It's one of the smallest car companies in the world. Yet despite employing fewer than 20 people in a tiny facility in the southwest of England, the 100 or so cars it hand builds each year have quickly achieved global acclaim for their unique combination of simplicity and scintillating performance.
But as exhilarating as the Ariel Atom is on the road and around the track and as formidable as the Nomad is off road, the company is getting ready to dial everything up to 11 with its latest venture, the HIPERCAR.
Looking to give the likes of Aston Martin and Mercedes - both getting ready to unveil F1 inspired hypercars - a bloody nose, the HIPERCAR, or HIgh PERformance CARbon Reduction vehicle, to give it its full codename, is also going to boast a hybrid powertrain that uses a tiny, gasoline-fuelled turbine engine to extend the range of an otherwise electric car with a choice of two or four individual eclectic motors (depending if you want rear-wheel or an all-wheel-drive setup).
Plump for the latter and those four motors working in unison will output a phenomenal 1180hp and 1,800Nm of torque.
But that's just the start. Ariel claims that when the car makes its real-world debut (it is still technically in its development stage) the HIPERCAR will go from 0-100kph in 2.4 seconds, will hit 241kph in 7.8 seconds and then top out at 258kph.
It is the company's most ambitious project to date and one that it's working on in partnership with Equipmake and Delta Motorsports. However, the project is already at a very advanced stage and the companies plan to unveil a phase 1 prototype in September, at the environmentally focused Low Carbon Vehicle (LCV) Show in the UK at the Millbrook testing ground on September 6. The first full-production model will be unveiled in 2019 before going on sale in early 2020.
Ariel promises that the new car, despite its huge power reserves, will be just as nimble and easy to handle as its existing cars. However, in a change of aesthetic approach, it will be the first vehicle the firm has built since going into business in 2000 that will come with a full body and creature comforts such as doors.
