The seats are plastic shells padding is provided by clothing and subcutaneous fat. The cockpit is empty and uncluttered enough to make most race cars seem positively baroque. You don't need to wear a full-face helmet to drive one, but you're likely to ingest a significant quantity of bugs and road debris if you choose not to. In the U.S., street-legal Atoms are equipped with a windshield, but in Europe most have nothing more than a Perspex aero screen to break up airflow. Protective clothing is important to drive an Atom, with layers chosen to provide required levels of both warmth and waterproofing.
There Will Be RainĪs seems to be traditional for our first experience of new Ariel products, we arrive at the company's modest factory in Crewkerne under a gray sky and with the threat of imminent rain. Weight has increased by about 45 pounds over the last-generation car, but with fluids Ariel says this Atom still weighs just under 1350pounds. Beyond a custom engine computer that Ariel says lets the mill produce 320 horsepower at 6000 rpm (up from 306 horses at 6500 revs), it is effectively identical to the engine in the Civic and turns the rear wheels through the hatchback's gearbox with unchanged ratios. Ariel previously used a naturally aspirated Honda four-cylinder, with an optional supercharger, but the new Atom will have the Type R engine as standard. The biggest change sits under the plastic cover at the back of the car: the turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four, the same engine that powers the Honda Civic Type R. This latest version is the fourth generation, and the company says the only components carried over are the brake pedal, clutch pedal, and gas cap. It has diversified into other areas, notably the Nomad off-roader and the Ace motorcycle, but the Atom remains the heart of the company's business.
Saunders now runs Ariel with his two sons, and the company employs 26 people at its factory in Crewkerne, Somerset, England, with TMI Autotech in Virginia building cars for the United States market under license.
ARIEL ATOM 4 FREE
The fundamentals have remained unchanged, and this Atom is still absolutely free from frills or distractions, but the car itself has evolved steadily alongside the company that builds it. It's a vehicle with a tubular-metal spaceframe that has no function beyond providing the necessary mounting points for its mechanical components and a protected space for two occupants. The first version, conceived two decades ago by British car designer Simon Saunders, was essentially a four-wheeled motorbike. The Ariel Atom is a car for those happy to answer all of those questions in the negative. Does a car need to have a heater? What about a windshield? A roof? Bodywork capable of putting up some resistance to passing airflow? Where that line falls depends on an individual's love of comfort or appreciation for austerity. The challenge with minimalism is not to overdo it: remove everything superfluous without getting rid of the important bits.
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