To look at it, you can guess the origins of the brand that designed this curious creature. Because in its early days, in 1870, the English company Ariel made bikes. With the advent of the automobile, from the end of the 19th century, it embarked on the motorized tricycle.
From gear to simplicity, and lightness, all in all not so far from the modern heiress of these funny devices: the Ariel Atom, and its most furious version: the V8, even if the powers between the 8 -cylinder monster today and the dragonfly of yesterday are in no way comparable.
From bike to car
However, the idea of the two thieves at the origin of the adventure, James Starley and William Hillman, continued, of the first bicycles with motorcycles and other motorized machines that they developed later. The name of the company also spent the CAP of centuries. A name that comes from far, from Shakespeare precisely.
Because in his room The stormAriel is a rather free and air spirit. And this is what the founders of the manufacturer wanted, and what their successors have respecteduntil most contemporary of them: Simon Saunders.
In 1991, Ariel only existed as administratively. Motorcycles, technical innovations belong to the past. The house has been stopped for twenty years when Saunders buys it with a fixed idea: making a simple car, without the slightest frills, without the slightest too much but with a lot of horses in addition. He wants to be stronger than Lotus and will achieve it.
He will take ten years to finalize his project and in the year 2000, the Ariel Atom appears and everyone is amazed. The car – But is it really a car? – weighs 530 kg for 245 hp. And will reach 300 with the VTEC Honda engine which will evolve to that of the Civic Type R.
In the credits? Nothing. Not the slightest assistance, no doors, no windshields, but rolling trains with small onions. It is brutal, the inconstable ones will say some. In addition, it is approved for the road. No matter, the first 500 copies are assembled by the thirty employees of the Ariel workshop, and sold to enthusiasts.
But in November 2009, at the entrance to the Saint Cloud tunnel near Paris, it was the drama. Jocelyn Quivrin, rising star of French cinema and husband of Alice Taglioni, loses control of her Atom. The car strikes an amount in concrete and sets fire. The actor dies burned and the debate of “road” approval is relaunched.
25 copies only
But in his shop, Saunders continues and goes even further. A year after the fatal accident, he revealed the Atom V8 which reached 475 hp (for 550 kg) and borders on the 500 hp in its pistarde version. The engine is an assembly of two blocks from a very efficient Japanese motorcycle: the Suzuki Hayabuza. It is on sale 180,000 euros.
All supercars are sunk thanks to this unsurpassable weight/power ratio. 25 copies of the V8 are produced, and sold. If it was necessary to affix a mention “Consume in moderation” On a car, it would be good.
From, Ariel continues her way and announced that he had assembled 1,800 ATOM, while developing an off -road version called Nomad and equipped with the 250 hp Ford engine.
The house also works on an electric version of its machine, always with the same idea in mind: staying as light and most powerful as possible. In the small Crewkerne store, in the county of Sommerset, we have persisted, as always for 35 years, to develop brutal.