The Ariel Atom. This my friends, is not what I’d consider a car. More like a Go-Kart. But it’s powered by a supercharged Honda K20 engine making 300 horsepower on a 456kg body. Madness? Yes. It is fast? YES!
A visit to manufacturer Ariel’s site says “This is the Atom. What you see is what you get – if it doesn’t need it, it hasn’t got it”. It’s a really stripped down steel tube chassis which has 2 seats. Brakes are twin-pot discs front and back.
This very light track car (or heavy go-kart) is powered by a Honda i-VTEC 2.0 engine making 220bhp at 8200rpm and 196Nm of torque at 6100rpm. It redlines at 8600rpm.
What makes it fast? Power to weight ratio of course. Let’s compare. 300bhp for 456kg is roughly 600bhp per 1000kg? A Porsche 911 Carrera has 320bhp and weighs roughly 1350kg. Roughly 237bhp per 1000kg. You do the maths!
Read more about the Atom at Ariel’s website.
After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
It's cool ! but wondering whether can this vehicle be approved on the road.
They have one with a supercharger slapped on to the K20A to produce about 300bhp.
Its road legal in England, someone in the town where I live owns one
I'll wait till rains heavily and deliberately drove past it and splat some waters!!!
this is a superbike on 4 wheels….. man im love it…….
when you said 'powered by a Honda K20 engine' i thought it was a Honda CBR engine. Didn't know the K20 is a VTEC. well I must say that if it did use a motorcycle engine… it would sing a lot more beautifully…
The car is road legal in the UK and has been tested on last season's Top Gear.
Another Toys car for rich and ramours!
When can we own one????
Very cool car… You guys should have seen Jeremy Clarkson's face when he was driving this in Top Gear… his face was blown to smithereens… hahaha… superb handling too…
Real neat little car. In the Top Gear test, this car actually beat the Porsche Carerra GT and the Mercedes SLR track time. Now that's fast AND cheap too. In UK there are a good number of these track racer cum road cars. Another mention here is the Westfield.
this would be only a dream for M'sian to drove it on M'sia roads…jpj would never approve this car unless the driver would be mandatory to wear a helmet at all time….:)
If you want to see the Jeremy Clarkson vid, then just click this link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaWoo82zNUA
Highly recommended :O)
great car i may say……. Got JC's approval….
Power to weight ratio is top banana, its like a very fast bike with four wheels if your getting old like me you need to sit down sometimes.
I want one now can I pay a pound a week for life ??