We’ve seen Chinese automakers contribute more than their fair share of vehicular doppelgangers over the past decade, but this one takes the cake. Straight from the province of Zhejiang comes Yongkang City Feiya Vehicle Company’s “Go-Kart” - which, without doubt, is nothing less than a clone of the Ariel Atom at three-quarter scale.
Although it may fool the casual bystander, the Go-Kart’s resemblance to the Atom is only skin deep. In comparison to the 240-horsepower 2.0-liter Honda I-4 used in the U.K., Feiya’s clone makes do with only a 58-horsepower 650-cc two-cylinder motor coupled to a four-speed manual. That may be fun enough for a small motorbike, but it’s only good for 58 mph - paltry considering the real thing can hit similar speeds in under three seconds.
(Click through for more on the Feiya’s Atom clone, including a gallery)
We’re also noticing that Feiya’s Go-Kart is sub-Atomic in stature. While Ariel gives the Atom’s overall length at somewhere close to 3410 millimeters, Feiya skips such measurements - but notes the Go-Kart will fit within a crate that’s 560 millimeters shorter. Still, the car apparently has room for two people, and is still fitted with lights, instruments, wheels and seating to complete that Atom look.
Other than attempting to trick others into believing you own a svelte British super car without spending the cash, we’ve no idea why someone would want one of these. That said, we won’t be the least surprised if some start popping up on eBay, having been brought Stateside as a gray-market import. We, however, will hold out for an interpretation of the KTM X-Bow courtesy of Tang Hua.
Hmm, considering that the thing has “atomstylekart.com” painted on its side, I would think that trying to trick people into believing that it’s an Atom wouldn’t work. It reminds me more of those little cars that you can buy for kids. Nobody’s going to mistake those for the real deal and I think Ariel has nothing to worry about here also. But they’re probably using the Atom trademark without permission.
Just when you thought Chinese Car Copying of other established cars couldn’t sink any lower, along comes this. What’s next? Yugo? Lada? These guys need to be more creative if they want to be taken seriously as legitimate automakers.
quite possibly they are just aiming for their national market for almost 2billion people. People in china unless you are the very rich, are very price conscious. Get the knock off for cheap or get the real thing for $$$. China have a reputation for cheap labor and quantity and have killed their reputation on quality.
As with many clones it clearly has serious genetic defects!
I hate the Chinese. I hate ‘em. They don’t deserve to be a world power.
They’re nothing but unoriginal mimics and exporters of unsafe products that wouldn’t pass the inspection team from Elbonia.
All of China’s money should be taken away and given to people’s whose copyrights they infringed, and the people who they have poisoned.
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