Highly charged Atom

To celebrate 25 years of motoring hilarity, Ariel has marked the occasion by producing the circuit-focused Atom 4RR. 

It is the most powerful and most focused version of the ultra-lightweight spaceframed track car ever. And it celebrates the debut of the vehicle in 2000. Today’s fourth-generation car, which provides the basis for the RR, is all-new apart from the fuel filler cap, steering wheel and pedals. 

Like the regular Atom 4, it’s powered by a Honda Civic Type R turbocharged 2.0 engine. But for the 4RR, Ariel has added revised internals and new components. It has also upgraded the oil and fuel systems, allowing the motor to spit out 391kW and 550Nm of torque.

Unbelievably, that’s four times as much power as the original Ariel Atom produced. And even more than the mad 354kW Ariel Atom V8 of 2011 managed. The Atom 4RR even as more snot than the latest BMW M3. All of it is sent rearward, as usual, and the car will still weighs less than 700kg.

Expect a 0-100 time of under 2.5sec, given the 300hp Ariel Atom 4R can hit the metric tonne in 2.7 seconds. That would make it one of the quickest acceleration ICE power cars ever produced in the UK.

While specs aren’t yet to hand, Aerial says this car will “enable the most serious track drivers to explore the limits of the lightweight Atom, while utilising the full extent of their driving skills”.   

Just 25 examples of the Ariel Atom 4RR will be produced, and all will be made to order. There’s no price tag as yet either.