Not a motorcycle or even a motorcycle powered car, just a very minimal, high powered road machine with a power to weight ratio to make even bikers look twice. The Ariel Atom has been available in the U.K. for some time. I read about it some months ago but you couldn’t get it here. Well it seems like the boys at Oregon based Brammo Motorsports are changing all that. The Ariel Atom is coming to the U.S.
The rear quarter shot you see here is about all you’re going to see if you don’t have one because this thing is quicker than pretty much anything else, Vettes, Vipers, Ford GTs, everything. It’s the magic of power to weight with the supercharged version putting out 300hp from the Honda engine in a 1300 pound car. Whoa! The U.S. version will have several different engines available, they aren’t sure yet which ones according to the article though the GM ECOTEC 2.4L engine, including a supercharged variant looks most likely, the Honda engines are in tight supply. Whatever they finally put in it, performance should be superb.
It’s neat that it’s coming over at just this time when gas prices are spiking, the guys in this test ran it hard for 150 miles on 6 gallons of gas, that’s an economy car I wouldn’t mind driving. Most cars in this performance category would be inhaling far more.
Making it legal in all states will take some time, it is legal in 3 so far, hopefully the rest will come on board eventually. Brammo Motorsports is accepting orders now.
via Jalopnik
Mark Sanew says
Here is an update on Engine options and pricing.
Also many states are now registering the car with no problem.
http://www.automotivearticles.com/123/arielatom_pricing.shtml