I am going to replace it with. Ideally I want something that I can use in all weather, and hence more often, while still providing the buzz. Watch this space.