Indeed if you want to show a clean set of exhaust pipes to anything that comes sniffing that is less potent than, say, one of the junior members of the McLaren family, position 1 on the switch will more than suffice. So the only actual determinant of speed over this measure is traction. The fact Ariel claims the Atom 4 to be a scant 0.1sec quicker over the same measure is meaningless: although its traction is incredible, on full boost it won’t take full throttle on even a dry road until way past 60mph. And I can say this from personal experience. Which, on paper at least, is a fairly terrifying prospect not least because with a turbo comes torque of a kind never seen in any Ariel product, half as much again as the last Atom 3.5 could muster, and that was a car that would pop sub 3sec 0-60mph runs even if you started in second gear. When you consider the car weighs just 595kg, giving it a true supercar power-to-weight ratio on its weakest setting, you may start to appreciate exactly what we have here. Naturally it has its own exhaust system to package within the Atom’s extended but still diminutive wheelbase and, for a few hundred pounds extra, you can specific an extra switch on the dashboard that allows you to scroll through three engine power modes: 223PS (220bhp) on level 1, 264PS (260bhp) for level 2 and 324PS (320bhp) for those brave enough to select level three. ![]() The new one is a turbo unit, plucked unchanged from the engine bay of a Civic Type R. The suspension has been re-designed from scratch to incorporated significant anti-squat and anti-dive geometry and, perhaps most notable of all, the old choice of a normally aspirated or supercharged Honda motor has gone. But the spaceframe now has thicker pipework, partly to add strength but mainly because the Ariel team think big bore tubing looks really cool. True, the philosophy remains the same: a high-strength steel exo-skeleton, double wishbone suspension at each corner, a four-cylinder Honda engine behind and really very little else. ![]() Which would be a shame because in most (though not all) ways, it is a car that has been transformed for the better. ![]() And because the Atom 4 follows the Atom, Atom 2, Atom 3 and, indeed, the Atom 3.5 – each car a development of its predecessor – there’s a danger some won’t recognise the Atom 4 for what it really is. It’s a wonder they didn’t call it the Atom 5: Aston Martin never made a DB8 because it felt the leap from the DB7 was so great that merely adding one was not enough. And that’s it: otherwise every tube, panel, nut, bolt, gasket, wire and other component is appearing on the Atom for the first time. If you’re now squinting at the photographs and wondering whether it really is as new as all that – or one of those smoke and mirrors cars that aims simply to reheat the old soup and present it in a different tureen – consider this: the fuel filler cap is the same as the old car’s, as is the pedal box and one part of the steering column.
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