The Atom began as a student project at Coventry University by transport design student Niki Smart, working alongside Simon Saunders, a senior transport design lecturer. After several sports car companies rejected the proposal, Saunders founded his own company in 1991, named Solocrest Ltd., to bring the car to market. The company was renamed Ariel Motor Company Ltd. in 1999. Known initially as the LSC (Lightweight Sports Car), the car was developed at the university in 1996 with funding and input from various automotive industry members, including British Steel and TWR, and was first shown publicly at the British International Motor Show at the NEC in Birmingham in October 1996.
The Atom's suspension was tuned by engineers at Lotus. Both front and rear double unequal-length wishbones and inboard pushrod-operated dampers are used. Front and rear Bilstein dampers are adjustable, and stacked helper coil springs combined with main coil springs produce a variable spring rate. The suspension derives from single-seat racing car design and is fully adjustable using only a wrench.
A supercharged Ariel Atom 2 won Road & Track magazine's 0–161–0 km/h (0–100–0 mph) test in 2005 with a time of 10.88 seconds, ahead of the Caterham CSR 260 (11.41 seconds) and the Ford GT (13.17 seconds). The following year the Atom won Autocar's 0–100 mph challenge, recording 6.86 seconds. The Sunday Times measured a 0–97 km/h (0–60 mph) time of 2.89 seconds for the Atom, placing it as the world's third-fastest accelerating production car at the time, behind the Bugatti Veyron (2.46 seconds) and the Ultima GTR (2.6 seconds).
Ariel Atom (first generation): Introduced at the turn of the millennium with 190 bhp from a naturally aspirated 1.8-litre Rover K-series engine.
Ariel Atom 2: Launched in 2003, producing up to 300 bhp from a supercharged 2-litre Honda Civic Type R engine.
Ariel Atom 3: Appeared in 2007, using a Honda Civic drivetrain with a smoother "KZ" Type-R motor.
Ariel Atom 500: Introduced in February 2008 with a 373 kW (500 hp) 3.0-litre John Hartley-designed V8 engine, carbon fibre body panels, Alcon four-piston brake calipers, and Dymag magnesium wheels. The engine is coupled to a SADEV six-speed sequential gearbox. The production version produces 678 kW/t (909 bhp/tonne) from a Hartley Enterprises-built unit. Ariel claimed a 0–100 km/h time of under 2.3 seconds. On 23 January 2011 the Atom 500 set the lap record around the Top Gear test track at 1:15.1, remaining the fastest road-legal car around that circuit until the Pagani Huayra recorded 1:13.8 on 27 January 2013.
Ariel Atom 3.5R: Produced 261 kW from a 1,998 cc supercharged Honda engine, with a 0–100 km/h time of 2.6 seconds and a top speed of 249.45 km/h.
Ariel Atom 3S: Announced in October 2014 by TMI AutoTech for the US market, producing 365 hp (272 kW) and over 300 ft lb (407 Nm) of torque. Features cockpit-adjustable traction control, JRi adjustable dampers, and an optional SADEV 6-speed sequential gearbox with paddle shifters.
Ariel Atom 4: Launched at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July 2018 with a Honda Type R turbocharged engine producing 239 kW (321 bhp) as standard. Deliveries began in June 2019. In 2020, Autocar selected it as Britain's Best Driver's Car.
Brammo Motorsports of Ashland, Oregon, signed a deal with Ariel to manufacture the Atom in the US beginning in late 2005, using a supercharged GM Ecotec engine for the Atom 2. A limited run of ten US-built Atom 2 cars in 2006–2007 used imported Honda K20A engines. Brammo ceased Atom production in 2007. In January 2008, licensed production of the Atom 3 for the US market was transferred to TMI AutoTech at a purpose-built facility at Virginia International Raceway. In January 2016, TMI relocated to a 60,000 sq ft building in South Boston, Virginia, and rebranded its Ariel work under the Ariel North America name.
In 2011, VIR started the VIR Cup using a specially prepared track-dedicated variant called the Spec:RaceAtom (SRA). TMI provided technical support for the race cars. The VIR Cup concluded in late 2015. In mid-2012, the UK Atom Cup was announced as the first dedicated Atom single-make series in Great Britain, featuring on Jonathan Palmer's MSVR programme across eight race weekends with sixteen races. Cars used were 183 kW naturally aspirated 3.5 chassis fitted with Ohlins racing suspension and an MSA-approved roll bar.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
Gallery · 4 related images
