The Ariel Atom has been the epitome of a stripped-down, budget performance track car. But with the X-Bow breathing down its neck, the guys from Ariel suddenly drops this bomb - they’re giving the car 200 more horses that would probably disintegrate Jeremy Clarkson’s face. The new Atom will be dubbed as the Ariel Atom 500.

The current Atom sports a 2.0L Honda Type R supercharged 300 hp engine that propels the lightweight car from naught to sixty in just three seconds. Imaging what an RS Performance 2.4-liter V8 dishing out the power of 500 horses do to the Ariel’s 1000-lb frame. Just imagining this scares me.

Ariel Director Simon Saunders has this to say:

‘This is an interesting project for us and an experimental departure from what we normally produce. For a few customers the Atom 500 will be the ultimate expression of lightweight performance and represents the outer limits of what is achievable in a road registered car. We also use this sort of project to explore the possibilities of how we can improve our standard cars. The Honda engined production cars already combine all the elements that we want in an Atom and by pushing the envelope to these sorts of extremes we can further improve the breed’.

Interesting? An “interesting project?” Good God, this is not interesting. This is insane. And I like it.

Source: Motive