► Ariel Atom 4R driven
► More power, more aero and ABS!
► Starts at just under £80k
Welcome to the latest Ariel Atom 4R. It’s the kind of stripped-out, no holds barred track car that you buy if you value thrills behind the wheel above pretty much all else and, somehow, it makes a ‘regular’ Atom 4 look a bit tepid.
Remember, that’s the car that represented one of the biggest steps forward in the history of the Atom, so what on earth have Somerset’s finest got in store this time around? Remember, it may be niche, but Ariel isn’t the only manufacturer to build this kind of car, with the Caterham 620 and Radical SR10 both serious alternatives.
What’s new on the 4R?
Based on the Ariel Atom 4 launched in 2019, the 4R takes things up a notch with more power, better aero and a trick new ABS anti-lock brake system. More on the latter in a bit, but first let’s talk horsepower. In 2024, 400bhp and 369lb ft of torque doesn’t sound like that much (crazy world, eh?), but when you pair that to a car that weighs just 700kg you’re looking at serious speed.
How much, exactly? Well, 571bhp-per-tonne is better than a Ferrari 296 GTB, so expect 0-62mph in 2.7 seconds and 0-100mph in 6.5. Ariel’s extracted the additional performance by installing new air intake geometry and a redesigned cooling system that features an additional radiator in the left-hand side pod. Meanwhile, the right-hand side pod gets a larger intercooler that increases the car’s intercooling area by a whopping 75%. More cooling = more potential power. Add this to a new engine map and the already ballistic performance gains another level.
Or rather, three levels. See, the 4R has switchable engine maps for its 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder Honda Civic Type R engine. Number 1 is around 320bhp (pretty much the same as a regular Atom 4), number 2 is about 350bhp and number 3 is the full 400bhp. Startling stuff and it’s even more incredible when you realise that Ariel can, for an additional premium, upgrade engine components to deliver upwards of 500bhp.
Putting this down onto the road via the rear wheels is a new six-speed sequential gearbox with gearchange via a pneumatic paddle-shift electronic system, allowing five downshifts in less than a second. This allows full-throttle upshifts and auto blips on downchanges.
As for the aero, Ariel has worked with a company called TotalSim to ensure their computational fluid dynamics calculations are spot on – the end result being the humungous front and rear wings delivering exceptional downforce with little drag penalty.
Also new is the ABS system that has settings for wet and dry conditions, as well as entirely off. It’s the first time such tech has been included on an Atom and while it might sound like the kind of driver aid this kind of car could do without, it’s advantages in the wet are invaluable. Complemented by seven-stage traction control, it makes the 4R a far less scary prospect than it might first appear.
However, it’s important to note that many of the parts on this particular car are optional, hence why it doesn’t cost anything like the £77,940 list price and is instead more like £140k. Indeed, the ABS (£11,940), six-speed sequential ‘box (£13,500), AP Racing carbon brakes (£5820), Öhlins dampers (£1200), reversing camera (£396) and much more are all optional. That said, the ludicrous power output is standard, so it’s still a dazzling amount of performance for the basic price.
What’s it like to drive?
Honestly, at full-throttle on map 3 it’s like being electrocuted while riding an F-16 trying to evade a surface-to-air-missile. It’s that much of a thrill. A little bit scary? Yes. Brilliant fun? Oh yes, and some…
Climb in and the seat initially feels hard and unforgiving, yet there’s a surprising amount of support, plus the simple-as-they-come steering feels wonderful in your hands. A quick start-up sequence leads to a grumbling, bustling engine sound, ready to fire you into oblivion at the flex of your right foot. The clutch is easy to navigate and while it’s ideally used for gearchanges below 50mph, above that you can fire through the transmission without moving your left leg.
Predictably, engine map 1 (at least to start with) feels like all the power and torque you could ever need. It comes in with a slight delay of boost, but once it’s on song the shove is prodigious. It feels raw, unfiltered and, at times, a little bit hard to manage given the boostyness of it all but after a while it starts to feel more natural. At which point you go to engine map 2 and force yourself to recalibrate your sense of speed all over again. Map 3? Unless the road is dry, forget it. But if you can put that power down then hold on, because not much else with number plates feels quite like it.
Or sounds quite like it for that matter, too. The Ariel’s plethora of engine sounds is a source of entertainment all on its own. The induction noise from the 4cyl engine teamed with the fieriness of the power delivery means one minute it feels like a giant is doing breathing exercises over your shoulder and the next a rhinosaurus is blowing his nose. You find yourself deliberately playing with the throttle to induce ever more random and outrageous sounds.
As for the handling, most of our time in the Atom 4R was spent in soaking wet, cold conditions where the Yokohama A052 tyres weren’t at their best and the optional ABS system was being worshipped like Eric Cantona at a Red Devils reunion. That meant we didn’t get to explore the full capabilities of the car, yet even with the tarmac saturated many of the 4R’s strengths stood out. It feels every bit as light as it is, perhaps even lighter, with perfectly judged control weights and the kind of pointiness usually reserved for track-only racing cars.
The carbon brakes were prodigious in their power and the ABS brilliant at not being overly intrusive, while the front-end grip through corners allowed you to carry far more speed in than you’d ever think possible. With the dampers set to their softer settings for the weather, there was some roll in the chassis, yet it still felt agile and adjustable if a little twitchy under power or when braking hard into slow corners.
Verdict
One look at the Ariel Atom 4R tells you about 70% of what you need to know. It’s an Atom on steroids and we’re absolutely all for that. However, what you don’t appreciate from the pictures is a) quite how fast and thrilling the 4R is to drive and b) how easy it can be to pilot from A to B.
Sure, it’ll do its most impressive work on track, yet the relative ease it delt with a winter’s day in South Wales was deeply impressive. It’s never going to be used as an everyday car, and its use case is still incredibly niche, but despite appearances there’s genuine joy to be had out of it on the road. As thrills behind the wheel go, there’s little else that will do it better for the money.
Photography by Olgun Kordal