TPT May 2009

2009

›

roduction &

rocessing of

utomotive

ube

ven as it virtually abolishes the concept

‘under the hood’

, the high-performanceAtom

sports car designed by Britain’s Ariel Motor Co epitomizes tubing for automotive

applications. The car which has been called

‘driving nirvana’

has very little bodywork.

Its exposed chassis, fashioned of large-diameter

steel tube welded by the bronze and

tungsten inert gas (TIG) process,

gives the vehicle a skeletal look

that declares

‘supercar’

While it scarcely seems to allow for internal apparatus, this machine named for the

fundamental building block in nature does have it, and it is as tube-intensive as

the car’s exoskeletal profile. The Atom has an internal combustion engine; a six-

speed manual gearbox; a hydraulic clutch; and steering, suspension, and braking

systems – none of them in the least exotic to a garage mechanic qualified for four-

cylinder work.

For as long as fuel-powered automobiles must be activated, steered, turned, stopped

– that is, for as long as they are driven – even a car built for acceleration from zero to

60mph in under four seconds will be dependent on its delivery systems.

From the wide tubing that encloses a rack-and-

pinion gearset to the narrow tubing for pneumatic

and hydraulic fluid transport, the products

of tube making are essential to

the automotive enterprise.

They have been from the

beginning. And they will

be when the Ariel Atom,

now in its third incarnation,

reaches, say, its tenth.



With a steel tubular chassis,

the Atom is the epitome

of innovative usage of

automotive tube

(photo courtesy of Ariel Motor Co –

)