Car UK May 2019

62 CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | MAY 2019

Type R engine. It’s good for 320bhp, meaning a power-to-weight ratio of

538bhp per tonne.

Helmet on, garage door up and out we go. The wind is incredible, and I

notice it passes straight through the car’s skeleton but my head is rocked

by the gusts. Needless to say I start with the turbo set at 1, but the Atom

is still effortless in its overtaking, casually slicing past traffic with a lightly

squeezed throttle. Standing water is tricky, but where the road is properly

drained the car feels rock solid. The ride, thanks to new suspension, is a

magical blend of stiffness and compliance, communicating the surface

details without feeling harsh or jolting. Likewise the steering – a slightly

slower rack combines accuracy with a new composure. Soon I have the

turbo up to 3.

As I splash through puddles, water cascades off the front tyres, and if the

steering is turned that flow is directed straight in through the side of the

car. By now the black plastic floor is filling up like a bathtub, a centimetre

of water flowing back and forth every time I accelerate or brake. There is a

drainage hole – I briefly wonder if I should solve that riddle, about whether

water goes anti-clockwise round a plughole if you’re going clockwise round

a roundabout in the northern hemisphere.

After driving for over an hour, it’s time to turn back. My hands are numb

with cold, water has seeped into my waterproof oversuit, the foam in my

helmet is drenched, but I’m still reluctant to hand this amazing car back.

The Atom 4 is a magnificent achievement for such a small team: more re-

solved and cohesive than before, it’s a work of madness and genius in equal

measure. Hard luck, Gareth – in this contest, the Atom 4 is a knockout.

Mark Walton and Ariel go way back; check out his

2008 review of the Atom 3 300 on our website

t was set to be a titanic battle: in the red

corner, the new Ariel Atom 4, a feisty

insect of a car with a two-inch wind-

screen; and in the blue corner, Storm

Gareth, a deep low-pressure area ap-

proaching from the Atlantic, described by

the Sun newspaper as ‘a colossal 2000-mile-

wide mega-storm bringing snow and 90mph

blizzards!!!’.

Yes, unfortunately for me, Sod’s Law had conspired with the laws of

nature to schedule Gareth’s arrival on the very day that Ariel had prepared

an Atom 4 for me. Brimmed with fuel, raring to go, everything was in place

• everything except a roof. Or windscreen wipers. Or side panels. Still, it
  had a two-inch windscreen.
  As I arrive at Ariel’s factory in Somerset, sheets of rain thrash in the wind
  like a scene from one of those American news reports about a hurricane
  landing in Florida. ‘Are you sure you want to go out today?’ asks Tom
  Siebart, general manager of Ariel, as I shake his hand. ‘The conditions are
  atrocious.’
  ‘Oh yes, no problem, I’ll be fine,’ I reply with a smile. But then the look
  in Tom’s eye intensifies. ‘No, I mean – are you really sure it’s a good idea?’
  he asks.
  A momentary pause, as I read the situation. Bless – Tom’s obviously
  concerned about my wellbeing, he doesn’t want to see me have an accident
  or... ‘I just don’t want you to give us a bad review,’ he adds quickly.
  Ah. I see.
  I do get his point. Because I’ve driven an Atom in the rain before, and it’s
  like staring into the jet of a high-pressure fire hose. Even wearing a full-face
  helmet, there’s a danger of cold water being rammed so far up your nose,
  you dribble for days afterward. ‘People don’t tend to enjoy it in this kind
  of weather,’ Tom tells me. I look at the Ariel in the workshop. Little more
  than knee high, it’s visibly wider than Atoms 1, 2 and 3, but the new car
  retains that iconic, arched spaceframe that lends it so much potency, like
  the stored-up energy of a drawn bow. Then I look outside. Then I look at
  the Atom. Then I look outside. Bugger it, let Gareth do his worst – I want
  to drive.
  So I climb in and Tom gives me a quick run through the new instrument
  binnacle and the cool new toggle switches. One of the rotary dials is
  for the turbo boost – the Atom is now powered by Honda’s latest turbo

I

Illustration by Peter Strain

‘My hands

are numb with

cold, but I’m still

reluctant to hand

this amazing

car back’

,