The Ariel Atom
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.
August 17, 2005 @ 6:20 pm
It’s cool ! but wondering whether can this vehicle be approved on the road.
August 17, 2005 @ 6:27 pm
They have one with a supercharger slapped on to the K20A to produce about 300bhp.
August 17, 2005 @ 7:16 pm
Its road legal in England, someone in the town where I live owns one
August 17, 2005 @ 9:48 pm
I’ll wait till rains heavily and deliberately drove past it and splat some waters!!!
August 17, 2005 @ 11:44 pm
this is a superbike on 4 wheels….. man im love it…….
August 17, 2005 @ 11:59 pm
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…
August 18, 2005 @ 3:09 am
The car is road legal in the UK and has been tested on last season’s Top Gear.
August 18, 2005 @ 7:48 am
Another Toys car for rich and ramours!
When can we own one????
August 18, 2005 @ 8:29 am
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…
August 18, 2005 @ 8:55 am
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.
August 20, 2005 @ 2:18 pm
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….:)
June 20, 2006 @ 2:12 am
[...] Top Gear covered the Ariel Atom 2, an ultra stripped down track car for the road (or a souped up go-kart, whichever way you want to look at it). It’s all praises, and you’d be suprised at the track test results at the end. [...]
May 31, 2007 @ 7:58 pm
If you want to see the Jeremy Clarkson vid, then just click this link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaWoo82zNUA
Highly recommended :O)
June 3, 2007 @ 1:14 pm
great car i may say……. Got JC’s approval….