The Ariel Motor Company is known worldwide by enthusiasts as an auto manufacturer that makes cars without a roof. Sounds silly, but strapping a 3.0-liter V8 engine on a car that weighs only 550kg is madness as it has a power-to-weight ratio of 909bhp/tonne and will accelerate from zerotohundred in less than 2.3 seconds.
But tarmac is not the only surface they are interested in as Ariel had recently unveiled a new lightweight, Atom-based on and off-roader that will be launched at the Autosport International Show at Birmingham. Dubbed as the Nomad, the makers said that the Nomad will offer ‘an entirely new type of all-terrain high-performance driving’ once it hits the market.
Powering this lightweight car is a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine that could be found in high-end versions of the Honda Accord, but has been configured by Ariel to push out 235bhp at 7200rpm, and a torque figure of 221 lb-ft; similar to the supercharged 2.0-liter Atom.
Even with bulky wheels and tires, extra rollover protection, long-travel suspension and chassis modifications for off-road use, the Nomad weighs only 670kg. With such a weight, it is able to do a zerotohundred in just 3.4 seconds and has a top speed of 200km/h.
“The idea was to subject our two-wheel drive car to tests worthy of a conventional 4×4, because we reckoned its compactness, torque and lightweight would compensate for its lack of four-wheel drive. So far we’ve been right and the Nomad has lapped it up, to the extent that the whole thing adds up to a whole new kind of fun,” said the Ariel founder’s son, Henry Siebert-Saunders.
