Car News Articles

If there is a lunatic fringe among cars, the Atom is at the lunatic fringe of that fringe. It is one of the very few cars that can make the Caterham Super Seven look like a safe, sedate, practical family car. The Atom is street-legal in most states as a kit car and can be driven (rather quickly) on public roads, but while most sports cars make weak pretenses at being suitable for everyday transportation, the Atom eschews with that pretense and goes right for the jugular.

We talk a lot here about the beauty and wonder of light weight, and how a lack of mass can help a performance car excel in every possible dynamic way–acceleration, braking, cornering, and fuel economy. Well, the Atom takes that concept to its ultimate extreme, with sublime results.

Little more than a motorcycle on four wheels, the Atom combines a supercharged GM Ecotec four-cylinder engine with a tiny, impossibly light chassis for true supercar performance. Only 1,000 pounds and a 300 horsepower gives the Atom a near-superbike power-to-weight ratio. 0-60 takes less than 3 seconds. That’s faster or as fast as any supercar available. Porsche 959? Slower. Ferrari F40 or F50? Slower. Corvette Z06? Slower. Any Lamborghini? Slower. Any Ferrari with the possible exception of the Enzo? Slower. And that’s just in a straight line.

The Ariel really thrives when the road–or, let’s be real, the track–decides to get funky. With a ridiculously low center of gravity, a wide track, and virtually no mass, the Ariel responds as quickly as your impulses can fire. Around Top Gear’s test track, the relatively inexpensive Ariel thumped virtually every bloated, heavy supercar ever made–all for a fraction of the price and none of the ego.

You can even carry a passenger–great for those first dates if your date is the type of person who prefers roller coasters to fine French dining. It also wouldn’t be a great idea to take a quick drive in the Atom after fine French dining.

One of the reasons I find the Atom so compelling is that I’ve daydreamed about a car like this for this last 15 years. Once I came into contact with my Acura Integra’s brilliant 1.8-liter VTEC engine, I set myself to thinking about how to get that sweet engine into a minimalist chassis with no extra frippery adding weight. Of course, I did absolutely nothing to make that vision a reality, but I’m happy to see somebody competent was thinking along the same lines. In fact, the European version even uses a Honda VTEC engine.

Light, efficient, and relatively cheap, the Ariel is the Carl Lewis to the swaggering, musclebound Mike Tysons of the mega-performance world. Just don’t try to pick up the kids or get groceries in it.

I don’t typically embed Top Gear videos–I don’t want to piggyback off their absolutely fantastic content–but I had to include this one. It’s a great tribute to the Atom, but the real highlight is watching Jeremy Clarkson’s face morph as if he’s in a bad 1970s sci-fi movie.

–Chris H.