New 525hp Ariel Atom 4RR vs Top Gear Track! ｜ 4K

Today we're at the Top Gear track to put two of the world's fastest and most extreme road legal cars head-to-head. The Ariel Atom 4RR and the Nichols M1A. Jethro, excitement levels on a scale of one to ten? Well I don't feel as excited as you sound but I am excited. I nearly made the corner. Oh, no. Later in the video, I'm still gonna say 88. Stig is going to be setting a lap time in both of these feather-light monsters. Best of luck. And we'll be finding out where they sit on the all-time leaderboard. We'll also be drag racing them and driving them as hard as our puny neck muscles will allow. But first, let's explain what we're dealing with. Jethro, you can go first. What on God's green earth is that? Well, I'm glad you asked, Jack, because it's simple. For once, I don't have to talk about kilowatt hours and torque vectoring and e4 wheel drive system. This is the Nichols M1A, a kind of reimagined Can-Am car. Can-Am was the no rules racing series in North America from 66 to 74. This car specifically inspired by the McLaren M1A. So, what do you need to know? Well, it's got four wheels, a six-speed manual box, a whacking great V8 engine, and it weighs way less than a Mazda MX-5. But there is sophistication too, because it's got an extruded aluminium chassis with carbon fibre reinforcement, adjustable traction control, adjustable ABS, carbon fibre body, and that makes sense, because the guy who designed this also designed the McLaren MP4/4, which won 15 out of 16 races in the 1988 F1 season driven by Senna and Prost, so beat that. Well I'm not sure I can beat that, but I do have an F1 link. This looks a little bit like an F1 car in profile that's been sort of squashed. It's great, I love it. It's great. So this is the Ariel Atom 4RR. They've basically built it to celebrate 25 years of the Aerial Atom. It's the fastest and most focused Atom ever, and they're all bloody quick. They are. You can imagine. Thanks for your time, Ed. Thanks for your time, Ed. So note, this isn't the Atom 4 single R. We drove that car last year. It did a lap of this track, 113.7. Which is seriously quick. This one is a whole R quicker. You could call it the spiritual successor to the Atom V8, if you remember that one. Not in terms of cylinder count, but in terms of the level of insanity that this car is going to bring. And you might remember back in the day, Clarkson had his iconic flappy cheek moment in the Ariel Atom. Hopefully we can find the footage and slot it in somewhere. But that was in a supercharged Atom 300 horsepower. This has 525, it's going to rip our heads clean off. Right let's have a bit of a stat off shall we, starting with price. Well it's vulgar to talk about money as you know um but if you must this is £500,000. Sorry I thought you said £500,000. £500,000. I'm actually desensitized these days that's just like whatever. How much is this a million? A quarter of a million. Oh okay. Which is yeah when you consider a standard I think they start about 60 grand these days so it's it's mega money but Reasonable value for the performance on offer. I mean, yeah, it's like an F80 paint job. Exactly. Speaking of which, so power, engine and power. Tell me about that. OK, so as a hand built seven litre V8 starts life as a Chevy LS7, but then it's built by Langford Performance Engineering with Gen-V throttle bodies, eight gorgeous intake trumpets. Let's It's a thing of wonder. 700 horsepower. That I think you've got me there. So this starts life as the 2.0-litre turbo Honda get Civic Type R engine that we know and then it's completely rebuilt to motorsport spec. Bigger started. turbo of course, 1.7 bar of boost, 525 horsepower at 8,200 rpm. But the thing is about these cars, power to weight is really the sort of killer stat with these. So How much does Nicholls reckon that weighs? Okay, so sub 900 kilos is what they say. Pretty light. That is pretty light. But not as light as this I'm guessing. Power to weight. What's that putting it at? Theoretically, it is 780 brake horsepower per tonne in theory. Which sounds great. Yeah, so this one they claim sub 700 kilograms. That works out as about 750 horsepower per tonne. So again, you win that one. But as we all know, manufacturers, when it comes to weights, they lie. They do. They lie. So we've brought along the scales of destiny. Let's find out the truth. Bring out the scales. A bit more, a bit more, stop, okay, jump out please. Okay, so subs, to be honest, it's only gonna make about 10, 15 kilogramme difference. Very thin these days, 15%. How much fuel is in the car? Decent chunk, just under half a tank. Just under half, it weighs 749 kilos. Ooh. So it's meant to be sub seven. See, that's why they don't put padding on the seats, because it's already over the claim weight. Yeah. I've been moaning about that a little bit. OK, 749 is pretty light for a car with 749 525 horsepower. Actually, should we do the calculations? So, 7... Oh, you've been power to weight. 0.525 divided by 0.7... What was it? 49. Well, hang on. Hang on, have I done that completely wrong? It's now 723. 723 kilos it just hang on so has it just dumped all its fuel 23. No I think it maybe it just took a while for it to settle. All right I'll save you watching me fumbling about with the calculator so that's a measured power to weight ratio of 727 horsepower per ton on to the nickels. Okay, keep coming, keep coming, and what I didn't put it in mode 11 is that going to make a difference? I'm also just went down by 100 kilograms. Oh, my God. 971.5, although the other one didn't settle, give it, give it, let the car breathe, breathe, settle. Highly professional stuff. I can reveal the Nicholls measured power to weight ratio was 721 brake horsepower per tonne, so a sliver of an advantage to the Aerial. Okay, so these next three attributes, comparisons, whatever you want to call them, I reckon we can roll these up into one YouTube friendly event. So we're going to compare noise, interior and acceleration all in one. It sounds to me like you're proposing a drag race. I am indeed. I like the idea of that but getting these cars off the line is a bit of a random act of luck and practice and skill and we don't really have time for that so And we also don't want to break the cars do we? Because Stig's got to do his lap times, everyone wants to see which is fastest. And Top Gear is famously mechanically sympathetic. So let's do a rolling start, 20 miles an hour, second gear. Pin the throttle. I know why you would, because I'm going to bog down, because I'm definitely going to be off boost in this, whereas you're going to have pin sharp throttle response. I don't think you can bog down in a 525 horsepower Atom, but fine if you want that excuse right now, that's cool. Let's give it a go. Okay, so the interior of the Ariel Atom 4RR, to be honest, this could be quite a short section because there's not much interior here. I've saved you the excruciating experience of watching me climb into this thing And fit this. A five-point harness, the seats, you'll hear Jethro complaining a lot about them today. I don't actually feel they're that bad He obviously thinks they should have ticked the massage and heated seats function But you don't tend to get that in an Ariel Atom, other luxuries, aircon by Mother Nature and in front of me a simple screen that tells you what you need to know it's all the dials here that let you dial in the driving experience so switching it on super easy there's an ignition button here there's a start button here i won't do it yet or you won't be able to hear me this button up here lets you choose from three engine maps so the first one is about 450 horsepower. The second one is the full 525 horsepower, but with a slightly smoother torque curve. It's my preferred setting. And the third one is the most aggressive. craziest map that you can have. Over here we have seven stage traction control. So zero is off seven is fully on I tended to be in about two or three today because I'm not completely mental. We have a horn over here we have 11 stage motorsport ABS over here. We also have brake bias but I've been told if you got the ABS on, then don't touch the brake bias. And probably the Obviously the most important thing of all is the gearbox. So it's a Quaife manual six-speed sequential. Manual because you need to use the clutch to get away in first, and from then on, once you've got some throttle involved, you're above 50 miles an hour, you can just bang the gears home. And I think that is gonna be my secret weapon against Jethro, because as he fumbles around and fluffs another shift, I'm just gonna be banging home the next gear, and I'll be across the line. Okay, so inside the Nichols N1A, it's a fantastic driving position. I should start with that really. The view out over the tops of these wings with the proper wing mirrors are so evocative. It's super cool, but obviously also very simple. I'm really reclined in this carbon seat, actually pretty comfortable, feet quite high, prototype style, which is what you'd expect. I guess this was a prototype racer, wasn't it, back in the day? To my right, The really important thing, six-speed gated manual gearbox, conventional H-pattern, reverses down and to the left, so no dogleg or anything to worry about. It's the same gearbox as in the Audi R8 and it feels fantastic. Up here, to start it up, just twist the key. And then the start button, very, very simple. And I have two dials. I have a track control, which goes one, two, three, down to zero. And I have ABS as well, which I think starts at seven and goes down to one. So you can really tweak quite a lot of how the ABS behavior works. Just to have ABS in a car like this is fantastic because... Drive raids, no matter what you think about them, they really really help and ABS is my favorite because locking up a wheel and having an awful embarrassing crash is the worst thing ever. Ahead of me, very simple dials, the engine revs lines at six and a half maybe just over and then a speedo reading to 200. The needles go in opposite directions which is a bit weird but like I say very simple, very evocative and the most important thing of all is this 11 button that I've got right here so there's two maps for this car first one is about 450 horsepower but when I hit 11 I get the full 700 horsepower. I've got indicators on the steering wheel here and there's a blue button here that we don't know what it does but I assume it sprays champagne when I beat Jack in this drag race we're about to have. One thing I did forget to mention is although this aero screen looks really cool you can't look through it because the whole world is distorted even more than by the 700 horsepower V8 so you have to look over it and that means you're not normally allowed these in videos but I'm afraid I have to wear and there's nothing you can do about it. You go? All right okay here we go 20 mile an hour second gear all right let's see how much I bogged down off the line I'm definitely going to be off boost in this thing he's trying to nose ahead. here we go and it's lit up. That was fun. Oh that was fun. I have no idea how fast we were going. That was cool. I was 165 across the line. Were you? Yeah. So this picks up better like it gets the jump because no turbo turbo lag but then you just rock once that gets past me But then this starts to hold it a bit closer at the end. Yeah, yeah. It was at your shift, second to third, I could just feel, I just, I lunged about 25, 30 meters on you. Shall we do one more for fun? Yeah, let's do another one. Here we go. Just goes so well. Quite revving at the top, but wow, that was pretty close. I had absolutely shocking reactions at the start, but it was good because it accentuated that leap. Yeah, this actually, this did better and then it... it got through second and third fine and then at fourth the limiter was lower and then it you know went into fifth and it just died again so there's something going on with it but it was that was quite close so that was quite close i was in i was halfway through fourth gear by the time i caught you but when it goes it just goes boom yes oh it's relentless that's that's good fun that was pretty That was pretty good fun. That was pretty good fun. That was pretty good fun. Okay, next up, party trick. I'll go first. So I've already shown everyone the sort of twiddly knobs on the inside, ABS, power maps, all sorts of different stuff, but we're going to look at the dampers right now. So obviously these ones are Öhlins, manually adjustable, but you can spec electronically adjustable dampers which I'm told can be controlled. Via your phone. Oh, fantastic. More time on your phone. Just what you need. I thought these cars were analogue. I thought you'd be more impressed. You seem a bit... Well, I'm going to show you my party trick. You're going to walk past some party tricks. For example, the carbon fibre wheels, the carbon ceramic brakes. But there is another cool thing. I'm just going to open this. I'll need your help. You're going to have to lift up. All right. Bit of muscle. Get a lift. Yeah, go. Oh, look at that. Did it in one. You could argue this engine is one big party trick, but look. You know we have McLaren influence. McLaren F1 style gold leaf engine lining. Fantastic that's probably why it costs half a million quid isn't it? It's literally made of gold. It's just cool isn't it? It is very cool. Everything about it is extremely cool. Right shall we see Stig's party trick? Stig's party trick which is just driving really fast yeah? Yeah he only really does one thing doesn't he? But he does that thing very well so let's find out. Without further ado, how fast these two cars are around the Top Gear test track? I actually can't wait. First up was the Atom 4RR, so Jethro and I retreated to a safe distance. Right, lap times. Yeah, I'm excited about this actually. This should be really cool. Do you wish it was you, not Stig, driving? No, absolutely not. Stig, when you're ready. Really? Nice! Pretty clean getaway. It was a good launch. It's like a manual sequential so first gear you're you're finding the biting point. Yeah you're on the clutch but it's so light and those tyres once they're warm it's got amazing traction actually. Yeah I would love to drive it but obviously... This thing is so quick and consistent that I feel like the pressure's completely relieved. It just spat some flames out of the back so I was slightly distracted. It is spitting flames now, it's hot, isn't it? This is the fun bit where you have to try and commentate on a lap with the car 600 metres away. We're trying to pick up signs from the brake lights. Oh yeah, he's just had a big lock up there. That's a little short shift around the hammerhead. Yeah, he is doing the short shift I think. I think you need to. It's just so quick. If you're in that map 3, maximum power, it's like driving in the wet almost. Because it just wants to slide. What do you think about the way it looks? It's tiny. It's like a little shrunken thing, isn't it? It looks like a shoe. Oh sorry, right, here we go. Commitment, okay wow all right um now we should say I have recorded the time here with my thumb okay that's flipping impressive it is very very significantly quicker than the 4R the single R 4R yeah we should hope wouldn't you but even so it's impressive well done well done him sticks on it okay let's see that again this time from Stig's point of view and against the clock 1 minute 12.3, that's, well, ridiculously quick. A full 1.4 seconds faster than the 400 horsepower Atom 4R, and that puts it 14th on the all-time leaderboard. But that includes road-legal and track-only cars, so when you narrow it down to only those with a number plate, it's the fourth fastest we've ever had. Ahead of the 992 GT3 RS Manthey, Dallara Stradale, Ferrari 488 Pista and only just behind the Ferrari SF90, Koenigsegg Jesko Attack and the Aston Martin Valkyrie. Not bloody bad and helmet's off to Stig for holding on to that one. I think I saw some oversteer at around 135 miles an hour past the tyre wall. Right, the Nicholls is up next. When you're ready Stiggy. Here we go. Ready to go? Sounds better. It sounds so good. Sounds better. The V8 engine. Love the V8. They perfected it 60 years ago and it's still the best. Well it was the bedrock of what made Can-Am super cool but I just want to say Can-Am right, effectively this is like an early representation of Can-Am because they went even wilder didn't they, but it was a no rules racing formula, the coolest racing series that like the world has ever seen maybe and now we're saying there's an Ariel Atom road registered car. It should, I suspect, go quite a lot quicker than the Can-Am type car. It's pretty mental, isn't it? Times have moved on, but, well, I suppose, a debate for the end of the film, which one is cooler. Yeah, that's true. But for now, we're sticking with the science. Which one is faster? The noise is incredible. The noise is incredible. My ears are still ringing from earlier. It actually reverberates. You physically move the inside of your head like that. It's painful. It looks rapid. It's just such a cool thing. and the manual gearbox is gorgeous okay here it comes here it comes and he's sliding it around Showbiz. what was quicker the 4RR by quite some ways but that's pretty impressive i think it's fantastic yeah and i know the lap time is important everyone loves to take lap times and i do too but they're both such an event that yeah to be that quick And have all that character and that V8 and those looks. Yeah, I'd be happy with that. I think that might be quicker than a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. Come look at that, you know everything Jack. You put that on your CV. I'm just going to sit here, you just carry on. Okay, let's see that again from Stig's point of view and against the clock. a one minute sixteen point one is a hell of an effort for something designed primarily as a road car and still in the prototype phase. That puts it joint 35th on the all-time list, 23rd when you only count the road legal stuff. It's a tenth of a second faster then than the McLaren MP4-12C, right alongside the 991 GT3 RS and just a tenth behind the standard Aerial Atom 4. It It also claims some other... Significant scalps, namely the Aventador LP704, Maserati MC20 and the Bugatti Veyron Supersport. It's also, fact fans, the fastest manual gearbox car we've ever had around the track. Fair play. All right, last one before we eventually get to have a go ourselves. Yes, please. Downpour. Now. I'll go first because I've actually got some. Er, no more than the Atom 4R though, so 110 kilograms at 70 miles an hour apparently. Presumably it produces even more than that when it goes faster but that's the only stat I have for him. Yeah and when you think about it, it doesn't weigh very much so as a percentage of its mass. But as I always say, downforce is for dummies. Yeah and so it's taking off in the middle of the runway. Is this your way of saying that you basically don't have any? It has some downfall but that's all I know. It's got a little cam tail. It's not going to take off and when you've got a big V8 like this, you don't need downforce. But anyway, can we just drive the cars now? We can, right. You can go first in this one but I'm going to come along for the ride if that's all right. Oh yeah, okay. That doesn't mean I have to be the passenger in that, does it? Contractually, it means you also have the passenger with me in this car later on. It's done. It's signed. I signed a piece of paper. It's sorted. I love you, kids. Come on. I really do. How do we get in? It's got doors. Well, you need a crash helmet because BBC safety first. Hang on. Have we pushed the button marked 11? I think that gives you more noise and more power. I don't think we have, so let's try it, shall we? I'm going to stay on a steady throttle. Like a bit of prod. Oh yeah, that's 11. Does that feel like 11? It's definitely over 10. Oh, oh, oh, oh. So I don't know how this feels from the passenger seat. I drive, it's actually, it's so comfortable inside there's a lot of wind. But it's like a sofa, it's like a big sofa. It's like this friendly monster isn't it? The gearbox is absolutely gorgeous and the engine. If you thought a Mercedes S-Class rode well, you clearly haven't driven a Nichols M1A. It is lovely, isn't it? It's... Oh, oh, oh, do that. It's filthy. So physical to drive, like heavy steering makes you work, but it's so friendly. Oh, I'm so glad. It's like all the great old stuff, but ABS traction control if I want it, but still the old school noise. Sensation. Have we got any electronics trying to save you here? Pardon? Sorry, just a 7 litre V8 behind my head. Are there any electronics trying to save our lives right now? Not at the moment. Oh, ABS. I leave the ABS on, but the traction's off. And it's pretty lively, but it's not too bad. How's that gearbox? Gearbox is utterly brilliant. In fact, gearbox is as big a part of the experience, I think, As the engine. I love where it's positioned. It's so easy to use and it just brings you even further into it, doesn't it? It's just absolutely wicked. The noise, clearly amazing, but it kind of hurts. It's like it's vibrating my brain, not just my eardrums. It is painful, painful, but it's good. What a car! It's what I would always describe as a proper car. This thing's awesome. It's sort of Jethro Bovingdon's favourite things, isn't it? Physical, old school, analogue, noisy, silly, very fast. It is, it's another one of my ideal cars that I can't afford to buy, which is cool. I just- Yet, can't afford yet. Oh. Have you got something to tell me? Well this video might do really well, you never know. Big bonus, big bonus, it's coming, it's coming. It's gonna need to be a bloody big bonus to buy one of these. That's proper. Okay let's um let's go you can scare me to death in the atom I guess. Okay with a fresh set of pants acquired it was time for my crack in the atom. That was a poor choice of words. I would say make yourself comfortable but this is without a doubt The very worst seat in the whole of motoring. It's different. Not just the physical seat, but being a passenger in this car. It's the torture chamber. It's a timber. And what makes it worse is you're not even driving. You've got to sit next to me. Oh, my God. Oh, my word. Remember, it's got cold tires. I knew that. Wow. All right. Just easing myself in here. The gearbox is amazing. It's like a manual when you take off but it's pretty pretty friendly and then once you're above 50 miles an hour you can just bang the gears through. So that's nice. Everything else is terrifying. This thing is amazing. Yes! Sorry I had to back off. Got a bit scared. Oh my word. There There's nothing that accelerates like this. it's outrageous it's different gravy to the nickels isn't it oh i mean that feels sounds better but this it's it's like you're taking off should we see if the brakes work oh well we nearly made the corner oh no jack's getting carried away Oh, my God. that was not clean and tidy it was quite fun i'll tell you what it's a fairground ride it's not a Not a car. It's not a driving experience, it's a complete and utter sensory overload. That's what it is. I absolutely love it. I can't believe they've taken the Aerial Atom Formula to a quarter of a million pound lunatic like this. And people are still buying them. They've got that original Atom, the supercharged Atom, all the crazy Atoms they've built. No, we want more, more! I agree. But what else gives you this feeling? Very few cars. It's the accelerations. It's like free falling, isn't it? Oh, it really is. Yeah, it's like, yeah, horizontal free fall. And the thing is, despite the power being so ridiculous, everything else is good too. How sick are you feeling? No, I'll be happy to get out. Well I'm glad that I got in. Does that make sense? It's absolutely wicked this car. All right adrenaline has subsided a little bit. A little bit. A little bit. I'm ready to talk. We should probably sum this thing up. What are your thoughts on that? Okay it's hard to make a conclusion isn't it but I'm gonna mount the case for the nipples. For me what's really impressive about it it's a prototype car. Beautifully conceived, but it's actually beautifully executed to bring the Can-Am spirit, introduce modern technology, but not detract at all from the raw driving experience is really, really impressive. I absolutely love this car. I think it's fantastic. It's 500 grand, but it feels it, which is nuts. I think it's just the thing and the engine and gearbox are. Perfection. I will, I will give you this. It is cooler. That is cool. The noise it makes, the way it looks, the back story, the story it tells is just, ah, it's perfection. But if you want that, that pure hit of adrenaline, you just want to scare yourself, push the limits, just feel alive I mean this is this is it this is what you want I mean Ariel Atoms have always delivered that kind of that proper dose of adrenaline this is the most extreme Atom ever therefore it is the most intense track car that you can have it is it's a fairground ride on four wheels I love that thing too yeah I just said track car actually But I just remembered they've got number plates. I know, wild. It's bonkers, isn't it? You sort of forget that we're here at the test track. I mean, we could have turned this into a road and track test and taken them on a thing. But the simple fact that they are legal to take on the road is enough. They belong out here. They push the limits on the track. But it reminds us of something that is important with cars, isn't it? That less is more. Oh, absolutely. I think what, above anything else, Spending some time in these makes you realise that all the stuff we spend so much time talking about, the technology, it has its place and it empowers these big heavy cars to feel lighter but there's no way you can replicate the purity, the simplicity and the lightweight feeling that these cars give. And on that note I'm not going to be driving this home, I'm going to be driving home in a 2.5 tonne seven seat electric SUV. It's depressing. It's back down to earth with a crash for me. Oh well, at least it's got padding on the seat. Good point.