Ariel — the Old British Name Behind the Atom and Nomad

Ariel at a glance

The original Ariel, 1870–1967

The name is older than the car industry. James Starley and William Hillman created the Ariel bicycle in 1870 and patented it on 11 August that year. It was the first penny-farthing with tensioned wire-spoke wheels. Ariel built safety bicycles from 1890, and in 1897 the factory rider J. W. Stocks set a one-hour record of 32.75 mph.

Engines came next. A tricycle with a 239 cc De Dion engine appeared in 1898, the first Ariel motorcycle in 1901 and the first Ariel car, with a two-cylinder engine, in 1902. That year Charles Sangster's Components Ltd took over the firm. Cars were built from 1902 to 1915 and again from 1922 to 1925. In 1924 Donald Healey, then the Ariel dealer for Cornwall, drove an Ariel Ten 1,788 miles in an RAC trial from Land's End to John O'Groats and back. He later gave his name to Austin-Healey sports cars.

Motorcycles became the main business. Val Page joined from JAP in 1926 and designed the "Black Ariels". Edward Turner's Square Four, with four cylinders and two crankshafts, followed for 1931 and was built until 1959; 15,639 were made in all versions. In 1932 Components Ltd went bankrupt, and Jack Sangster bought Ariel from the receivers and set up a new factory at Selly Oak, Birmingham. More than 30,000 W/NG military motorcycles were built in the Second World War. Sangster sold Ariel and Triumph to BSA in 1951. The two-stroke Leader and Arrow arrived in 1958 and 1959, but BSA closed Selly Oak in 1962 and the last Ariel motorcycles were made in 1967.

Simon Saunders and the Atom, 1991–2007

The new Ariel began in a university studio. Simon Saunders, a senior lecturer in transport design, wanted a modern version of the Lotus Seven. With his student Niki Smart he designed the LSC, or Lightweight Sports Car, with input from Stewart Grand Prix, TWR, British Steel, Ford and Aston Martin engineers. The LSC was shown at the 1996 British Motor Show. Several sports car makers turned the idea down, so Saunders built it himself. His company, founded in 1991 as Solocrest Ltd, became the Ariel Motor Company in 1999.

The Atom was launched in 1999, with the first deliveries in 2000. It has no body or roof: the tubular steel frame is the structure and the styling, and the car weighs under 500 kg.

The first Atom used a 1.8-litre Rover K-Series engine in three tunes, up to 142 kW (190 bhp). The Atom 2 of 2003 switched to the Honda Civic Type R engine with 164 kW (220 bhp), and a supercharged option followed in 2005. In 2005 Road & Track recorded 0–161–0 km/h in 10.88 seconds, and Autocar reached 100 mph in 6.86 seconds in 2006. The Atom 3 of 2007 used the K20Z4 Type R engine with 183 kW (245 bhp), or 224 kW (300 bhp) with a supercharger. Brammo built Atoms under licence in the United States until 2007, and TMI AutoTech has held the US licence since 2008.

V8, Ace and Nomad

The most extreme early car was the Atom 500 V8, a run of 25 with a 3.0-litre V8 of 373 kW (500 hp) revving to 10,000 rpm. At 550 kg that meant 678 kW per tonne. On 23 January 2011 it lapped the Top Gear track in 1:15.1, a road-legal record that stood until the Pagani Huayra's 1:13.8 in January 2013. Compared with the first Atom's 142 kW (190 bhp), the V8 had 231 kW more.

In June 2014 Ariel announced the Ace, its first motorcycle in more than 50 years. It used the Honda VFR1200 V4 engine of 129 kW (173 hp), a frame machined from billet aluminium and girder forks, and cost around £20,000 in Britain in 2014. The Nomad, shown at Autosport International in January 2015, applied the Atom idea to an off-road buggy. Its 2.4-litre Honda engine gave 175 kW (235 bhp); a supercharged version came in 2016 and the 250 kW (335 bhp) Nomad R in 2020. In 2023 a Nomad EV project received funding from the Niche Vehicle Network and the Advanced Propulsion Centre. The HIPERCAR electric sports car project, announced in August 2017, uses Equipmake electric motors.

The Atom 4 and today

The Atom 4 was announced at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July 2018, and deliveries began in June 2019. It was the first turbocharged Ariel, with a 2.0-litre Honda K20C1 engine of 239 kW (320 bhp). Only three parts carried over from the Atom 3: the pedals, the steering wheel and the fuel cap. Autocar named it Britain's Best Driver's Car in 2020. The Atom 4R of 2023 has 298 kW (400 bhp) and 500 Nm. The Dash arrived in 2023 and the new Nomad 2 in 2024. The Atom 4RR of 2026 has 391 kW (525 bhp) and 550 Nm, with a claimed 0–60 mph time of 2.4 seconds.

Who an Atom suits

An Atom is best suited to drivers who want track performance in a road-legal car and accept no roof, no doors and little luggage space. The Nomad suits owners who drive on gravel and off-road courses. Both are light, so modest Honda engines give very high power-to-weight figures, which the power-to-weight calculator can compare with any other car. The idea goes back to the Lotus Seven, and the Atom's generations are covered in Ariel Atom history and specifications; the current model is in the Ariel catalogue.

Ariel timeline

Landmark Ariel models