We know what the current production versions of the Ariel Atom can do. It’s face-distortingly fast and just a second slower than the Bugatti Veyron on the Top Gear track.

Now Ariel has created gets a V8 version of their lightweight track car which is now on its final stages of development. The car will be powered by a 3.0L V8 built by breeding two Suzuki Hayabusa engines.

The resulting engine is pegged to dish out 500 hp which would give the car a power-to-weight ratio that’s nearly double the Bugatti Veyron’s. That’s also set to make the Atom one of the quickest cars in the world.

The car will be ready by spring next year and is set to cost £120,000. That’s nearly four times as much as what the old car costs but Atom claims that the new engine and gearbox justifies the price.

The V8-powered incarnation of the Ariel Atom high-performance sports car scheduled to release within the year will fetch over £100,000 (around $161,000), as was confirmed by Ariel head honcho Simon Saunders.

Given the car’s exclusivity and high-end performance, it’s not hard to see how the price could have ramped up to that amount. The company says that it is the new engine that really necessitated a price tag nearly thrice that of the Atom 300. The new 3.0-liter engine is an Ariel original, and isn’t merely a variation on the Caterham Levante 2.4-liter V8.

The Atom 500’s engine was developed by John Hartley, an American engine designer and was based on two Suzuki Hayabusa power plants. The car is said to potentially take 2.5seconds to go from zero to 60 mph.

The car will have very limited availability because of the low production numbers, which is also a considerable factor where the final price is concerned. Still, expect a whole ton of orders for the Ariel Atom 500 V8 once it launches sales in a few months.

Pictures of and details about the new Ariel Atom 500’s V8 engine have just been released by the company. The engine gives the car its namesake with 500bhp of power, translating to 1,000 bhp-per-ton power-to-weight ratio.

The 90-kilogram engine sports a 75-degree V arrangement that has 4 valves in each cylinder. There is also a compact cam drive arrangement. It is set to be mated to a Sadev six-speed sequential gearbox on manual shifting. The manufacturer is still exploring paddle-shift options for the car.

The limited-run Ariel Atom 500 was announced back in February 2008. It will have carbon fiber body panels and aerofoils, an integrated function-steering wheel, and Dymag magnesium wheels, among other high-end performance features.

Arial director Simon Saunders has this to say about the direction the V8 is taking for the company: “Our aim is to build the ultimate road legal track day car. Our motto has always been, ‘go fast, have fun’ and the Atom V8 is certainly going to do that.”

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

The first time I saw the Ariel Atom was watching Clarkson on Top Gear driving it around the track, efficiently warping his face to oblivion. And I agreed with him that the Atom is indeed a piece of engineering. A car built for the track that would give any speed junkie the ride of his life.

So far, the Atom has had two incarnations in two generations and Ariel announced that the third generation Atom, dubbed as the Ariel Atom 3 will be released. While the Atom stays true to the minimalist design (that really made me a fan), it’s quite amazing at the changes that they were still able to make with the Atom 3. Mind you, the changes are plenty and most benefit the driver at high speeds.

The Atom 3 now sports new panels (what paneling there is, anyway) and new diagonal side rails. Even the return to the exhaust was changed. A deflector option is now available to lessen pressure on the driver’s head. The seats have been lowered for comfort and better handling.

Aside from those, the Atom 3’s chassis is, amazingly, wider by .06 m for more elbow room and the passenger compartment is .1 m. Despite this, the dimensions have been maintained. It will still be powered by a 2.0L Honda Type R, only this time it will also be the latest version.

Source: Car Design News via Autoblog