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RPM TV Website | March 21, 2024

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Ariel producing full titanium frame

Ariel Atom V8
Adam Schoeman

Niche sports car maker Ariel has announced that it’s aiming to replace the steel tubular frame of its cars with a design fashioned completely from titanium.

Titanium has become the poster child of strength linked to low mass, thanks to it being the metal with the highest strength-to-weight ratio; a trait that favours automotive design.

Less weight means that less power is needed to move the vehicle, but it also improves every aspect of driving. The lower the weight of a car the easier it is for the brakes to slow it down, and the less inertia the tyres need to carry through a corner.

For Ariel though, the titanium frame would mean a reduction of 40 percent over its current steel implementation, which would translate into a complete weight saving of approximately 8 percent.

This could bring the car’s weight down to the 500 kg mark, but Ariel engineers have admitted that they are aiming for an kerb mass in the high 400 kg region.

Ariel says it hasn’t decided whether it will release the lighter model as a special limited edition or if it will be offered as an option on future cars.

One thing that is certain, is that it won’t be cheap. The process of working with titanium is extremely complex, as the metal combusts if it comes into contact with oxygen while being welded.

For the procedure to be successful, it requires a special argon-filled welding room, and a whole different set of skills.

According to senior Ariel staff, regardless of how the initial run of titanium-frame models is sold, the lessons learnt from the manufacturing process will help the company with future projects.

This specifically relevant to the firm’s intentions of producing a motorcycle, where low-mass materials are even more important, but require less work per unit.

Unfortunately for us in South Africa, Ariels are a very rare sight. But if the firm does complete the work and releases its road bike, then the probability of us seeing more Ariel-branded machines locally is quite high.

Even if they are two-wheel variants…

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