Nomad order - current owner advice
Discussion
Mutema said:
If I was 20 or 21 and my dad chucked me the keys to a Nomad, I might wet myself. I guess he is working off the premium in chores then huh? 
What's your RS? Assuming GT3, if so what series is it?
My son works for me , so he technically is earning the money to pay for the Nomad, we decided to get something fun for all our hard work, that is why he will be allowed to drive it as much as me. I want to do a few track days in it to reach him rear wheel drive. He has a Megane 275, so can cope with the performance, just not the tail stepping out What's your RS? Assuming GT3, if so what series is it?My RS is a GT3 mk1, I have had it since new, and has been one of my best ever purchases for fun & value.
Lighty said:
My son works for me , so he technically is earning the money to pay for the Nomad, we decided to get something fun for all our hard work, that is why he will be allowed to drive it as much as me. I want to do a few track days in it to reach him rear wheel drive. He has a Megane 275, so can cope with the performance, just not the tail stepping out
My RS is a GT3 mk1, I have had it since new, and has been one of my best ever purchases for fun & value.
Lovely, sounds like some fun times ahead. I can't wait for mine. I was on order for a 991 GT3 MKII but decided the Nomad was going to be more fun so cancelled. Funny how things work out, the OPC wouldn't pony up a pair of tickets for Goodwood FOS - I was due to be away for work but plans changed and tickets were sold out so I asked if they could do me a favour. I got the impression they didn't really try that hard. I was talking to Ariel at the time and they suggested coming to see the car at Goodwood. Explained that I didn't have tickets and they sorted me out. Hoping that I made the right call. Not that I would be taking a GT3 off road! My RS is a GT3 mk1, I have had it since new, and has been one of my best ever purchases for fun & value.
That's decent of Ariel, and it obviously paid them back in bucket loads. Looking back on the purchase of the RS, the worst bit was interacting with the dealers, they couldn't be more unhelpful , make you feel like they are doing you a favour.
Porsche themselves were fantastic, as I did factory collect.
I considered something newer like a 650s or a Huracan, & getting rid of the Porsche, but realised it was the pure driving I liked best, so opted for the ultimate raw driving in the Nomad .
Shame the weather is so poor 50% of the time here.
Porsche themselves were fantastic, as I did factory collect.
I considered something newer like a 650s or a Huracan, & getting rid of the Porsche, but realised it was the pure driving I liked best, so opted for the ultimate raw driving in the Nomad .
Shame the weather is so poor 50% of the time here.
Lighty said:
That's decent of Ariel, and it obviously paid them back in bucket loads. Looking back on the purchase of the RS, the worst bit was interacting with the dealers, they couldn't be more unhelpful , make you feel like they are doing you a favour.
Porsche themselves were fantastic, as I did factory collect.
I considered something newer like a 650s or a Huracan, & getting rid of the Porsche, but realised it was the pure driving I liked best, so opted for the ultimate raw driving in the Nomad .
Shame the weather is so poor 50% of the time here.
One of my friends has a serious collection of exotic cars and he always goes on about his best buying experience being with his Alfa 8C. Years later and having spent nothing since, apparently the Alfa sales person still rings him up with invites to events, comps tickets and with no pressure selling either. He said to the guy that he felt bad accepting these gestures and that he was taking advantage to which the Alfa guy replied 'x, when we make a car that you will like, I hope that I will have earned your business and that you will consider placing an order with me'. I laughed when I thought about my Porsche salesman either acting in that way or simply saying something like that. Porsche themselves were fantastic, as I did factory collect.
I considered something newer like a 650s or a Huracan, & getting rid of the Porsche, but realised it was the pure driving I liked best, so opted for the ultimate raw driving in the Nomad .
Shame the weather is so poor 50% of the time here.
The weather is a shame and I suspect I'll be investing in a Nomad specific wardrobe.
Already thinking that this is going to be first in: http://www.heinnie.com/outdoor-research-ninjaclava
A re-post from AtomClub
Overview:
+ It looks mad, but cool at the same time (especially in 'shouty' custom yellow)
+ It feels like an AA 245 but more of a brute at low speed
+ Visibility is improved considerably over an AA
+ Windscreen is integrated properly, not even comparable to an AA windscreen
+ It still feels like an AA derivative
+ NA sounds great
+ On knobbly tyres it goes sideways, easily.
- Not fast enough for long enough
- Stock suspension is not ideal for UK roads
- Stock seats do not suit slim drivers
- pedal box is pretty tight
More detail:
Pedal box is very tight, brake and accelerator are very close (even with narrow shoes), this is different from my AA3, but it was a 2010 AA3 so this new box may have been installed on the 3.5 for a few years now anyway.
Low end torque it certainly has, booted it out of dodge city heading towards the A303 and it pulled like my old SC AA, plenty of poke. But when up to motorway speed i personally felt it was missing the extra kick of continuing to pull like a train beyond 80, the tail off was certainly noticable (when compared to SC of course). It may not be the point of the car, but for me it's important.
The Nomad is louder than the equivalent AA3 245 I had right back at the start of Ariel ownership. Maybe the AA air intake blocked some of the noise (or the 2.4 is generally louder), but at idle and under load, the car is louder than its 2.0 AA 245 equivalent, in a good way of course! The car at idle is a rougher experience than an AA3, no-where near AA2 levels of shake, but just a little less refined.
I found the engine pulls smoother but runs out of puff earlier. When comparing to my 245 and then SC it's a compromise. Low down torque and out-of-puff sooner feel of a turbo, but no turbo lag and it obviously sounds what it is, NA. Probably exactly what you'd expect from the engine and the Nomads purpose I guess. I don't miss the SC whine, but I do miss the continued pull above 80. The car is fast, but not quite mad enough, not quite Ariel mad. SC in spring.
Knobblies are fine for 80 motorway, if you approach the tyre rating 100, things get interesting, and not in a confidence inspiring way on a busy motorway (allegedly...)
It will go sideways, easily, but in that slow-motion sideways way, benefits of knobblies I guess.
An unexpected (but very useful) feature of the Nomad is that after a while I felt like i was in my old Atom, everything is pretty much in the same place. Then you pull out of a side road or off a slip road look around for traffic and you can actually see the 3/4 rear of each side. Even with the tyre in place you can have a good go of looking directly behind. Non Atom drivers would think the rearward visibility is poor / dangerous, but they need to drive an Atom as many miles as I have to appreciate this bonus.
I have standard seats and they are not that comfy TBH, I don't miss the bench but these are one size fits many, and i don't have the frame for them. If it's a problem going forward I'll have to add the custom option narrower seats. I did cover 180miles pretty much straight, so my results may be skewed.
Clutch is bitey, but it is heavy duty and it is new, as with SC AA it's just as well to drive off in 2nd.
Windscreen was also a plus, from experience the heated option was a no-brainer but after driving an AA for a year and then adding a windscreen, it did help on motorways, but always felt like something i'd want to remove as soon as possible when not needed. The Nomad is 60-90mins removal and the factory said you'd not want to do it anyway. Well I'm please to report that after a few mins all concerns were forgotten, the windscreen is so large, raked and encompassing that you forget it's there. It does a real job of wind deflection whereas in the screened AA I always felt I still needed a lid due to whipped side bluster, this is much more refined. Winner. It will have a problem with water wicking around the frame into the cabin in wet weather, but I'll take a look at that when it starts to annoy.
Not that happy with stock suspension, it's comfortable, but on rutted roads it does tend to crash, in this respect it's not much better than an AA. I knew this from the road test though, I am waiting for the FOX stuff to be sorted out and the options to settle down before probably changing them out. In hindsight it would have been a better idea to get the adjustable stock option so I had a better understanding of what I preferred as a setup, recommend for others who have not yet finalised.
Other points, my early AA3 still had the dials, miss those...
. It looks fantastic in this rapeseed yellow with pearl, so so happy with the colour choice. Tactical hood on order from states should make the car the useable AA alternative tool I bought it for, going to be a fun 2017!!
A few random pics added.
Hope this helps!
Andrew.
Overview:
+ It looks mad, but cool at the same time (especially in 'shouty' custom yellow)
+ It feels like an AA 245 but more of a brute at low speed
+ Visibility is improved considerably over an AA
+ Windscreen is integrated properly, not even comparable to an AA windscreen
+ It still feels like an AA derivative
+ NA sounds great
+ On knobbly tyres it goes sideways, easily.
- Not fast enough for long enough
- Stock suspension is not ideal for UK roads
- Stock seats do not suit slim drivers
- pedal box is pretty tight
More detail:
Pedal box is very tight, brake and accelerator are very close (even with narrow shoes), this is different from my AA3, but it was a 2010 AA3 so this new box may have been installed on the 3.5 for a few years now anyway.
Low end torque it certainly has, booted it out of dodge city heading towards the A303 and it pulled like my old SC AA, plenty of poke. But when up to motorway speed i personally felt it was missing the extra kick of continuing to pull like a train beyond 80, the tail off was certainly noticable (when compared to SC of course). It may not be the point of the car, but for me it's important.
The Nomad is louder than the equivalent AA3 245 I had right back at the start of Ariel ownership. Maybe the AA air intake blocked some of the noise (or the 2.4 is generally louder), but at idle and under load, the car is louder than its 2.0 AA 245 equivalent, in a good way of course! The car at idle is a rougher experience than an AA3, no-where near AA2 levels of shake, but just a little less refined.
I found the engine pulls smoother but runs out of puff earlier. When comparing to my 245 and then SC it's a compromise. Low down torque and out-of-puff sooner feel of a turbo, but no turbo lag and it obviously sounds what it is, NA. Probably exactly what you'd expect from the engine and the Nomads purpose I guess. I don't miss the SC whine, but I do miss the continued pull above 80. The car is fast, but not quite mad enough, not quite Ariel mad. SC in spring.
Knobblies are fine for 80 motorway, if you approach the tyre rating 100, things get interesting, and not in a confidence inspiring way on a busy motorway (allegedly...)
It will go sideways, easily, but in that slow-motion sideways way, benefits of knobblies I guess.
An unexpected (but very useful) feature of the Nomad is that after a while I felt like i was in my old Atom, everything is pretty much in the same place. Then you pull out of a side road or off a slip road look around for traffic and you can actually see the 3/4 rear of each side. Even with the tyre in place you can have a good go of looking directly behind. Non Atom drivers would think the rearward visibility is poor / dangerous, but they need to drive an Atom as many miles as I have to appreciate this bonus.
I have standard seats and they are not that comfy TBH, I don't miss the bench but these are one size fits many, and i don't have the frame for them. If it's a problem going forward I'll have to add the custom option narrower seats. I did cover 180miles pretty much straight, so my results may be skewed.
Clutch is bitey, but it is heavy duty and it is new, as with SC AA it's just as well to drive off in 2nd.
Windscreen was also a plus, from experience the heated option was a no-brainer but after driving an AA for a year and then adding a windscreen, it did help on motorways, but always felt like something i'd want to remove as soon as possible when not needed. The Nomad is 60-90mins removal and the factory said you'd not want to do it anyway. Well I'm please to report that after a few mins all concerns were forgotten, the windscreen is so large, raked and encompassing that you forget it's there. It does a real job of wind deflection whereas in the screened AA I always felt I still needed a lid due to whipped side bluster, this is much more refined. Winner. It will have a problem with water wicking around the frame into the cabin in wet weather, but I'll take a look at that when it starts to annoy.
Not that happy with stock suspension, it's comfortable, but on rutted roads it does tend to crash, in this respect it's not much better than an AA. I knew this from the road test though, I am waiting for the FOX stuff to be sorted out and the options to settle down before probably changing them out. In hindsight it would have been a better idea to get the adjustable stock option so I had a better understanding of what I preferred as a setup, recommend for others who have not yet finalised.
Other points, my early AA3 still had the dials, miss those...
. It looks fantastic in this rapeseed yellow with pearl, so so happy with the colour choice. Tactical hood on order from states should make the car the useable AA alternative tool I bought it for, going to be a fun 2017!!A few random pics added.
Hope this helps!
Andrew.
cowboyengineer said:
stormcloud123 said:
I know, 1st world problems, but M2 now cancelled and cash ready for the Boxster / 718 Spyder 2019, please dear god keep it NA like you promised.
They won't be NA. Virtually guaranteed Lighty said:
Apparently chassis being delivered 16th Dec, build starts Feb for March delivery, spec sorted now
Ah, sorry, yes. Spec is taken when they are ready to put the chassis order in, this is a 4 week turn around from manufacturers, then another 2/3 weeks from chassis arriving at factory to them putting it on the floor and starting, then another 3/4 weeks including IVA test. Think they say 6-8 weeks from spec drop, my experience on both Atom and Nomad, 8-10 weeks.Zadkiel said:
I believe the next GT4 is highly likely to be NA. There is also apparently a chance of normal 718s returning to NA, although I doubt that one.
No chance 718 will go back to NA, GT4 and Spyder will be NA though. No knowledge at all, but they're both halo models of the platform, it is the Porsche thing to do.stormcloud123 said:
Ah, sorry, yes. Spec is taken when they are ready to put the chassis order in, this is a 4 week turn around from manufacturers, then another 2/3 weeks from chassis arriving at factory to them putting it on the floor and starting, then another 3/4 weeks including IVA test. Think they say 6-8 weeks from spec drop, my experience on both Atom and Nomad, 8-10 weeks.
I will wait until march for a 17 reg, plus the worst of the winter weather should be over .stormcloud123 said:
Well the car if ever sold on in short to medium term will be appreciably 6 months newer (in the buyers eyes).
I would wait if close enough to the flip plate, even though I'd probably end up putting a private plate on the car anyways.
And people are stupid enough to pay a premium? Never understood the mindset. I would wait if close enough to the flip plate, even though I'd probably end up putting a private plate on the car anyways.
Mutema said:
And people are stupid enough to pay a premium? Never understood the mindset.
To be honest I'd have handed over a premium for one of these(if it was possible and if I'd have known the eventual lead time), my wait time will be around 18months since order. That's a complete summer of fun with it missed. Is that worth a couple of grand? Maybe.Gassing Station | Ariel | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff