Jacking Up an Ariel Atom

We try our best here at Sector111 to not jack things up, unless of course we are talking about lifting a car up off the ground. When a car's wheels leave the ground it is always a risky proposition but if you are careful and use the correct tools, lifting your car can be done safely at home.The cars we deal with all have their own little way they like to be lifted, today we will talk about the Ariel Atom. The pictures in this blog are of the Ariel Atom 3S but it applies to all variants of the car.

Safety
Lifting car up off the ground poses a risk to both yourself and your beloved car. A "lightweight" sports car still weighs enough to cause serious injury were it to come down on any part of your body, a car lifted off the ground should always be treated with respect.

A few simple rules:

1. Always block the wheels and/or set the parking brake when lifting or working on a car.
2. NEVER place any part of your body under a car supported only by a hydraulic jack.

Jacking Points
No matter what you are working on, you always want to jack from a nice strong portion of the vehicle. On the rear of an Ariel Atom, this is easy. At the front, not so much. The recommended jacking point is where the front lower a-arm attaches to the chassis. This is very difficult to get to with a regular jack unless you take the nose bodywork off. It is much easier to place the jack at the outer portion of the a-arm where the pushrod attaches. It is very important that you do not jack from the center of the a-arm as this could bend it.

Procedure

1. Block the rear wheels and set the parking brake.
2. Lift the front of the car using the above mentioned jacking point.
3. Place a jack stand on each side under the car on the chassis tube that the lower a-arm mounts to.
   
   
4. Slowly lower the car onto the front stands. 
5. Jack up the car using the center of the rear lower chassis tube. 
6. Place jack stands on either side of the jack and slowly lower the car down onto the stands.
   
   
7. Now you can safely do what ever service work needs to be done.
   
   
8. To lower the car, do the reverse of this procedure. 

Note: On non-S versions of the car (without the sidepods), you can jack the car from the side where the rear lower a-arm attaches to the chassis. This will allow you to quickly lift a single side of the car if you just need to do something simple such as inspect or replace brake components at the track.