Specialty File
Load your mental blender with one Formula Ford single-seat racer, a Ducati Monster sport bike, a dollop of creativity, and a dash of fine British heritage. Top off with sheer audacity. Stir vigorously. What emerges is the Ariel Atom, a savory sweet concocted by Britain's prolific alternative-car chefs.
The mere existence of a car boiled down to the bare essence, one that trumps a Corvette's power-to-weight ratio, compels investigation. To taste-test this car/bike confection, we journeyed to the southwestern reaches of England where creator Simon Saunders conceived the Atom to help level out the peaks and valleys in his Automotive Dynamics, Limited, design business.
Slipping into the cockpit for a buzz of the hedgerows surrounding Saunders's shop and studio in North Perrott, Somerset, our cordial tour guide and chaperone explained his less-is-more design philosophy. "I decided there might be some interest in a new sports car that wasn't another Lotus 7 or Cobra copy. My idea is to take existing solutions and make them work without reinventing the wheel. So the entire powertrain and the majority of the brake system is straight out of the MGF, the mid-engined sports car built and sold by Rover.
"The Atom has no doors because making doors work properly is a tremendous engineering exercise. As a small manufacturer, I sought ways to sidestep such problems instead of confronting them. Leaving off the doors, the heater, the stereo system, and other nonessentials are minus points that become plusses to those who grasp what we're up to."
On first sight, the Atom seems about 10 percent larger than expectations that were prompted by a gander at Saunders's Web site (www.arielmotor.co.uk). As to its size, it's a Boxster with a three-foot tail bob. To mount up, you step over the thigh-high frame onto the seat and then slither legs beneath the racy steering wheel. Scuffing the upholstery or wrinkling the carpet isn't a problem because those items are nonexistent. Infinite head room and ample leg and elbow room counter any subliminal parrot-in-a-cage phobia.
