Ariel Nomad Turbo Conversion

[Penguinracer]

The sheer versatility of the Nomad turbo is incredible - covering everything from raw GT car, to off-roader to track day special!

It's three cars in one!

[jenkosrugby]

Fantastic......this is everything motoring enjoyment should be.....that thing is going to fly on a track day, and you don't need to worry about going off into gravel traps, as you should be able to drive over them :-)

[Caddyshack]

Penguinracer said:

The sheer versatility of the Nomad turbo is incredible - covering everything from raw GT car, to off-roader to track day special!

It's three cars in one!

You should write those estate agent sales particulars…compact and bijou? GT car made me smile.

[ol]

jenkosrugby said:

Fantastic......this is everything motoring enjoyment should be.....that thing is going to fly on a track day, and you don't need to worry about going off into gravel traps, as you should be able to drive over them :-)

Haha thanks. I'll find out in October at Pembrey!

[ol]

Caddyshack said:

Penguinracer said:

The sheer versatility of the Nomad turbo is incredible - covering everything from raw GT car, to off-roader to track day special!

It's three cars in one!

You should write those estate agent sales particulars…compact and bijou? GT car made me smile.

GT car is pushing it a bit, although it is comfy on the motorway... Maybe off roader, track special, and 'pedestrian entertainer' haha

[ol]

Apologies in advance, but this is going to be a long post with a lot of photos....


..so after the dyno disaster, I met up with the other 2 Northern Nomads, and set off for Wales. We needed a few supplies to stopped off at Demon Tweeks. Thanks to the chap who helped me get a steering wheel spacer to bring the wheel closer to me - it's made a huge difference and much nicer to drive now - you said you read this thread but I didn't catch your name.

Untitled by Olly Olly, on Flickr

After Tweeks, we drove to Devils Bridge and stayed at the Haford hotel - was nice but had the smallest single beds I've ever seen in the twin room. Not ideal when we were both well over 6 foot... But lovely location nonetheless

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Saturday morning came, and we met the photographers (Earthe Eye Media - absolutely great team and really nice people. Would highly recommend) and made the trek to Sweet Lamb Rally Complex. We had it to ourselves from 9am - 5pm, and had 8 cars in the end. I would have loved to get 10, but this is the most Nomads to ever get together, so still a great achievement.

This is what happened:

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The only little issue was the a stone hit the cv boot clamp causing it to ping off, and a small rip in the boot. I sorted it with some cable ties and was back on my merry way

nomads-323 by Olly Olly, on Flickr

After we spent the night in a hotel, we convoyed back North, hitting Hartside Pass on the way back.

My passenger eats about 10 meals each day, and managed to have a nice sushi platter en route. I made do with a scotch egg..

Untitled by Olly Olly, on Flickr

Untitled by Olly Olly, on Flickr

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Overall it was a mega day. Really nice to put some faces to names, and meet all the other Nomad owners. Really nice people, great fun, and we will definitely be doing it again. Jonathan from Sweet Lamb was an absolute gent to us all day, and would highly recommend going if you have anything off road capable. Also, another shout out to Earth Eye Media for getting some awesome photos from the day - https://www.facebook.com/EarthsEyeMedia/

[Mezzanine]

What a great trip - thanks for posting those great photographs.

[Terra1]

Looks awesome, thanks for sharing! I grew up near Clocaenog Forest, the Nomad would be awesome there to live my '90's rally fantasies.

[jenkosrugby]

What an amazing trip and the photos look incredible.........

I'm doing a track day on Friday and right it just seems like its going to be boring compared to this :-) - It's also got me thinking about jacking up the suspension and putting off road tyres on my Westfield :-)

[TGCOTF-dewey]

jenkosrugby said:

What an amazing trip and the photos look incredible.........

I'm doing a track day on Friday and right it just seems like its going to be boring compared to this :-) - It's also got me thinking about jacking up the suspension and putting off road tyres on my Westfield :-)

You wouldn't be the first. There was a chap on the bookatrack forum back in the day who rallied one... I recall footage of it at the Barbados rally.

[jontysafe]

Fantastic post!
Love the pics, thankyou for posting.

[ol]

Mezzanine said:

What a great trip - thanks for posting those great photographs.

Terra1 said:

Looks awesome, thanks for sharing! I grew up near Clocaenog Forest, the Nomad would be awesome there to live my '90's rally fantasies.

Thanks guys, it was a lot of fun... As is usually the case every time you get into the Nomad! had to google where Clocaenog Forest was- looks stunning! I would recommend you get a Nomad as soon as possible

[ol]

jenkosrugby said:

What an amazing trip and the photos look incredible.........

I'm doing a track day on Friday and right it just seems like its going to be boring compared to this :-) - It's also got me thinking about jacking up the suspension and putting off road tyres on my Westfield :-)

Haha - where's the track day? I had sevens for a lot of years before the Nomad - it's the logical progression!

[ol]

TGCOTF-dewey said:

You wouldn't be the first. There was a chap on the bookatrack forum back in the day who rallied one... I recall footage of it at the Barbados rally.

There was also the Grand Tour Caterham that looked epic on jacked up suspension



I'm failing to be able to link to the image so it's here

http://motorspirit.me/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/m...

[RB Will]

You beat me to posting about it
Mega day out , advise everyone to get out and play in the dirt if you can. These days are way more fun and relaxed than trackdays, better views too.



Was good to get a ride out in Ol’s turbo one too, the sound is great, will be a beast on track when it has some grip

[ol]

RB Will said:

You beat me to posting about it
Mega day out , advise everyone to get out and play in the dirt if you can. These days are way more fun and relaxed than trackdays, better views too.



Was good to get a ride out in Ol’s turbo one too, the sound is great, will be a beast on track when it has some grip

It was an awesome day wasn't it! Thanks for the passenger ride in yours - the 18 inch wheels and thinner tyres definitely felt different, and was nice to experience the supercharged car. Great driving too.

[ol]

Yesterday was another great Nomad day - we finally got the mapping finished!

Left home at 5:30am to drive down to TWP Engineering (Paul West) to finish the job. Was pretty excited about it so didn't sleep well, but the Nomad is good at waking you up with a massive shot of adrenaline.

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Spent most of the day at Pauls. We stepped it up incrementally, but everything went as well as we could have hoped.

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We changed the spark plugs, as the time of the build we couldn't get the ones we needed in time, which has been fine while it was running lower power, but we want to make sure this is reliable and solid.

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The old ones were suffering a bit..

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We got some nice flames

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[ol]

So scores on the doors!!

We have got 3 maps, and opening the valve on the exhaust makes such a huge difference that we actually have 6 different settings:


No boost - 250bhp valve closed, 260bhp valve open

Low Boost - 300bhp valve closed, 315bhp valve open

High Boost (10psi) - 355bhp valve closed, 380bhp valve open


This project was never about number hunting (see first post) but was all about making something drivable on the limit and FUN. The drivability is awesome even on full power, and the way it puts on speed is unreal. I'm so happy with it and it has turned out to be exactly what I was hoping for when I bought the car and made the first post on this thread.

High Boost map graph

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High and Low Boost map graphs

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Edited by ol on Friday 16th September 16:09

[ol]

Had a great drive home over Hartside Pass, and I'm really impressed at how the Geolander all terrain tyres handle the power. I was expecting it to be all over the place, but it grips really well. The power delivery is very linear and feels well within what the car can handle.

At 730KG and 380bhp, it gives a power to weight of 520. The same as a Veyron haha

I'm very happy. Thanks again to Chris at Hard Knocks and Paul at TPW for making this happen.

Untitled by Olly Olly, on Flickr

Untitled by Olly Olly, on Flickr

Untitled by Olly Olly, on Flickr

Edited by ol on Friday 16th September 14:22

[Caddyshack]

What sort of cost is it to do the off-road stuff? I wouldn’t mind thrashing my Cossie 205 round there. I like the idea of being able to slide around…the track days black flag you for “drifting” if you want to play now